James got to his feet and stretched. ‘No, thank you. And I do not need an escort home. I have a knife in one pocket and a pistol in the other and I’ll find a link-boy to light me.’
I kissed him goodnight and he went out as Garrick began to clear up. I looked across at Luc. ‘How’s your head?’
‘Perfectly all right, thank you.’
‘It will be even better after a good night’s sleep,’ I said, sounding remarkably like my mother.
He sent me one of his hooded-eye looks, the kind that said bed but had apparently no concept of the idea of sleep.
The door closed behind Garrick. The wretch had abandoned me to fight temptation alone. ‘Luc, do you think that’s a good idea?’
‘I think that’s an excellent idea.’ When his voice went all deep and growly like that my toes curled, my insides clenched and all sorts of bits got hot and bothered. ‘Don’t you?’
‘With concussion?’ I ventured. Really, who was I kidding?
‘You had better come and help me undress and then check that I am showing no symptoms.’
‘Garrick – ’
‘Garrick doesn’t rub it better like you do.’ Luc got to his feet, all six foot and something of long-legged, narrow-hipped gorgeousness.
‘I should hope not,’ I said, giving up the struggle. ‘But you do need to be careful of the back of your head.’
‘I hadn’t intended lying on my back,’ he said, taking my hand. ‘In fact I wasn’t intending lying down for quite a while.’ He closed my bedchamber door and set to undressing me which, considering I wasn’t wearing stays, stockings or three layers of petticoats, was easy. He got down as far as my twenty-first century underwear which I’d chosen for comfort and practicality, not for seduction, but which he seemed to find worthy of lengthy examination.
I wriggled free. ‘My turn.’ It took me considerably longer to get him out of neckcloth, coat, waistcoat – at which point I slowed right down and began to tease.
There were the buttons at his cuffs to undo. Very fiddly things, cuff buttons. Then I had to untuck the shirt from his breeches. Of course, I didn’t want
to risk tearing it. Shirts then, I had discovered, had a slit at the neck but no buttons all the way down the front so they had to pull off over the head and a girl could have a lot of fun with that.
I pulled and Luc bent to help which meant I could stop halfway with him trapped in the voluminous fabric of the shirt and caress every bump and hollow of his spine with fingertips and nails. His skin was smooth and silky and hot and I could feel the tiny tremors under the surface as nerves reacted to what I was doing.
I should have remembered how fast Luc could move. He was out of the shirt, sending it flying, before I could make a grab for it. Then he lifted me, turned me and I found myself with my back against the bedpost having my sensible panties stripped off. There was a growl of frustration when he realised he couldn’t get rid of them when he had my legs around his hips, so he did the sort of flip onto his hip you see ice dancers performing at Olympic level. Then the undies went after his shirt, I was wrapped around him again and the flap of his breeches was open – how many hands did the man have? I wasn’t complaining, but –
‘Damn. Condom.’ He boosted me up so my legs were round his waist, staggered to the bedside stand and yanked out the drawer. We juggled the little beast out of its foil and on to him in a desperate rush that had us both panting and snarling with frustration and then –
Then we proved that it was perfectly possible to make hot, frantic, messy, out of control sex without aggravating a head injury, breaking the bedpost or stopping for breath for ten minutes.
‘That was incredible,’ I mumbled. I was face-down, nose buried in the pillow with Luc draped over my back. ‘How did we get here?’
‘No idea,’ he said from somewhere in the region of my right armpit. There was a bit of an upheaval then I felt his hand stroking down my back. ‘Did I hurt you? The bedposts in here aren’t carved, but I should have thought how hard it was.’
‘You didn’t,’ I assured him, although, frankly, he could have had me crushed up against a holly bush for all I’d have noticed at the time. I wriggled and turned face-up. He came with me and we ended up in the time-honoured missionary position. I wriggled some more and then didn’t have to worry about anything else for quite a while. Luc is exciting when he’s urgent and fast but he is stupendous when he takes his time…
Neither of us was up with the lark next morning. I stumbled out of bed and hauled in a couple of hot water cans without Luc so much as twitching in his sleep, so I stood in the basin and had a leisurely all-over wash while admiring the way he looked sprawled naked across the bed. Mine, all mine for this moment and I wasn’t going to look any further ahead than that.
I put on my robe and chatted to Peggy, the maid of all work, who was tackling the washing up from the night before and cooking Garrick’s breakfast at the same time. I stole some of his toast and a cup of coffee then wandered into the drawing room.
Garrick had hung sheets over the incident boards while the maid was in. The clock said half past eight so I curled up on the sofa with my purloined breakfast and read the Morning Post. I’d just finished the toast, half the coffee and was studying the Court and social news column when the door knocker was applied with some force. It would be James, I thought, and even if it wasn’t, Garrick wouldn’t let anyone else in while I was wandering about in bare feet and robe.
It was a woman’s voice. A clear, determined, decidedly upper class voice. Uneasy, I folded the newspaper, stood up and edged towards the door.
‘His lordship is still asleep, my lady. I will wake him and I am sure he will attend you at the Town house just as soon as he is dressed.’
‘He can sleep, I am quite willing to drink coffee and read the paper here until he wakes. I have had a long, tiring drive, Garrick and I do not appreciate being kept standing on the doorstep.’
‘But, my lady, the apartment is at sixes and sevens – ’