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Upon his first arriving in England, he was partly determined that if people were going to spread rumours about him, then he might as well make the rumours true. Some of them, at least. And if that meant spending a little time burying himself in a woman of little consequence, then so be it.
Though Viola Flowers, the daughter of a wealthy businessman, greeted him at the small studio apartment he had purchased for her as their rendezuous spot as she always did, scantily clad and practically dripping with desire for him. Gabriel found that their encounter was lacking something of its usual passion.
Whether it was all the stress he had been under or something else, Gabriel couldn’t be sure, and although he performed just as he always did and even managed to let off a little steam, by the time they were both exhausted and half asleep he could still feel an itch that definitely remained to be scratched.
Lying awake for what felt like hours beside his beautiful mistress, Gabriel found himself thinking once more of the gloriously glossy-haired young woman he had met in the bookstore that early afternoon.
And when he finally did doze off, he dreamt of her and their encounter in the bookstore. More than that, he dreamt of the things he would like to have done to her were they to find themselves entirely alone together again. And she was extravagant and mesmerising, and she set his very soul alight.
The dream felt more real than anything he had felt in a long time. Her bare flesh beneath his fingers was soft as silk, the wetness he felt between her thighs was smooth as honey, the warmth of her body was so inviting that he loosed himself upon her in a whirlwind of desire and pleasure.
Bodies melted together until he could not tell where he ended and she began. And in the near darkness of a candlelit bookstore, she screamed his name, her blue eyes blazing with pleasure and desire as she moaned unrelentingly.
When he was awakened the next morning by a gentle kiss upon his cheek, he woke feeling his passion renewed. Yet the moment he blinked open his eyes, he was overwhelmed by confusion and frustration. The beautiful blonde lying beside him was not the brunette from the bookstore, but his mistress. And she smiled down at him as if she already sensed his erection standing loud and proud beneath the sheets.
"I have to go," he announced, wasting no time in clambering from the bed. "We should not have remained here all night."
"You are an earl," Miss Flowers pointed out. "Nobody can question where you choose to spend your night and in whose bed."
Gabriel cringed. If only that were true. Whether they questioned it aloud made no difference. He would be judged out in the open or behind closed doors, no matter what he did. And yet, this morning, he felt ashamed of himself for the first time. Just looking at the woman he had defiled the night before, he felt sick to his stomach. Though it was not the first time they had shared a bed, Gabriel felt that it might very well be the last.
"Do not come here again," he told her even as he started to pull on last night's clothes.
"My lord?" Miss Flowers exclaimed, sounding more than a little surprised and confused.
"You heard me."
Gabriel could not bring himself to look her in the eye and so he shoved his feet into his boots and left.
"Where have you been?"
Gabriel’s brother Jonathan greeted him upon his arrival on horseback at their agreed-upon meeting spot beneath a willow tree and the sprawling fields just outside of London. It was clear from the spark in his eyes that Jonathan knew exactly where he had been.
"It is of little consequence," Gabriel responded. In truth, he would have preferred to forget where he had been that morning and the night before and also his thoughts throughout, for that matter. Perhaps a good long gallop across the fields with his brother was exactly what he needed.
"What is the matter, brother?" Jonathan asked, his dark brow raised, readjusting the reins in his hand when his horse moved in a restless tiptoe back and forth. Like the horse, Gabriel was feeling more than a little restless. "You appear even more brooding than usual."
"And you appear all the more annoying," Gabriel grumbled back, though there was brotherly affection in his tone. Both the brothers laughed and Jonathan appeared not to have taken the words to heart.
"Something weighs on you, brother," Jonathan insisted, looking at him more closely. "I can practically see it sitting upon your shoulders."
"You know very well what it is," Gabriel grunted, telling himself it was the same thing that had been weighing him down ever since his father had passed. It couldn't possibly be anything else.
"I thought by now you would have learned to ignore the fools and suffer the idiots," Jonathan sighed deeply. "Just live your life as you wish and eventually they shall get bored and move on to the next poor sap."
"If only it were that simple," Gabriel said under his breath, and not for the first time he wished that he was the younger brother without the responsibilities of the earldom and the freedom to go travelling to and fro whenever he pleased.
"It gets easier and easier the less you care," Jonathan admitted with a shrug. "You should try it some time."
Though he spoke confidently, Gabriel knew his brother all too well and also knew that the opinions of others did, in fact, influence him far more than he would ever let on.If only I could hide it so well,Gabriel thought, but he knew that he could not and so he kicked his horse into a trot and called over his shoulder, "Come on. Enough time-wasting. Let's ride."
And so they did, long and hard, until Gabriel was starting to feel a little better. Though in truth there was still one thing upon his mind; the young woman from the bookstore. No matter what he did, he could not forget her or the dream he'd had of her the night before.
Arriving back at the townhouse, having returned their horses to the stables, both the brothers were quickly accosted by their mother. She was in higher spirits than the day before, likely due to their having a visit from their cousin, Mr Tatford, or perhaps it had something to do with the letter in her hand as she joined them in the entryway.
"Ahh, good, you are both here!" she said gleefully even as Peters bowed in her presence before returning to helping the men off with their coats and riding boots. "I have wonderful news."
Oh, no!Gabriel thought immediately and when he glanced at his brother, he saw his own feelings reflected in his similar brown-green eyes.
