Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

S unshine burst into laughter the minute Phineas's aunts left the room, only to be stifled two more times by the door opening and closing for one last suggestion to lock the door, and then when his Aunt Vada snuck a hand around the opening with a key on a string, well, Sunshine could no longer contain herself.

"They are gems, Phineas. Truly, gems."

He rolled his eyes at her, but his laughing smile told her everything. He loved them. And perhaps he loved her too. It was too soon to tell.

"If you knew what they referenced, I'm afraid you might change your mind."

"What?" The question chuckled out of her. "I cannot believe they left us here when just downstairs they insisted on a chaperone."

"They were testing you. Or me." He raised a brow, then stretched his legs out on the bed, and leaned against the pillows."

Sunshine drew closer, fighting her skirts under her knees from trapping her. "They obviously loved your mother and comparing me to her has to be a good sign."

"It is, I'm afraid."

She scrunched her brow. Phineas slipped his hands behind his head, a man of leisure and contentment.

"My mother was found on a fainting couch."

"The poor dear." Sunshine sat straight, ready with a heartfelt reply.

"My mother," he enunciated, "feigned the vapors, pretended to pass out on a fainting couch, where she laid in a most provocative position for two hours until my father arrived to kiss her into a lifelong commitment."

"You're lying." She started to chuckle again.

"Aunt Nora calls her a tart, but only in the best way. If that makes any sense."

Sunshine looked at the door, replaying all they had said. "A tart? They think I'm a tart?"

"But only in the best way, as I said." His inflection was unconcerned and matter-of-fact."

"Do you think I'm a tart?"

He nodded his head once with finality. "In the best way," he repeated.

She fell on him, causing a grunt when her head bucked his stomach, and she laughed herself right into living again. "I adore them."

"So do I." He stroked her hair. "They don't always mean well. They are loyal to a fault, but I can tell they like you."

"And will I win you over as easily?"

"You already have." He pulled her up for a kiss, her arms on either side of him.

With a surrendering groan from her lover, Sunshine began to untie his cravat, loosen his collar, and then proceeded to undo the buttons of his waistcoat.

"Are you trying to seduce me, you little tart?"

"Uh, huh," she said as she shifted her hand lower, her tapered finger running over a fully capable cock. She heard him sigh as she undid the buttons of his trousers. "I'm working for that feather. It's worth the ransom of my virtue."

"Please, continue then."

She stole a glance. With his hands behind his head, a smile on his face, and his eyes closed, she couldn't resist. She pulled his shirt free, kissing his hip, his stomach. She moved to his feet and removed his shoes, then tugged hard on his trousers from the legs up.

"Do you want some help? Because I'm not sure how long I can wait if the end result is you on top of me."

She sat back on her haunches. "Please"—she waved toward his long legs and his groin—"continue then."

He bit his lip, sitting up. He pulled the waist of his trousers down under his bum and chuckled when she fixated on his overeager manly parts, saluting the afternoon in the manner of a sundial. She could have told time by the shadow alone. When his feet were free, she brushed his trousers aside until they fell onto the floor.

"The last time I saw you it was dark."

"I believe I like you looking at me."

"Do you?" she asked slyly, moving her hand up his leg, over his knee, and along his inner thigh. His breath caught when she wrapped her palm around him.

"You're killing me. But I like it." He lay back with a groan.

Sunshine took her time getting to know him, a touch here and there, memorizing when he groaned and tucking away the information for later. Her need for him was as great as his for her, though, and it couldn't be said that she wasn't a tart. Not that afternoon. She ran her palm over his hard shaft in a rhythm that pleased him and made her pantingly ready. Before she could pull off her own skirts, his hand gripped hers, and he growled with pleasure as he helped her understand that this game was for them both.

He felt hard and full, and Sunshine knew instinctively that he wouldn't last much longer. But it didn't matter. If he finished in her hands, she would have been just as fulfilled knowing she could do that to him. Not the act, but the part of him that was too out of control to worry about anything else.

He pulled her hand down over him and held it there while the warmth of his pleasure surrounded them, and he lay back breathing hard. She watched him in wonder. She'd never done that before, not with her husband, not with him. In the light of day, she saw her future. Mistress, courtesan, wife, mother. She saw all of that with him.

His hand slipped away. Before she could do anything else, he sat up, removing his shirt with ease. He wrapped it around her hand, looked into her eyes. For a moment, she thought he might apologize, but it wasn't regret she saw. He was grinning, stalking her with that smile. He pulled her onto her back and teased her until she was writhing. Until she did what he'd done to her, holding his hand, his fingers inside her, until she found her own pleasure, something that had been forbidden by proper ladies.

As she relaxed, he kissed her hip.

"Phineas," she barely breathed.

"Hm."

"We forgot to lock the door." She had to laugh when he bolted up as if he might see his aunts standing there. "I suppose it's pointless now. Do you think they're listening?"

"I should hope not. You're not going to ask me to look, are you?"

"No." She couldn't help the bubble of happiness that crept out of her. "I'd rather not know."

"Agreed." He crawled up over her and kissed her before falling in beside her, both of them completely naked, completely sated, and thoroughly exhausted.

"Did I tell you I was sorry for the way I treated you when you came to see me?"

"Darling, if that was your apology, then I would be happy to vex you at any time of the day or night for the rest of my life."

She slid her hand down his arm, lacing her fingers with his while they both looked at the rich blue canopy overhead. There was more to say between them, but it could wait. In that moment she was making a memory to last forever.

* * *

Sunshine woke to darkness. She could not decipher the time. Someone had placed a sheet over her and pillow under her head while she slept, but she still lay in the same position, sideways across the bed. Phineas was not there. Her heart sank for a moment to think how he must have felt when he woke to find her gone. She knew he was in the house. For one thing, outside she could hear the wind howl while sleet pounded the glass, sounding like sharp tacks tossed against the windowpane. The fire Phineas had built glowed.

She pulled the sheet around her and found that a pitcher of water had been left for her. All she had was her traveling suit, so she donned the skirt and the white muslin blouse but left the jacket over the chair.

"Let's refrain from the word tart, shall we?" She heard Phineas's voice when she came within earshot of the family drawing room.

"Have we misbehaved?" Nora's voice was a whimper of regret.

Sunshine wasn't the kind to listen at doors. "You have not," Sunshine said, announcing herself effectively into the conversation.

"Oh, my dear." Vada stood. "Phineas said we should apologize. We never meant to embarrass you. Your blush was so candidly refreshing, we couldn't help but say something."

Both of his aunts looked distraught, wringing their hands, Vada standing, and Nora sitting. Phineas shrugged his mouth, shaking his head almost imperceptibly. Confused was the word to describe it.

"You owe me no such thing. I came here. I… stayed in that room. Those were my decisions."

"And good ones," Nora chirped quickly, "I hope."

"They were very good ones." She looked at Phineas, beaming a smile at him.

Vada sighed, relief sending her back to her seat. "I hope you'll stay longer than the storms."

She wasn't sure what to say to that. "Lord Davies and I have some things to work out first."

Oddly throwing a pillow over something beside him on the settee, Phineas stood. "Please come sit with us." He followed that request by escorting her to the opposite end of the sofa. He helped her take a seat, but she couldn't read him.

She couldn't read the room.

Self-consciously, she patted her hair in place, checking the pins and wondering if she should have added another.

"Phineas tells us that you wore the loveliest red gown for the Christmas affair."

Nora stretched a hand across the little table and patted Vada's arm. She whispered, "You shouldn't say affair." Then she turned back to the room at large, a glowing smile on her face as if no one but Vada had heard her.

Sunshine looked to Phineas to steady her rocking boat of feelings. She did enjoy these ladies, but she didn't know them as Phineas did, and she wasn't always certain whether she should comment or pretend she hadn't heard.

"They're trying to apologize," he explained.

She nodded. "I gathered as much. I think." She turned a wobbly smile on the older ladies, who returned it with a collective nod as if they worked in tandem.

Phineas cleared his throat. "In as much as you're stuck here, for a few days at least, I thought I'd clear some things up with my aunts. I hope you don't mind." He spared a look to his aunts, nodding at them both. "They're not in the habit of gossiping. They simply elect to speak their minds with me."

"Oh, yes," Vada said. "It's easier that way. He's not home enough to waste time on frivolously empty conversations."

"Which brings me to my point." Phineas took her hand. "I'm not going back to the Gallant . I'll appoint another captain and consider selling the ship. It's only one. It's not as if I own a fleet."

"You don't have to do that."

"There are good reasons why I stayed working with my crew after the wars with Napolean were over. I felt responsible for those who suffered the tariffs and low wages. People are hungry, and I wanted to feed them the best way I knew how. We were but one ship, but we sold merchandise, including food at cost."

"How did you pay the salaries?"

"This estate did. My grandfather was never one to flout wealth. He'd rather use it to help than hinder."

"That's noble and very progressive."

"It's human kindness and shouldn't be so surprising. But I realize that in order to do good, I need to make sure this estate stands. My aunts need a home, and my children deserve one too. It's time to take care of my family. And I want to stay."

Sunshine would be lying if she wasn't relieved to hear that, but she also wouldn't wish him to change what he loved for her. "I didn't know mistresses had such a pull on their benefactors." At this point, nothing she could say would be more scandalous than what his aunts had already observed.

Nora, of all people, gasped, and Vada threw a hand to her chest.

"It was a jest," she quickly amended.

"That was for me," Phineas said. "They're not used to me falling in love." His eyes were warm, and she hardly noticed what he said. "Did you hear me?"

"I… Phineas, you don't have to say that."

"I do have to say that when I'm trying very hard with such an audience to declare myself."

She put a hand to her mouth, unable to stop a hiccup of laughter. His aunts looked solemnly concerned. "I don't know what to say."

He reached behind him. "I have what you came for."

"Are you sure?" It was the feather. It couldn't be anything else. "Because what I really wanted to know was if the memory we made was enough. That's the real reason I came."

"It will never be enough, love."

"I agree."

With the ease of a magician, he revealed the red ostrich feather, offering it to her on his forearm in the grand style of a waiter. "Sunshine Price, would you accept this feather as a very odd proposal of marriage because I don't want to wait for the perfect moment? I believe we have many more memories to make."

Vada cleared her voice, and Phineas held up a hand to keep her from speaking.

"And heirs," Nora was not so put off.

He never took his gaze from Sunshine. His smile bloomed into a chuckle, a welcome affectation and the hazard of this place. A wonderful hazard. Even with a subject so serious as to be lifelong, the atmosphere was simple, direct, and charming.

"Even if I haven't yet said I love you?" she asked.

"You have."

She licked her lips. For the first time in two days, she thought about Richard. She thought about the conversation with Mr. Wallace. She thought she knew the answer but was still afraid.

Vada levered herself from her chair. Both Sunshine and Phineas, confused, watched her round the tea table. His aunt snatched the feather from his arm. "There, I told you to sweeten the deal. She's a lady, Phineas. For heaven's sake."

The feather was handed back to Phineas with a gold band and a winking ruby that could not be missed.

"Well, then. Let me take another look at that feather." She gave a conspiratorial smile at Phineas and returned one of apology and a raised brow. "This is considerable. My current benefactor, I'm afraid, has never offered me anything so lovely and very expensive," she said the last part, dipping her head toward his aunts. "I must consider it."

Both women nodded again in perfect unison.

"Phineas," she said seriously. "I must love you if I can sit in a room with all my secrets laid bare and not be ashamed."

He scooted close to her, and taking her hand, he placed the ring on her finger. "If you love me any more than you do today, I should not be able to contain it. I see you Sunshine, so clearly."

"It was but a month ago when I felt as if no one ever saw me and had wondered if anyone would ever see me again. I was the widow, too young, too sad, too much sorrow that I became the burden. And perhaps I didn't give others the chance to expect anything else from me. But I never felt like a burden to you. I felt light. I didn't want to be at that party. I was scared, and you made me forget who I thought I was, except it was just the fa?ade of who I'd become." She turned to his aunts. "Did you know that my father was a painter? He named me Sunshine because he loved the sunrise."

"Isn't that lovely," Nora said. "You could name your son Moonbeam in honor of your father."

"That sounds perfect," Phineas said, an outrageous smile on his face.

"Or Sunset," Vada chimed in.

She gazed into Phineas's laughing eyes, his remarkable good nature, and nodded. "How can I not marry you now? How can I not love you?" She stopped smiling. The emotion finally hit her that she'd never said those words to another man. It had taken her months to say them to Richard. It had taken her one day to know they were real for Phineas. "It scares me."

"I know, love."

At that, his aunts silently left the room. Phineas was right. It would seem they were more astute than they appeared. As soon as the door to the drawing room slid into place, Sunshine fell into his arms.

"The ring was their idea. It was my mother's. I want you to choose what you wish."

"A ring from a tart, for a tart." She turned the band over so the ruby sat balanced. It was too big for her finger. "It's beautiful."

"But?"

"But I want something new. I need new in my life."

"And that's why I gave you the feather."

"The feather is mine."

"The feather belongs to me, and you may borrow it if you promise to wear that mask again and let me make love to the courtesan who showed up unexpectedly at my party."

"It will cost you," she warned with a coy smile and gleam.

"You have bankrupted me for life, my precious Sunshine."

"I only need you to be the keeper of my memories."

"I have two very good ones. If we invest well, we'll make a lifetime of them."

"Do you think this storm might last until our wedding day? Because I don't intend to leave you, Phineas Blackmore."

"You'll be a viscountess to the world, but you'll always be my Sunshine. The woman in red that I fell in love with behind a potted plant."

"Do you know what day it is?"

"The day you said I love you?"

"Indeed." Her heart was full of joy that had little to do with Christmas. "But it's also the twelfth day of Christmas."

"On the first day of Christmas, you gave me a feather. How, I wonder, will you top that?" Phineas caressed her cheek.

"On the twelfth day of Christmas, I give you my heart."

"And to think it took only twelve days."

"Not really. There's every chance I lost it to you behind that potted plant."

"You little tart." He cradled her face and kissed her.

Sunshine never felt her name more than at that moment. "Moonbeam?" she asked, laughing between kisses.

"I cannot wait to make that memory."