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“The music is nearly over. I ordered the carriage because you and I have unfinished business.” Richard moved his hand to the edge of her seat to trail a hand along her hip, using her skirts to hide his scandalous handling of her person. Her heartbeat increased, a rush of pleasant warmth traversing her senses.
“Oh,” was all she could think to say, her mind replaying memories of sitting in his lap, touching him. And kissing. Leaning over to speak in a low voice, she told Lily she would be leaving. Her cousin gained the attention of Lady Moreland, who swung her head to look at her in question. Sophia made short work of her excuses and farewells.
Richard rose, and she followed him out. As they walked down the corridor to the front door, he grabbed her hand. She was shocked, swiveling her head around to ensure no one could see them engaged in such impropriety, but there was only a lone footman standing next to the front door, his gaze politely averted to the opposite wall.
Soon, Richard was helping her step up into the carriage. He followed and swung the door closed behind him before pulling the curtain closed. Sliding down the bench, he closed the curtains on the other door, then shifted over to sit beside her. Sophia was breathless with anticipation by the time he caressed her cheek to gently turn her head toward him. His head lowered until he was less than a quarter inch from brushing her lips with his, but he stopped to stare into her eyes. She stared back at him, hungry for his kiss. When he failed to, she finally lost patience and leaned forward to press her lips against his, feeling him smile against her.
He moved to rest his clean-shaven cheek against hers. “I love that you want me. The way you explored my body in bed this morning … it was beguiling.” She shivered in delight as his seductive words stroked against her skin in a whisper, continuing to travel through her blood until they reached between her legs where she throbbed in melting heat. A large hand found her knee where it rubbed gently back and forth, intensifying her body’s response. His lips grazed along her cheek to find her earlobe, and she felt his mouth closing over it to suckle gently. She moaned, arching her neck when the errant hand grazed up her leg to rest on her waist, his fingertips fleeting across the curve of her breast.
She moaned again in arousal, pressing closer to him in eager frustration while his tongue traced down her neck to flick at the base of her throat at the frantic pulse beating just beneath the surface. She raised a hand to tentatively rest on his shoulder before giving in to temptation to slide it up his neck to comb through his soft locks of dark brown hair with her fingers. He groaned while his hand moved up to cup her breast, and Sophia discovered just how much he affected her senses when her breathing frayed erratically and blood pounded in her ears in response. She wanted to climb onto him, entangle herself against him like a vine weaving through a trelli—.
The carriage stopped.
Richard raised his head and gently let go of her breast, panting. With a sound of frustration, he eased back on the plump squabs, where he rested his head against the seat to stare at the ceiling. Sophia was uncertain what was happening, but he appeared to be slowly counting. He drew a deep breath and then shifted to sit on the other side of the carriage.
“You will need to get out before me with the help of the footman. I … need a few moments to recover.” He exhaled deeply. Sophia gathered up her wits, which were scattered chaotically, when she heard a discreet knock. The door swung open, and she slid across to grasp the hand that the servant held out to aid her in her descent. Light was cast over the steps when Radcliffe opened the door and waited calmly for her to enter the house, but she stood waiting for her husband who took an interminable time to appear in the carriage doorway.
“Radcliffe!”
“Yes, milord?”
“I need Shaw immediately and send someone to assist her ladyship right away.”
It gratified Sophia to hear Richard’s urgent tone. It was comforting to observe that his frustration at the recent interruptions was wearing his patience as thin as her own. She smiled with delight when he grasped her hand to pull her firmly up to and through the front door, heading to the grand staircase.
* * *
Richard did not waitfor his valet to make an appearance. Instead, he began wrenching off his tailcoat to throw it across the chest of drawers. His waistcoat followed. Then he sat and tugged at his shoes to drop them before tackling his stockings with impatience. Once he discarded those, he started on his cravat, but in his eagerness to join Sophia, his fingers fumbled and he struggled to undo the knot. With relief, he noticed Shaw’s shadow cast across the floor a moment before the valet made an appearance in the open doorway.
“Milord! Let me take care of that, I beg of you.” Shaw rushed over. Richard dropped his hands so that the manservant could make short work of untangling him from its grip.
Richard was not sure what had come over him. He had engaged in trysts many times in the past, and normally exhibited a deftness in the art of clothing removal, but since the heated moment inside the carriage, his thoughts were in disarray. All he could focus on was that his lovely bride was in the next room and the memory of her pert breast in his hand. He was demented with lust, his mind engaged in the need to bed this unusual woman who did not care about society’s opinion but appeared to care abouthim. Who accepted his newfound child, while rejecting connections with cloying, spoilt peers. Who loved music and despised gossip.
He could not wait any longer. The patient seductions he had engaged in before Sophia were a thing of the past. He wanted to bed his wife. Now.
The moment Shaw loosened the cravat, Richard sprang to his bare feet to storm across the room in his trousers and linen shirt, flinging the connecting door open to his bride’s bedroom.
CHAPTER10
Sophia flinched in surprise while the young maid attending her squealed in fright. She swung her head to look over her shoulder at her intruding husband, who stood panting in the doorway. He stepped deeper into the room, closing the door with a careless bang behind him.
“Out.”
His demand made the maid flinch.
“But … her ladyship’s hair?”
The maid held up a hand filled with hairpins in mute explanation.
Richard inhaled deeply, perhaps to calm himself? Sophia watched him, tall and commanding, which her body responded to in tingling pleasure. Her husband’s patience was wearing thin. She admitted to a kernel of delight that the infamously glib lord was exhibiting signs of frustration in his pursuit of her.
“I will take care of her ladyship’s hair. Put the pins down, if you will, and leave us.”
The servant curtsied, placed the pins on the dressing table where Sophia was seated, and hurried from the room to close the door behind her.
Sophia chuckled. “Are you satisfied? You frightened the poor girl.”
“If she stayed any longer, she would have been far more frightened when I ignored her presence to take you to bed.”
