Lily and the Duke (Regency Spinsters Alliance #1)

Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

“I did not even know that I had a Great-Uncle Frederick, let alone that he had made a fortune in the Indies, which, having no other living relatives, he has now left to me!”

Lily made no move to rise from the chair where she sat reading a book in front of the window in the family’s small private parlor situated at the back of Truro House.

She did look up, her gaze guarded as she watched her father literally quivering with excitement as he waved about the letter he held in his hand. A missive which Lily knew had been delivered a short time ago and which her father had apparently now read, informing him of what appeared to be his unexpected good fortune.

Appeared to be, because—

“Oh, my dear, how wonderful.” Her mother put her embroidery aside, for once smiling happily as she rose to her feet to take the letter from her husband and read the good news for herself. “Twenty thousand pounds!” she gasped, raising a hand to her throat.

“It is a fortune,” the earl agreed.

“This means that Lily and I might have some new gowns this Season, after all.” The countess looked at her husband. “That we might buy a third carriage so that I can snub my nose at Lady Deidre Hanworth, who only has two! We might also provide Lily with a small dowry to sweeten and tempt a suitable but perhaps penniless gentleman into marrying her,” she added without a thought for whether, or how much, her words might hurt a listening Lily.

“My dear, we must not spend it all at once,” the earl reproved. “Otherwise, we will once again quickly be without funds.”

“It is twenty thousand pounds, Edgar!” the countess dismissed before turning to Lily. “You do not seem excited by our sudden good fortune, miss.” She frowned her disapproval.

That was because, unlike her parents, Lily was more interested in the source of this sudden good fortune rather than the spending of it.

When she was growing up, one of Lily’s many governesses had thought it a good idea for Lily to make a chart of her family tree, from Norman times to the present. The governess had done so because she believed everyone should know “from whence they came and to whom they are related.”

Lily had duly made the chart. It still hung on the wall in the now-abandoned nursery.

Which was how she knew, without the shadow of a doubt, that her father did not have, nor had he ever had, a Great-Uncle Frederick, living in the Indies or otherwise, who might have left him a fortune.

She and Gabriel had not made a definitive agreement as to when they would meet again after their last passionate tryst. They had only agreed that Gabriel would contact her again when he had arranged for them to do so.

Lily believed a meeting between them needed to take place now.

“Lady Lily Tremayne is here asking to see you, Your Grace.”

Gabriel felt his heart falter in his chest upon hearing his butler’s announcement.

Lily was here?

There had to be some sort of mistake.

Gabriel’s thoughts raced as he slowly leaned back in the chair behind the desk in his study.

He had been keeping himself and, consequently, Jacobson, busy by writing letters to his estate managers in response to their monthly reports on the half dozen country estates owned by the Duke of St. Albans. He had done so in the hope of distracting his thoughts from thoughts of seeing Lily again.

The distraction had not been a successful one.

His thoughts had not strayed from thinking of her, even for a moment.

“Are you sure she did not ask for my daughter?” Gabriel knew Chloe had gone out for a ride in the park after luncheon, accompanied by two grooms. He had assumed it was her intention to meet with friends there.

If it was, then it would appear Lily was not one of them.

If Cramer’s already haughtily raised nose could rise any further, then it now did so. No doubt in response to Gabriel doubting his abilities. “I am positive that is the name of your visitor, Your Grace. As I am equally sure to whom she asked to speak after I had informed her that Miss Chloe was not at home.”

Lily really was here.

Asking to see him.

What possible reason could she have for putting herself and her reputation in such a precarious position?

Single young ladies simply did not visit the homes of unmarried or widowed gentlemen. They did not visit the homes of married ones either, unless it was to call upon his wife or daughter, and Lily had already been told Chloe was not here.

He stood to move from behind his desk. “We will resume our work later.” He dismissed his secretary, only turning to address his butler again once the younger man had left the room. “You may show Lady Tremayne in now, Cramer.”

“She appears to be unaccompanied by her maid, Your Grace. Nor is there a carriage outside.” Cramer’s lips were tight with his disapproval. “I do believe she may possibly have walked here.”

Gabriel’s heart skipped several beats at the thought of being completely alone with Lily. “It is a nice enough day for a stroll,” he dismissed, knowing Truro House was situated only a short distance away in the street next to this one.

“Yes, Your Grace,” the butler answered noncommittally.

“Lady Tremayne is my coconspirator in choosing a suitable present for Chloe’s birthday next week.” He knew that Cramer, along with the rest of the household staff, was as devoted to Chloe’s happiness as he was. “Which is possibly why she preferred not to have the Truro carriage seen outside this house. Why I would also prefer you not, by word or deed, allow my daughter to learn of her friend’s visit to me.”

As Gabriel had hoped, the butler’s expression had softened at the mention of a present for Chloe. “Of course, Your Grace. I will show Lady Tremayne in now.”

Gabriel moved to stand in front of the window looking out into the street. As Cramer had already remarked, the Truro carriage was nowhere in sight.

Lily could hear the loud beat of her own heart as she stepped into the study, her gaze immediately drawn to Gabriel as he stood in front of the window. His back was to the room as he looked out at the street in front of the house. Where he had no doubt noted there was no carriage waiting for her when she left.

As soon as she was able, after listening to her father’s announcement of his inheritance earlier and her mother’s excited chatter as to what they would do with it, Lily had quietly closed her book and left the family parlor. She doubted either of her parents had noted or cared about her departure.

Once in the privacy of her bedchamber, she had paced up and down the room, not knowing what to do with the knowledge she had regarding there being no Great-Uncle Frederick in her father’s lineage. She had even gone to her old nursery to confirm her suspicion by looking at the chart still pasted to the wall.

Her father did not have, had never had, a relative named Frederick.

She waited until after luncheon and then left the house to walk to St. Albans House.

Now that she was here, she wondered if perhaps she was wrong in thinking Gabriel Lord could have had anything to do with her father’s sudden windfall.

What reason could the duke have had for doing such a thing?

If he had.

There was no one else that Lily knew who had such a surfeit of funds as to be able to give twenty thousand pounds away to her undeserving parents.

“Why did you do it?” she now demanded to know.

“You may leave us, Cramer.” The duke’s gaze remained fixed on Lily as he dismissed his butler. He waited until the other man had closed the door behind him before speaking again. “Why did I do what?” Gabriel prompted lightly.

A lightness of tone which instantly caused Lily to question whether she could have been wrong regarding St. Albans’s possible involvement in her father’s inheritance.

But who else could be responsible?

There was no one else.

“Why did you…arrange for my father to inherit a small fortune?”

Gabriel stiffened. “What makes you think that I did?”

“Because I do not know anyone else with enough funds to do such a thing,” she accused.

“You—”

“And because, if it was you,” she continued firmly, “then you have made me feel no better than a whore whose body you are paying to pleasure and give pleasure to!”

“No!” Gabriel’s mask of haughty indifference had been stripped away when he stepped into her space and placed his hands about her waist to keep her in front of him. “No, Lily,” he pleaded. “Please believe I thought only of you, of your comfort and well-being, when I arranged for your father to receive an inheritance from a distant, if bogus, relative.”

“Did you truly believe that I would see the benefit of even one penny of that money?” she scorned.

He frowned. “I had hoped so, yes.”

Lily gave a pitying shake of her head. “My mother is already ordering new gowns and urging my father to buy a third carriage. Oh, but how could I forget the best part?” she bit out scathingly. “My mother also suggested putting several thousand pounds of that money aside as a dowry for me. As an incentive to convincing a ‘suitable gentleman’ into offering marriage to me!”

“Over my dead body!” he rasped harshly, his hands tightening painfully about her waist.

Lily grimaced. “Gabriel, I am sorry to say—dead body or otherwise—I do not think you will have any say in when or whom my parents bribe into offering me marriage when the time comes. Or how my parents might choose to otherwise fritter away the inheritance you have given them.”

His eyes darkened. “I want to be the one to give you everything. To shower you with diamonds and pearls. A dozen new gowns. A carriage of your own—”

She interrupted him. “I believe those are the gifts given to a mistress, not a lover.”

They were, Gabriel realized.

Or to a much-loved wife.

Except Lily was not and never would be his wife.

Because he was too old for her?

Or because she was a friend of his daughter’s?

Neither of those things. Lily would not be Gabriel’s wife because, as she and the other young ladies in the Spinsters’ Alliance had clearly stated, they would not marry at all if they did not love the man they were to marry.

Lily did not love him.

He knew she desired him, that her body responded to him spectacularly, but she did not love him.

Gabriel drew in several deep and calming breaths before releasing her to step back. “It would seem that I have made an error in judgment that I cannot reverse. I apologize if that error has in any way made you feel less than appreciated as the beautiful and passionate young woman that you are.”

“Your actions did not have anything to do with your knowledge of the scandal of my sister’s elopement?”

He was puzzled by the question. “Why would they?”

“Because it might lead you to think that my own morals are less than they should be.”

“That possibility never entered my thoughts for a moment.”

Lily gave a tight smile. “Then your apology is accepted.”

He shook his head. “I have already assured you that none of the actions of any member of your family affects my opinion of or desire for you. Did you not believe me when I said as much?”

She sighed. “I am trying to do so.”

“Then you must try harder.”

“I…I did not ask the last time we spoke but…but when your man investigated me and my family, did he…did he tell you if my sister…if Hazel—”

“Your sister is now married. She is the Contessa de Villere and living in Inverness in Scotland. The Scots are more kindly disposed toward the French than we are,” he added ruefully.

Lily’s eyes widened in obvious alarm. “But— What of Michel Jaques, the gentleman who was my father’s secretary, and whom Hazel eloped?”

“Michel Jaques Fornier is the Comte de Villere. When he escaped to England, he preferred to earn his way in life rather than just be another French aristocrat who had escaped his homeland after being robbed of his estates and fortune. Since settling in Scotland, he and your sister have purchased a small croft, and they now live there happily together with their three-month-old son.”

She gasped. “Hazel has a son?”

Gabriel nodded. “Your nephew, Andrew.”

“Oh, thank God.” Lily’s breasts quickly rose and fell, tears of happiness glistening in her eyes. “Thank God. And thank you for telling me all this.”

“You are very welcome.” Gabriel eyed her searchingly. “Have your parents never tried to learn their daughter’s fate? Has your sister never contacted you to reassure you of her marriage and motherhood?”

The happiness faded from her expression. “If Hazel had ever tried, my parents would have ensured no word of her safety ever reached me. They have disowned her and refuse to so much as speak her name,” Lily added bleakly.

“They might not feel the same way if I were to introduce them to the Comte and Comtesse de Villere.”

“Probably not,” Lily conceded. “But kind though your offer is, I would never ask Hazel to put herself and her family through such a false reconciliation. It is enough for me to know that my sister is happy and loved.”

Gabriel hated the bleak look he could now see in her eyes.

He stepped forward again to take one of her gloved hands and lifted it so that his lips could press against the warmth of her palm. “Tell me what I can do or give directly to you that will make your own life more comfortable?”

“You have already given me enough comfort by telling me of my sister’s happiness.”

His mouth twisted. “That is not the sort of comfort I meant, and you know it.”

She looked at him from beneath lowered lashes. “I also know I prefer it when you make my life un comfortable. Deliciously so,” she reminded huskily.

Gabriel’s tension eased as he took note of the return of the feverish glitter in her eyes and the flush to her cheeks. His cock swelled inside his pantaloons as he watched Lily’s tongue moisten first her top lip and then the bottom one.

When he looked up, it was to find her heated gaze fixed upon his own slightly parted lips.

Gabriel’s breath caught in his throat at the desire he read in that shining gaze. Desire for him. For the pleasure Lily knew he could give her with his hands and mouth.

“Did you really come here to berate me for my error in judgment?” he prompted softly.

“I believed at the time I did…” She gave a rueful smile. “Now, I am not so sure. Maybe I just wished to see you again? Two days is a very long time.”

He nodded. “I am sorry for that. But I assure you, I am doing everything within my power to bring that time to an end.”

Lily eyed him shyly. “I am here now.”

“So you are.” Gabriel claimed her mouth, as he had longed to do since the moment he saw her again.

Not one kiss, but many. Those kisses quickly became heated, the two still kissing hungrily when Gabriel lifted Lily in his arms and carried her across the room to lay her down on the chaise in front of the window.

“Any people walking by will be able to see us,” Lily pointed out.

Gabriel stood up to release the ties on the drapes before pulling them across the windows, throwing the room into darkness. “ I wish to see you.” He moved to light a candle on the fireplace. A warm glow instantly lit the room. “Every delicious inch of you,” he murmured as he sat beside her on the chaise. “May I?” His hands rested on the hem of her gown.

“Please,” she invited, knowing she had been longing for this, for Gabriel to touch her again, since they were last together.

Her gaze remained fixed on the hunger in Gabriel’s face as he slowly pushed the skirt of her gown up her thighs. She enjoyed the heady power of watching such a usually emotionally remote gentleman looking at her with passion and desire, his cheeks flushed, his eyes feverish.

She gasped when she felt the caress of his long fingers touching her heated flesh inside the slit of her drawers. She gasped even louder when the soft pad of his thumb pressed against and then stroked a sensitive nubbin amongst her folds.

“It is called your clitoris,” Gabriel explained gruffly. “It is a bundle of sensitive nerves, but I believe it can best be described as being like a tiny penis. In that the stroking and pressing of fingers against it”—he paused when Lily’s hips rose to increase the pressure of those pleasurable manipulations—“can give a woman great pleasure.”

If anything, it was a pleasure more intense than when Gabriel had touched her breasts. Addictively so, as Lily’s hips began to undulate in a chase to capture that pleasure. She groaned when Gabriel removed his fingers, but her eyes widened when he lifted those fingers to his lips and licked the glistening juices from their tips.

Lily licked her own lips. “How can you— Is that—”

“The juices of your arousal are delicious,” he assured. “One day I should like you to taste my release in the same way.”

“Why not now?”

“Because now is about you and your pleasure,” he insisted. “I only stopped just now because I want your permission to take off your drawers.”

She swallowed. “I do not— What are you—”

“I am going to pleasure you with my mouth as well as my hand,” he explained. “And for that, I need to remove your drawers.”

Her eyes were wide. “You are going to put your mouth there ?”

“Oh yes,” he assured longingly. “Then I am going to lick you, suck you, maybe even bite you, before fucking into your wet channel with my tongue.”

Lily almost swallowed her own tongue at hearing Gabriel talk so crudely. A crudeness which, she admitted, deeply excited her and increased her desire for everything Gabriel promised.

It took a matter of seconds to remove her drawers before she lay back down on the chaise, this time with her knees bent and her legs parted as Gabriel knelt between them.

He looked up at her. “If I do anything you do not like, I wish for you to tell me to stop.”

Lily couldn’t imagine what he was talking about. So far, she had loved every pleasure Gabriel had given her.

She was glad of the candlelight to hide her blushes when she felt Gabriel’s lips and tongue along the length of the folds between her thighs, first lapping up the juices escaping her channel before concentrating on that bundle of nerves above.

The rasp of Gabriel’s tongue against that nubbin was even more arousing than his fingers had been. Those fingers found other places to caress and pleasure her. Between the glistening folds at the entrance of her channel, before those then-wet fingers moved farther back until his thumb pressed against the rosette between her bottom cheeks.

“Trust me,” he encouraged, the warmth of his breath an arousing caress against her clitoris as his thumb pressed harder, seeking entrance. “It is a little daring, yes, but it will intensify the pleasure for you,” he promised before sucking her swollen nubbin into the heat of his mouth.

Lily was about to say she was unsure as to whether she would be able to cope with more intense pleasure than she was already feeling when Gabriel’s thumb penetrated that ring of muscle.

That, along with the hard suck and caress of his tongue across her clitoris. threw her into a maelstrom of pleasure such as she had never imagined existed.

Lily lost all sense of space and time after that, of everything that was not Gabriel, as he took her to that pinnacle of release over and over again.

But her pleasure was increased exponentially, her release explosive, when she looked up and saw that Gabriel had released his cock and was now pumping that turgid flesh in the same rhythm as his tongue plunged into her channel.

She promised herself that the next time, she would be the one to give him that pleasure.

Next time.

Because she wanted as many of those with Gabriel as he was willing to give her.