A Debt Paid in Marriage Read online

  ‘I must remember to pay Mrs Fairley more the next time her bill is due.’ His voice sounded strained, making Laura bold, her confidence in this new power growing ever stronger as she met Philip’s burning gaze.

  She turned again, faster this time so the ribbons danced against her knees before settling back to grace her calves. ‘Add a little extra to thank her from me.’

  It wasn’t the ribbons Philip watched now, but her breasts as he moved forward, cupping the weight of each in his palms. ‘I shall jump to comply.’

  The heat of his touch stole her playfulness and a heady need rose up inside her as his palms kneaded the full flesh. She reached out and undid his cravat, revealing the firm Adam apple’s punctuating the fine length of his neck. Loosening the laces of his shirt, Laura spied the sweep of dark hair on his chest. She ran her fingers through the coarseness of it, feeling his heart beat a quick pace beneath her touch. Then she grasped the sides of his shirt and tried to raise it over his head. He was too tall for her to manage and he slipped his thumbs beneath the linen, helping her to free him from it.

  She’d been too stunned to truly appreciate his body the night they’d met. Now she could fully admire it. The hours at the boxing club had tightened the muscles of his stomach and chest and they rippled as he raised his arms to crush her softness against his solid body.

  The thickness in his breeches pressed against her bare stomach as his lips claimed hers again, his kiss more hungry than before, but with the marked restraint she’d come to know so well. The maiden in her was glad for his contained reaction. The curious woman who’d already seen his body slick with water wanted his careful control to crack and for him to ravish her passionately as she’d read about in novels. She had no real knowledge of the act, but the yearning deep inside her offered a heady hint to the pleasure waiting for her under Philip’s guidance. If his touch elsewhere proved to be anything like the delicate circles his thumbs made across the tender tips of her breasts, she didn’t know how she would survive the night.

  ‘Raise your leg,’ he growled in her ear.

  She did as she was told and his hand slid over the curve of her breast and down the length of her thigh to the satin ribbon. In one fluid move he pulled it free of the bow. With his wide hand, he pushed it over her calf, drawing it from her foot before dropping it to the floor. Without prompting, she raised the other foot, clutching his shoulders as he guided the second stocking over her pointed toes, his movements controlled and agonisingly slow.

  As she lowered her leg, his fingers graced the length of her inner thigh. Her body tightened as he neared her need, anticipation making it all but impossible to stand as his feathery touch graced the top of her womanhood before sliding down to settle inside her.

  She gasped at the fire ignited by his touch, which welled up inside her until she could barely breathe from the sensations racing through her.

  ‘Philip,’ she gasped, leaning hard against the hand at her back holding her steady and keeping her from falling into the tide of pleasure rushing in to consume her.

  Then he withdrew his fingers and she settled against his chest, panting, her need heightened but not quenched.

  She lowered her hands to his waist, tracing the skin above his breeches as she trailed her fingers to his front. The pressure of his hips against hers eased as he shifted slightly to give her access to the wool. She fumbled with the buttons, trying to undo them, but with him so close, his masculine scent as sharp as his breath that raced across her nakedness, she could barely grasp the round ivory. He brought his hands over hers, assisting her and sliding the buttons through the holes. Then he let go, inviting her to do the rest.

  She didn’t quite possess his grace when it came to lowering his breeches, but they soon lay around his feet and he stepped out from the fabric. As she rose to face him, she paused, taking in the sight of his hardness.

  Nervousness filled her, but there was little time to entertain it as he stepped forward to press against her once more. She nearly jumped back at the slight twitch of him against her stomach, before settling herself into the circle of his arms, his hands firm and steady against her back.

  He led her to the bed and pressed her down on to it, his weight against her bare skin even more heavenly than the clean sheets and chemise had felt on her first night here. In the past week, a happiness she’d thought had died with the shop had consumed her and Philip was the cause of it. The thought moved her just as deeply as his unexpected kiss against the tender tip of her breast. His fingers began to play over her skin as they trailed down her stomach and over the curve of her thigh. Then at last, when she thought she might expire from the steady teasing of his tongue and fingers, he settled himself between her legs. He didn’t press forward, but paused, and she felt him hot against her skin as he silently waited for her invitation. She opened to him, drawing in a sharp breath as he slid slowly into her depths. He moaned as she accepted his body into hers, bringing them closer together than she’d ever believed possible.

  He moved slowly at first, each stroke filling her, until she thought she might shatter from the intense pleasure. She moved her hips to match his thrusts, wanting more, to give to him as much as he’d given her in their brief time together. Wrapping her arms around him, she held on to the hard muscles of his back, pressing her chest against his. With his heart so close, there seemed nothing to stop it from becoming hers.

  * * *

  Philip groaned, his restraint faltering under her silent demands as he plunged into her. Pinned in the circle of her arms, he felt free, the guilt of leaving the past behind lost in her softness. He surrendered to his passion and hers, grasping her around the waist to hold her steady as she tightened around him, her pleasure evident in her soft whimpers. As his desire began to crest, he mustered his control to wait, to hold back until at last her body exploded around him in spasms. Then he surrendered to his release, crying out as it pulsed to meet hers.

  Philip clutched Laura to him as the ripples of pleasure uniting them began to fade. Rising up on his elbows, he brushed the hair from her forehead and pressed his own against it. Breath after breath laced with the sweet tang of her perfume caressed his face.

  At last he dropped down beside her and slid his arm under her to draw her close. He caressed the length of her arm, following the arch of it to where her hand rested on his stomach. Their wedding bands clinked together and his hand stiffened at the noise before he settled it firmly over hers. He resisted flexing his fingers or raising them to examine the band. The weight of the gold against his skin was familiar and yet unfamiliar, comforting and awkward.

  He pulled Laura closer to drop a kiss on her forehead, pushing away all other thoughts.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Laura asked, her ability to sense his unease disturbing.

  ‘Nothing.’ Guilt stabbed at Philip for holding back. Each day it was growing more difficult to withhold his whole heart from Laura. He cared deeply for her, but there still existed a part of him he couldn’t relinquish, not even to her sweet charm. He ignored the shame just as he’d banished the melancholy thoughts threatening to taint this moment. She was happy and it was all that mattered.

  ‘Liar,’ she challenged, stroking his chest.

  ‘I was thinking about today and how beautiful you looked,’ he said, not wanting the past to intrude and deny either of them their happy wedding night. ‘Justin was escorting you so slowly up the aisle, I didn’t think you’d ever reach me.’

  ‘Perhaps he was afraid Mrs Gammon would step in to spring the parson’s mousetrap.’ She giggled against him and he felt the joy of her humour welling up inside of him, pushing away the dark memories and nagging shame.

  ‘I’m glad he took his time. It gave me the chance to admire you.’

  She raised her head to him, her lips drawn into a seductive smile matched by her inviting eyes. ‘Careful, Philip, I might become
used to such flattery.’

  ‘Good, for I intend to flatter you often.’ He smothered her smile with his lips. In the whispered breath of their kiss, a calm settled over him. There was no logical reason for this feeling, nothing about it he could explain or rationalise beyond Laura’s presence. He lost himself in it and the pleasure of her embrace.

  Chapter Ten

  Laura sat at the desk in Phillip’s bedroom, combing through the columns of numbers on the ledger in front of her. She’d spent the past quarter of an hour trying to tease out why the expenses for beef did not match those of the bills stacked in the pile next to her. Picking up the butcher’s last bill, she was careful not to disturb the neat stack of contracts next to the blotter. The writing table in her room was elegant, but too narrow, and while Philip was downstairs with Mr Connor, she’d decided to come in here to work. Though she doubted he would mind her little intrusion, this was his space and she didn’t want to completely upend it.

  Below, in the garden, Thomas’s happy giggles were punctuated by one of his high-pitched squeals as Mrs Marston, Jane and Laura’s mother played with him. Laura longed to be outside with them enjoying the fine day, but the ledger needed to be balanced, not because Philip demanded it, but because she did. He was a fine manager, but in the past year he’d been pulled in so many directions, one or two things had gone errant, like cook overspending at the butcher. Laura was determined to address these small issues, no matter how much she wanted to crawl into the large bed, pull the covers up to her chin and fall asleep.

  She stifled a yawn, struggling to continue on, but the figures blurred before her, the totals making no more sense than before.

  ‘This is impossible.’ She tossed down the pencil and fell back against the chair in a huff, then laughed at herself. Two weeks ago she’d have given her teeth for such a simple problem. Now all she could do was complain.

  The breeze fluttered through the open window, making the fine curtains billow out. The small crystals dangling from the candlesticks over the fireplace shivered with the wind, creating little rainbows in their depths. They spilled over the tendrils of the vines woven into the carpet. She slipped out of her shoes and rubbed the bottoms of her feet over the thick pile. Then, folding her hands over her lap, she closed her eyes. It wasn’t the figures which vexed her as much as the lack of sleep. Since the wedding, more pleasurable pursuits than rest had occupied her and Philip’s nights. She curled her toes at the memory of last night and the delicious things he’d done to her. In the dark together, they were open and vulnerable with one another. It was only afterwards when the intimacy seemed to fade.

  She relaxed her feet, trying not to worry. The hint of the reserve she’d detected during their wedding night had come over Philip again last night, intruding on the quiet conversation between them. One night, she hoped, that reserve would be gone for good.

  The breeze filled the curtains again. The ruffling fabric soothed her along with the sounds of the birds and her mother and Jane’s steady conversation outside. There was only one more thing she needed to ease the concern dancing along the back of her mind.

  ‘Have you become a woman of leisure?’ Philip’s teasing question drew her from her silent reverie. His lips lilted in a near-smile and Laura’s toes pressed deeper into the carpet, anticipation making her lick her lips before she recovered herself and straightened.

  ‘If only I could be, but the accounts won’t allow it.’ She waved her hand over the open book. ‘It seems I’ve dropped a figure and can’t find it.’

  ‘Let me see.’ He closed the door and came to stand beside her and examine the ledger.

  All thoughts of the accounts flittered out of her mind. There was only him, strong and masculine, his scent permeating the smell of warm earth drifting in from the garden outside.

  He bent over the book, hands flat on the desk as he studied her work. While he was occupied, she leaned back a touch to admire his solid buttocks hugged by his buckskin breeches. Her fingers trilled on the arm of the chair, the activity keeping her from stroking the firm roundness, but she wanted to, badly.

  ‘Having trouble concentrating?’ He looked back at her, his eyes inviting. He pressed one finger to the ledger, but she longed to employ it in another, more sensual activity. ‘You didn’t carry the four on line twelve.’

  She slid her fingers over the open neck of her gown, drawing his eyes to her breasts, as daring this afternoon as she’d been the night she’d first slipped into his room. Only today she was his wife, not a client. ‘Does it matter?’

  ‘Not at all.’ In one easy move he turned and drew her from the chair into his arms, his body hard against hers. She leaned languidly into him, twining her hands around his neck and arching back as he bent forward.

  ‘And here I’d come to ask you to join me on a walk through the park.’ His voice rumbled between them. ‘I have something to discuss with you.’

  She traced the line of his jaw with one finger as his hand found its way to her behind, gripping it tight and pulling her closer against him. ‘What?’

  ‘I can’t remember.’ He leaned forward to claim her mouth, but Laura didn’t surrender, not yet, wanting to tease him a little longer.

  ‘But I have things to do.’ Her fingers twined in the knot of his cravat, drawing the ends out from beneath the waistcoat.

  ‘They can wait.’ He leaned forward again. A growl of frustration escaped him as she denied him yet another kiss.

  ‘It must be a special day if you’re asking me to put aside work.’ She enjoyed this teasing and the unexpected reaction it elicited from him.

  ‘One cannot work all the time.’ There was mischief in the remark as his frustration turned to determination.

  Rising up on her stocking-clad toes, she finally surrendered her lips to his.

  * * *

  Whatever matter Philip had sought her out to discuss vanished. There was urgency in her wanting, a demanding need to match the one welling inside him. This would be no leisurely afternoon lovemaking, but a fast coming together. He surrendered to the moment, channelling his restlessness into the hunger drawing them together.

  He tugged up the sides of her dress and slid his hands beneath the fine cotton chemise. Tracing the line of her silky thigh, he found her centre. She tilted her head back, as he slid one finger inside her. She was ready for him and he almost lost what little control remained. Holding back, he ran his tongue over the sweet skin of her neck while his finger worked her pleasure until she was near panting, her hands tight on his shoulders. He drew her earlobe between his teeth, his fingers steady and firm in their work, withdrawing just before she reached her release.

  Opening her fevered eyes to meet his, she caressed his chest, then undid the buttons on his breeches. She slipped her hands beneath the buckskin to stroke his hips, her touch as teasing as the kisses she pressed against the skin above his cravat. The feather-light brush of her fingertips over his hardness sent a tremor racing through him. He splayed his fingers on his thighs, allowing the woman who’d been little more than a stranger to him two weeks ago to explore his body, relishing her growing confidence and her gentle touch. When at last she took him in her hand, he groaned, clenching his teeth as she slowly began to stroke. Remaining still, he gave himself over to her until the quickening pace of her palm proved his undoing. He shoved the ledger aside and the contracts fluttered to the floor with it as he lifted her up to rest on the edge of the desk. She pulled up the hem of her gown, as eager as he was for their joining.

  Her fingers wound through his hair and she stifled her cry of pleasure in the curve of his neck as he entered her. The window was open, the breeze teasing them both as he plunged into her, all other thoughts lost in the storm of his desire. His thrusts were hard and greedy but she matched each one with a subtle shift of her hips, drawing him in deeper. The swelling pleasure pushed them higher unti
l with one last thrust his body shuddered into hers and they fell together in a slow descent of light and darkness. Only her curves against his kept them from toppling over the top of the desk in exhaustion.

  Moments passed, until the room, the breeze, the sound of people outside came back to Philip. He slid his hand up the curve of her back. Twirling one dark curl around his finger, he treasured the soft sweep of her hair over his skin. On the floor around them lay the scattered contracts and the upended ledger. He ignored the urge to break from Laura to clean up the mess.

  ‘I should tease you over figures more often,’ Laura murmured into his neck, her hand making lazy circles over his exposed body. ‘Though I fear I may not be able to join you on a walk today, or even perhaps tomorrow.’

  She laughed, the bright sound as lovely as the whimpers which had met her release. He let go of her curl and it bounced back against her neck.

  ‘It was not my intention to exhaust you.’ He kissed her damp forehead, pushing the strands of hair which clung to her radiant skin, ready to dress and proceed with the day.

  ‘Oh, please do.’ She wrapped her legs around his waist and all thoughts of business were gone.

  * * *

  It was a full two hours before they finally left the room and arrived in Hyde Park. Laura held Philip’s arm as they made their way leisurely over the paths crossing the wide swathes of grass. A few fashionable folk were out riding or enjoying the fine day in their open-topped landaus. The rest of the park occupants were retired soldiers and their grandsons or young governesses running after children.

  Laura tugged her hat down a touch to shield her eyes from the low sun. She strode beside Philip in a new walking dress of deep puce, the glow from their lovemaking still fresh on her skin. After their adventure on the desk, they’d closed the window and drawn the curtains to take advantage of the comfort of the bed. Deep inside, Laura’s body quivered at the memory and she was tempted to drag Philip back to the landau and away from whatever he’d brought her here to discuss. She smiled wickedly at her wantonness and the shock Philip was sure to greet such a suggestion with. However, after their afternoon intimacy, he might just surprise her and agree to a romp in the carriage.