Silk And Seduction Bundle 2. Louise Allen

was better equipped to accept that he had many calls upon his time.

      She was sitting at her writing desk, poring over the latest letter from her aunt, when he surprised her by coming into the room so quietly she had no notion he was there, until he said, ‘What news have you received to make you frown so?’

      ‘What? Nothing!’ The letter was full of hints as to how to cope with the demands of ‘a lusty young husband.’ If he caught sight of some of the things her aunt had written, he might easily misconstrue the nature of the original questions. Guiltily, she crumpled the page and tossed it into the sitting room fire.

      ‘Midge,’ he said reprovingly, ‘I thought we had got to the stage where we could talk about anything.’

      He sighed, taking her hands between his own. ‘If something is troubling you, I want you to tell me. Perhaps I can help?’

      Well, she was not going to admit she had been writing to her aunt about the most intimate details of their married life!

      But as for the other matter…she caught her lower lip between her teeth and searched Monty’s face.

      She would, dearly, love to ask him what she ought to do about Stephen. For, not two days earlier, while she had been out riding with the boys, she had seen a man on a black stallion, on the brow of the hill, just on the borders of Shevington land. When he had doffed his hat to her, and she had seen his dark hair and the gleam of gold at his ear, she had instinctively started towards him. But then she had remembered Monty saying that Stephen only wanted to cause trouble.

      She wanted to please Monty. It had not taken her long to see that he was nothing like her father, Kit Hebden. His handsome looks had not made him vain or cruel. He got no pleasure from deliberately shocking or hurting people. And he had been inordinately kind to her, since she had become his wife. Though she only had to think back to the scornful way he had spoken to her before he had discovered she was Rick’s sister, to know she was not the bride he would have chosen in a million years. He ought to have married someone who matched him, at least in looks, if not in wealth.

      No, she sighed, he had enough to contend with in her, without her deliberately flouting his wishes.

      And Stephen had quite deliberately ruined her wedding day. If he was here, it was because he wanted to cause more trouble. Sadly, she had shaken her head and turned Misty around.

      ‘Is that a friend of yours?’ Jem had asked, craning his neck round as they cantered away.

      ‘Why don’t you want to talk to him?’ put in Tobe.

      She had wanted to talk to him, that was the trouble. Even knowing he had probably only come down here to disrupt the life she was slowly establishing for herself, she could not forget he was her brother.

      ‘Monty would prefer me not to,’ she had said sadly.

      ‘We won’t tell on you, Midge!’ Jem swore.

      ‘It will be our secret!’ added Tobe.

      ‘It would not be right,’ she said sadly. ‘Monty is only trying to protect me. He—’ she turned and looked over her shoulder wistfully ‘—is not a good person.’

      Stephen’s stallion reared on its hind legs, pawing at the air. When he turned and galloped off, she had felt raw inside. He might not be a good person now, but she could not shake off the memories of how she had always been able to run to him, before the days of the murder and his banishment. Now that he was here, her impulse was to run to him again.

      For he was her brother!

      That very morning, she had seen Stephen again. Though she had deliberately got the boys to ride out in a different direction, Stephen had found them. And this time, he had been on Shevington land.

      And that really worried her. She already knew Monty considered him a menace. She was fairly certain that this was one topic on which the earl would be in total accord with his son. She had learned the way titled, landed gentry thought of Gypsies from her grandfather and then her uncle.

      Stephen had escaped detection so far. But if she told Monty he was in the area, would he feel compelled to have him hunted down and arrested for trespass? She knew that Monty would only consider he was protecting her. But she had no wish to precipitate an action that would hurt the man who had already suffered so much because of her family. No matter why he had come here.

      And so, though she longed to be able to be completely honest with Monty, she mustered up a brittle smile and waved her hand airily towards the letter smouldering in the fireplace.

      ‘It was just some marital advice from my aunt that made me a little embarrassed.’

      ‘Oh?’ He glanced at the letter, then back at her troubled face. ‘Now I am truly intrigued.’ His face took on a purposeful look. ‘In fact,’ he growled, ‘I demand that you tell me.’

      With one swift movement, he had her flat on her back on the floor, on the hearthrug, her arms pinned above her head. The demonstration of superior strength was so unexpected, so very forceful, that if she had not recognized the gleam of mischief in his eyes, she might have felt afraid. As it was…

      ‘Tell me,’ he growled low into her ear, ‘or I shall…’

      ‘What?’ she gasped, squirming with excitement. ‘What will you do to me?’

      He raised himself a little, and ran his eyes slowly along the length of her body.

      ‘Dreadful things…’ he warned her, lowering his head and biting gently through the material of her gown, at a nipple that was sitting up and begging for his attention.

      ‘You promised to obey me,’ he said with mock severity. ‘So, if you won’t tell me this instant what was in that letter, then I shall have to punish you.’

      ‘H-how?’ She panted eagerly.

      ‘By making you suffer,’ he promised her, sweeping her skirts up to her waist and subjecting her to a few moments of sensual torment.

      ‘By making you beg,’ he warned her, stopping what he was doing just before she went over the edge. ‘And finally, by making you scream.’

      ‘You wouldn’t,’ she said a little uncertainly. He had not even wanted her to sleep in a cold bedroom. He would surely do nothing to hurt her! ‘You d-do not want to make me scream.’

      With a wicked grin, he lowered his head and set his mouth to what she considered a most inappropriate place, kissing her where…

      ‘No!’ she whimpered.

      This could not be right! But she could not stop him. His hands were clamped hard round her wrists, and his shoulders pinned her thighs apart.

      ‘Please…’ she begged, arching up against his mouth. ‘Stop it!’

      But he did not stop, and before much longer, just as he had predicted, she was screaming out her shocked pleasure.

      And then soaring to the heights all over again when he made love to her in the more conventional mode.

      She did not recall him carrying her to her bed, but he must have done, because she did not wake up on the hearthrug, where she had expired from exhaustion when he had finished with her.

      That night at dinner, she could not stop looking at his mouth and wondering how on earth he had learned that it was possible to do such extraordinary things with his tongue.

      ‘You ate hardly anything tonight,’ he observed, when they entered their suite later. ‘Were you not hungry?’

      ‘You know very well why I could not eat anything,’ she whispered, backing away from him as he stalked towards her in a purposeful fashion. ‘I am still far too shocked by…’ She bit down on her lower lip, shaking her head.

      ‘Your punishment?’ He chuckled, catching her up in his arms and carrying her to her bedroom.

      ‘Yes—No…’ She pushed