Regency Scoundrels And Scandals. Louise Allen

front of his breeches, against the only hot part of him. ‘Just as soon as I get these off.’ He moved her hands away and unfastened the fall, pushing them off so he stood naked and magnificent and completely unashamed in front of her, showing her just how much he wanted her. ‘There. Now you can warm me up.’

      ‘Dry your hair first,’ Eva said shakily, half-convinced she had fallen asleep in front of the parlour fire and was dreaming this.

      ‘Undress.’ Impatient, Jack reached for a towel and began to rub his hair, his eyes never leaving her.

      There was no disobeying him, there never was. Eva slid off the bed and began to unbutton her gown, heeling off her slippers. She should undress slowly, she thought, tease him, but she was too impatient. Her fingers moved faster and faster, pulling at her petticoats, yanking at her corset strings, fumbling with her garters until she was naked.

      Jack tossed the wet towel on to the tumbled heap of her clothes and turned to sit on the bed, pulling her towards him until she was standing between his legs.

      ‘Now then, your Serene Highness, how do you propose going about this?’

      ‘Like this.’ Eva put her hands on his shoulders for balance and climbed up so she was kneeling on the edge of the bed, straddling the narrow hips, her thighs pressed tight against his flanks, the heat of her tantalising, just above the thrusting erection. She wriggled, seeking just the right angle, making him gasp and clutch her waist, then she slid down in one hard movement to take him, all of him, possessing and possessed.

      Eye to eye they were still, her breasts pressed against him, his barely controlled, panting breath fretting their nipples together into an almost unbearable friction. Then she leaned her weight in, feeling the inner muscles gripping and holding the whole hot wonderful length of him as they fell in a tangle of limbs, back on to the bed.

      Jack rolled her, his voice a growl, his mouth everywhere, tasting and licking and kissing as though to reclaim every inch of her. ‘I love you,’ he gasped in her ear, ‘I love you.’

      ‘I love you,’ she answered, only to find his kiss swallowing the words as his mouth sealed over hers, drawing the breath and the soul out of her body. He drove into her, harder, deeper than she had thought possible, and began to move, driving her wild, her body arching under his, her legs curled round his hips, her heels locked, urging his taut buttocks down.

      ‘I love you.’ Which of them spoke? She did not know, only that the world was turning into black velvet night, that she was spinning in space, that the pleasure flooding her body was his gift to her, just as she gave him all the love in her heart as he reared up, taut with ecstasy above her, gasped her name and collapsed into her embrace, their bodies still locked in delight.

      Jack was conscious of determined hands dragging the covers up over his body, opened one eye and found he was burrowed comfortably into Eva’s bosom. Bliss. He extended his tongue and touched one pink nipple and was rewarded by a squeak of outrage and a giggle. He shifted his position and began to give the stiffening peak serious attention.

      ‘Jack—not again! My love, we ought to eat.’ My love. He closed his eyes again and just luxuriated in the words.

      ‘Must we?’ he managed at length.

      ‘Yes.’ Eva wriggled upright, a deliciously arousing activity in itself. ‘We have made love a positively indecent number of times and I am starving.’

      ‘Mmm,’ he agreed. Her change of position had brought his head into her lap; his tongue was quite prepared to explore down here, as well.

      ‘Jack!’ It was the imperious Grand Duchess voice. He rather thought he had not been dragged out of trouble by his ears since he was six, but he yielded, flopping over on to his back to smile up at her sleepily.

      ‘Dinner,’ he agreed. ‘I’ll ring.’ His legs supported him as far as the bell pull, just. He yanked at it, then struggled into his shirt and breeches. ‘Where? Here?’

      ‘Yes.’ Eva had slid out of bed and was groping amidst her clothes, complaining because the wet towel had made her stays damp. ‘Oh, bother it.’ She tossed her underthings aside, dragged on her gown, pushed her bare feet in to her slippers and went to braid her hair into a thick tail down her back.

      There was a tap at the door. Jack put out his head and found Grimstone there, his expression so blank it was positively insolent. ‘Food. Wine. Here. Quickly.’

      ‘Guv’nor. It’s one o’clock.’ There was a pause. ‘In the morning.’ Another pause. ‘I’ll find something.’

      Jack closed the door and leaned on it. ‘Do you know what time it is?’

      Eva’s eyes were wide. ‘I heard. Poor Grimstone.’

      ‘I am sorry. Are you very tired?’

      ‘No. Not at all.’ His love twinkled at him wickedly. ‘I had a very nice sleep after the last time.’

      ‘Eva, we have to talk before we get to Maubourg. We have to have decided how this is going to work before we talk to Freddie and your brother-in-law.’

      She got up and went to clear the small table that would take their food. With her hair in its simple plait and her rumpled skirts, she looked deliciously domestic. ‘I had thought—and you must tell me if this is not all right—that we could be in England when Freddie is at school and then here when it is the holidays. But I do not know whether you have an estate in England.’ She shook her head ruefully. ‘I am so ashamed, I never even took the time to find out about your home.’

      ‘That is a good compromise.’ Jack found himself thinking about Knightsacre, how he had neglected it, how it needed a mistress to love it back into life. ‘My estate is called Knightsacre. You would like it, Eva, it is in the West Country. Soft, green land, rolling hills, wide, clear rivers. You could learn to be the mistress of the house—it is three hundred years old, but with no towers and no dungeons. I have neglected it for years: it is waiting for you.’

      ‘Oh, yes. I can imagine it, imagine you riding home from wide acres to the steps of an English mansion that we will make home again for us. But here—what will you do in Maubourg? Will you not be bored? That was what I was going to think about on the journey.’

      The knock on the door halted her worries while Grimstone carried in his spoils from the kitchen and set them out. ‘This all right, guv’nor?’

      ‘Good, thank you. You go to bed now.’

      ‘We’re taking it in turns to sit up. Don’t like to leave the place unguarded, not with Madame on the premises.’ He inclined his head sharply to Eva and took himself out.

      Jack pulled up a chair and waited for Eva to sort out the platters of bread, cheese and cold meats. ‘You are worrying about me being bored—does that mean I have to work?’ His mouth quirked. ‘I was expecting to have a very smart cocked hat and to stand one pace behind you during ceremonials, looking handsome.’ Her dismay at his teasing must have shown on her face. ‘I am sorry, sweet. I thought I would be an additional tutor for Freddie—teach him to shoot and fence and improve his riding. And I wonder if there is something I can do to promote agriculture—growing flowers for perfume is all very well, but the arable crops look woeful.’

      She reached across the table and touched his hand. ‘You will be his father, not his tutor; he will love the attention. Thank you.’ She took a sip of tea and frowned. ‘Jack, will this stop your work for the government?’

      ‘It will stop my private work. As for the government, I will have to see. I would not be able to do anything that could compromise the duchy.’

      ‘Or dangerous.’ He raised one eyebrow. ‘Oh, all right, anyone would think it is fun! Well, nothing involving rescuing ladies, that I insist upon.’

      ‘Very well.’ He could promise that, at least.

      ‘Jack,’ she said again, still frowning in thought.

      ‘Yes?’ He