The Countess (Madison Sisters #1)(13)
Author: Lynsay Sands

"I just remembered! Your valet is sick. I shal have to help you undress," she announced sounding very cheerful as she walked unsteadily toward him.

"My valet?" Richard asked with confusion.

"Is sick." She grinned widely as if the man’s being il were quite the most wonderful thing.

"Oh, yes, of course," he murmured as if just recal ing it, and realized he had to be much more careful about such things. There would be much that had happened this last year that he knew nothing about. People he should know that he didn’t, conversations he should recal but wouldn’t. He would have to be very careful and

– Richard’s thoughts died abruptly as he felt a tugging at the back of his breeches.

Christiana had continued forward until she was now behind him and appeared to be trying to pul down his tight knee breeches.

"What are you doing?" he asked with surprise, wheeling around to face her.

"Helping you undress." She tried to get around behind him again.

Richard turned with her. "There is no need for that. I can manage on my own."

"Do not be sil y, Dicky. You died today. You shouldn’t undress yourself." She continued to circle him like a bul dog looking for an opportunity to bite, and he just kept turning with her.

Growing dizzy, Richard final y grabbed her arm to stop her, and stated firmly,

"Thank you, but I real y can manage to – " The words died on an exasperated sigh.

The woman wasn’t listening. She had given up trying to get to the back of his pants, however, and was now working to remove his dark, double-breasted blue coat. He had undone the buttons before trying to climb the tree earlier. Al she had to do was push it off his shoulders, which she now did from the front, rising up on her tiptoes as she did. She wasn’t very steady on her feet, however, and ended up leaning against him, her lace covered br**sts pressing against his chest as she worked the material off his shoulders and down his arms.

"There." Smiling brightly, she tossed the expensive coat Daniel had bought him only that day to the side. She then set to work on the white, quilted, singlebreasted Marseil es waistcoat he’d worn beneath. This time she had to undo the buttons, and Richard tried again to dissuade her from the duty.

"Truly, Christiana. There is no need to assist me. I – " Despite obviously being a little unsteady on her feet due to drink, she was surprisingly quick with the buttons and he paused as she now pushed that off his shoulders as wel . This time she did not catch the item of clothing she’d just removed, but let it fal to the floor and simply stood staring wide-eyed. He was now bare from the waist up except for his cravat.

"Oh my," she breathed final y with something like surprised wonder. "What big shoulders you have."

"Er . . . aye, wel . . ." Richard grimaced. She wouldn’t have been saying that had she seen him six months ago. He’d been a pitiful shadow of a man after the il ness he’d suffered. Fortunately, he’d fil ed out again since then and was probably more fit now than he had been before George had so disrupted his life and nearly ended it.

Richard shook these thoughts away and glanced sharply to Christiana when she suddenly slid her fingers into the front of his breeches. He thought she was going to try to tug them off from the front as she had tried to do earlier from the back, but then realized she had merely taken hold to steady herself as she dropped to her knees before him.

Even with the hold she had on his breeches, she lost her balance and fel forward, banging her head against his groin before steadying herself. Much to his relief she also then removed her hand from his pants. When she then reached for one of his feet and yanked it out from under him, Richard grunted in surprise and grabbed for the window ledge behind him, leaning heavily against it to stay upright as she lifted his foot between them.

"My, what big feet you have, Dicky."

Richard grimaced. He hated the name Dicky, and would have told her so, but instead grunted again and now held onto the ledge to keep from sliding forward and dropping to his butt as she raised his foot even higher and then rested it against her chest to free her hands so that she could work the buckle of his shoe. Richard simply stared then. His shod foot was nestled between her br**sts like a lover’s head and he had the sudden mad thought that he’d rather his face was there.

He was actual y disappointed when his shoe slid off, until she resettled his now unshod foot against her chest again to set to work on his stockings. Richard stayed completely stil , hardly breathing as he stared at the way the curves of her br**sts cuddled his stockinged foot. He was hard-pressed not to wiggle his toes to feel the flesh surrounding them, but then his attention was drawn to his legs as she slid both his cotton under-stockings and the top silk ones down at the same time, her fingers gliding over his skin in an unintentional caress. Richard sighed as she raised his foot to remove the stockings entirely, and then she let the foot drop back to the floor. In the next moment, she’d claimed his other foot, however, and rested it where the first had been. Christiana was equal y quick about unbuckling and removing this shoe, and then he again suffered through the innocent caress of her br**sts around his stockinged foot and the glide of her fingertips down his leg. It was over much too soon for his liking.

Sighing once she was done, Richard straightened, thinking surely Christiana would consider her duty done now, but apparently not. He was barely upright before she was reaching for the covered buttons on the front of his breeches.

"Christia – " Her name died on a choked gasp as her hands brushed against his groin through the cloth of his breeches as she worked and Richard simply stood there, feeling himself growing beneath this latest unintentional caress and incapable of doing a damned thing about it. Wel , Richard supposed he could grab her hands and force her to stop, but frankly, he didn’t want to.

Damn. How could such an innocent touch have such an enervating effect on him? He certainly wouldn’t be growing were it a valet helping him undress. The thought died as she got his breeches undone and the proof of her effect on him sprang from his opening breeches to nearly slap her in the face.

"Oh my, Dicky, what a big – " Her words died on a startled gasp as Richard grabbed her by the upper arms and yanked her to her feet. The moment he could reach her mouth he covered it with his own.

Chapter Eight

Christiana gasped with surprise when her husband jerked her upright, and then gasped again when his mouth covered hers. This was definitely an unexpected turn of events. The very last thing she would have expected. Dicky hadn’t kissed her since the wedding ceremony, not even on their wedding night during the supposed consummation. And he certainly hadn’t kissed her like this. This was . . . her toes curled against the wooden floorboards and a smal moan slid unbidden from her lips as his tongue slipped into her mouth and stirred up a wealth of sensation within her. Who would have imagined a simple kiss could be so arousing? Why had no one told her this? And why the devil hadn’t he kissed her like this before?

Christiana was sure the last year would have been much less miserable had she had this to look forward to every night. That was as much thinking as Christiana’s poor passion-stunned mind could handle, and those thoughts drifted away to float in the far reaches of her mind as she was consumed by the different points of pleasure suddenly springing to life inside her. This was like their earlier dance times a hundred when it came to excitement level. Her lips were tingling where they met his, her br**sts were tingling where they pressed against him, and there was a strange hunger that seemed to be yawning inside her, urging her to stretch and arch her back in his arms. She was so distracted by these things that she hardly noticed when his hands began to move over her. They were simply an extension of the kiss, shivering up and then down her arms. When he moved one hand to press against her bottom through the lace of her gown, urging her tighter against the hardness nestled between them, she went with it, pressing herself as close as she could get and moaning again at the wel spring of reaction it caused in her nether regions. The feeling was so intense that she nearly rubbed herself against the hardness prodding her, but then was distracted by his other hand traveling to and squeezing one of her br**sts. Christiana clutched at his bare shoulders as Richard kneaded the tender flesh, a long drawn-out groan sliding from deep in her throat that ended in a gasp as he suddenly wrenched the fragile bodice of her nightgown aside to touch her without its encumbrance.

"Oh, Dicky," she cried when he suddenly broke their kiss, and was surprised at how breathless she was.

"Cal me Richard," he muttered, dragging his mouth along her neck as he gently pinched the nipple he’d revealed.

"Oh Richard!" she cried dutiful y, fingernails digging into his shoulders. "Oh please."

"Yes," he muttered and suddenly his mouth was replacing his hand at her breast.

His lips closed around the nipple, tongue swirling across it briefly before he began suckling, drawing on it and pul ing little mewls of pleasure from her. Christiana was vaguely aware of his hand moving on her bottom, squeezing it and using his hold to rub her against his hardness as she’d wanted to do, but she was so overwhelmed with al the sensations attacking her that they were al melting into one raging storm of desire and a mil ion wants. She wanted him to kiss her again, but didn’t want him to stop the lovely things he was doing to her breast to do it, and she wanted him to do the same to her other breast at the same time, and she wanted free of her nightgown so that she could feel him against her more ful y, and she wanted . . . she didn’t know what, but she wanted something to end this sweet torture and yet didn’t want it ever to end at the same time. Desperate to ease one of the wants raging inside her, Christiana raised one leg, half wrapping it around his hip in an effort to get closer to the hardness rubbing so excitingly against her. She then groaned with pleasure at the increased pressure. He was rubbing against the very center of her now, the cloth of her nightgown the only barrier and it only added to the pleasant friction. Richard groaned in response, the sound vibrating across the flesh of her breast.

He then raised his mouth to claim her lips once more. Christiana closed her eyes and kissed him back the best she could, opening for him and then instinctively sucking on his tongue as it invaded her. She felt his hands shifting their position on her, but grunted in surprise when he suddenly grasped her by the waist and lifted her. She instinctively wrapped her other leg around him then, holding on by hooking her ankles together behind his back as the room suddenly spun around them, a whirl of color, light and shadow.

Christiana was vaguely aware that he was carrying her across the room, but this new position opened her to the caress of his hardness and had her hardpressed to compose much in the way of thought. She was very disappointed when he paused after only two steps and set her careful y back on her feet.

"What – ?" she began uncertainly, but paused when Richard bent to untangle the knee breeches that she hadn’t ful y removed and had gathered about his ankles.

Understanding struck her then, and her next thought was the strawberry. Leaning forward, she managed a quick peek before he shifted position and started to rise.

Christiana straightened at once, but she was pretty sure she’d seen a red mark on his behind. She had married Richard Fairgrave, the Earl of Radnor, not his brother.

He wasn’t an imposter, which was a good thing since she was quite positive the marriage was about to be properly consummated. Now she just had to worry that it would be a bearable marriage bed she’d somehow made for herself in trying to spot the birthmark. Or she could flee the house right now, head to Robert to arrange for a doctor’s exam and have the marriage annul ed, Christiana reminded herself. She was nibbling away at her lip, trying to decide what to do, when Richard finished with his task and straightened. A slow smile spread his lips when he saw what she was doing, and he suddenly cupped her face, his voice a husky growl as he said, "Every time I see you do that, it makes me want to nibble your lips too."

"It does?" she asked faintly.

"Mmm hmm," he murmured, proceeding to do just that.

Christiana’s eyes drifted closed as he nipped and licked at the swol en flesh of her mouth, and then his lips moved to her ear and he nipped playful y at her lobe as he added, "Your lips and everything else."

"Everything?" she asked in a breathy voice.

"Everything," he assured her, one hand sliding down to press her nightgown between her thighs. Christiana moaned and trembled as he found the core of her through the cloth.

When his mouth suddenly covered hers again, she opened wil ingly to him, her kiss almost desperate as the tempo of his tongue thrusts matched the caress between her legs, both building an unbearable heat and pressure within her.

"I’l make this up to you," he gasped, suddenly breaking their kiss and removing his hand to lift her by the waist again. "I’l make everything up to you."

"Yes," Christiana breathed. Giving up any thought of annul ing the marriage and giving up this heat and passion, she wrapped her legs around him again. Her eyes closed and she dug her nails into his shoulders as he walked forward again and his hardness took up where his fingers had left off.

"I’l be a good husband. I’l make you happy," he assured her, his mouth trailing over her cheek to her ear.

"Oh, yes please," Christiana sighed and it was almost a prayer that it would be so, that her marriage would no longer be the misery it had been, and then he was suddenly easing her onto her back and coming down on top of her. Richard’s h*ps settled in the cradle of her thighs and then he ground himself against her again, this time with al his weight behind it as he rotated his hips, pressed forward and rotated them again, rubbing himself from side to side atop her.

When he suddenly broke their kiss, Christiana opened her eyes, recognizing her room and that it was her bed they lay on, and then Richard distracted her by suddenly latching on to one breast again. Her gown had somehow slid back into place as they’d moved from one room to the other, but he didn’t seem to notice, or perhaps he didn’t care because he was licking and suckling through the lace and then blowing on the damp cloth and flesh, making her shiver as wave after wave of pleasure slid through her.