Chapter 11

The following morning after a very large breakfast of thinly sliced ham, kippers, eggs, slices of bacon, French scones, lemon cake, and three cups of hot chocolate, Emma walked with the viscount across the wonderful lawns of his estate. Once they were no longer within view of the main house, he slipped an arm around her waist and flushed her to his body.

"How are you feeling?"

A blush stole over her face. "Is this a customary question you ask your lovers the morning after?" she demanded pertly.

He arched a brow, a rueful smile touching his lovely mouth. "I have never asked it before for two reasons. One, I have never taken an innocent to my bed before, nor have I ever been so…demanding and overtaken by passion. I was worried I was too rough."

Though the place between her legs ached, she murmured, "It was perfect."

Something leaped in his gaze, and Emma wished she understood the expression in his eyes.

"Thank you for trusting me, Emma."

He kissed her forehead, and that pained but delighted sensation wrenched through her heart. David brushed a fleeting kiss over her mouth, and they resumed walking.

"Where do we go?"

"A place I often visited as a lad. I had a desire to show it to you."

Emma was almost baffled by the sense of happiness she felt. They strolled in wonderful, companionable silence up a small incline to a large oak tree. She watched as the viscount toed off his boots and hauled himself up the first rung of a thick branch.

"I did wonder about the spyglass you had in your pocket," she said gaily, hurrying to remove her boots and reaching for the arm he extended.

After a couple minutes of scaling and climbing, Emma lifted her face to the morning sun and let the rays warm her cheeks, delighted to be perched high on the branch of a massive oak tree overlooking the dips and valleys of the land leading to the town.

"I knew you would like it up here," he murmured by her side.

"It is glorious," she breathed, taking the spyglass he proffered. "I feel like I can see the whole world when it is just your land. It is rather vast."

"You can still see most of the town from this spot."

The rolling hills to the river Test were very picturesque, but the nearest town was small with what looked like a Norman tower to a small church. It seemed a very comfortable place to live with distant views of the English Channel. "It seems very idyllic and picturesque. Somehow it reminds me of Penporth."

"Do you miss there?"

"Sometimes. Life was certainly simpler. We were not of the nobility, and though our actions occasionally caused others to frown, it was not as severe as how it is currently. Now it feels like the simplest matters might cause rebuke. It is a bit silly."

She watched a few children romping outside of a thatched cottage in the far distance. Laughing at their antics, she held out the glass to him.

"You watch," he said with a smile. "I have seen it enough."

She watched the town through the spyglass, an odd feeling creeping over her. Emma delicately cleared her throat. "When did you start coming here, David?"

A small silence fell between them, but she did not rush to fill it with probing questions.

"Sometime after my parents died." An odd sound chuffed from him. "I always sit at this spot."

She lowered the spyglass, for the first time noting the grooves cut into the tree. She lifted her fingers to the marks, counting the strokes. Fifty-seven in total. "What do these cuts in the branch represent?"

"One for each time I have been here."

Fifty-seven times, possibly over several years. She recalled then his parents had died when he was only a boy of ten years. "Would you tell me about the first time you climbed?"

"It was the first winter after my parents died. The first Christmas, really. Mrs. Gilchrist prepared a feast, and the servants laid it out," he said, sounding a bit indifferent. Or perhaps reflective. "Then they left to spend the rest of the day with their families."

She heard what he did not say. As a young viscount, he had been left alone.

"So, you climbed up here and watched the village on Christmas."

"I did. Once my aunt started living with me, I came here several more times, especially when I came home from Eton during our breaks."

"I am so sorry, David."

He jerked his gaze to her. "What for? The view was always lovely."

Emma allowed her gaze to wander to the horizon, feeling something tighten inside her. David had been so alone as a child…and even more so now. She wondered why no one on his staff had taken a lonely child who would have still been ravaged by grief to their home. She closed her eyes, knowing it was the distinction of rank. How could they have a young lord used to such privilege and wealth in their humble abode, eating their humble food? She bet he hadn't complained but bore his loneliness with stoic perseverance.

She'd always been surrounded by laughter and love and family. She raised the spyglass to her eyes, staring at the village and imagining how terrible it must have felt for him to sit on this very branch looking out at families partaking in the festivities.

He would have seen children playing in the snow and mud with their mothers, fathers, and siblings and unable to join because he was their little lord and nobility, and the lower class should not mix. She wanted to hold him…and cherish him and give him something…a family.

Emma saw them then, a son with his eyes…a daughter with his smile, sitting on this very branch at Christmas making new memories to replace the aching ones of the past. The breath strangled in her throat, and she squeezed the spyglass.

"What are you thinking about?" he murmured. "Your pulse is fluttering wildly at your throat."

Before she could reply, he leaned over her and raked his teeth over that spot. Heat flashed from the tips of her breasts to the juncture of her thighs. She shifted, and their mouths met in a kiss that was gentler and more searching than passionate. He kissed her for long minutes. When they parted, it felt natural for her to lean against his shoulder, resting her head there. Emma felt his pleasure at her actions, and she lifted the spyglass to him.

"Look, the children are playing some sort of game, and a very annoyed adult is chasing them away."

He took the spyglass and watched for a few seconds before handing it back to her.

"Will you play chess with me when we return inside?"

"Yes, but let me warn you, I am a deplorable player. My sisters always beat me, and I am a sore loser. Not my best trait, but it is there nonetheless."

He chuckled. "How aggrieved you sound."

"Wouldn't it be fantastic if you taught me how to outwit them," she said with relish.

"It would be my pleasure to. I have never been beaten. I doubt I can be defeated."

"Arrogant."

"I know," he drawled, his eyes twinkling with deviltry. "It is still the truth. An arrogant player and a competitive player who does not like to lose. I sense a disaster looming."

They exchanged smiles, and she leaned and kissed it from his mouth, taking it into her being. Emma felt as if she wanted to consume everything about him.

Do not be silly with your feelings, she silently cautioned herself. Recall this is merely a new, exciting experience, nothing more. Yet her heart leaned more towards him, shaking with delight when he cupped her face and teasingly kissed her over and over. They stayed up there for hours, watching the village, laughing and chatting, with Emma thinking there was nowhere in the world she would prefer to be at the moment but by his side.

David had enteredthe deep forest of his lands with Emma on horseback several minutes ago, with two large dogs bounding ahead. He'd dismissed the groom from traveling with them to collect their hunt for the day. They would do it themselves and return at their own leisure. She rode slightly ahead of him with graceful ease, inhaling the crisp air into her lungs.

"I think Lord Peter would have enjoyed this hunt," she said, glancing back at him.

"Why did you not bring him with you?"

She laughed. "These days, Lord Peter prefers Julia's company to my own. He is also blind in one eye and can be sensitive about it whenever he is in wide open spaces."

"The next time you visit, you should bring Lord Peter. I would very much like to meet him."

"I daresay Peter would enjoy that." She slowed the horse, so they trotted side by side. "Do you anticipate we will be able to…continue in this regard for a long time, David?"

Emma did not look at him when she asked this, but he noted that her gloved fingers fiddled with the reins. She was nervous about his answer. David was unsure what the answer should be, but he knew he could not envision the foreseeable future without her. Such a thought should be silly and overwrought, but it was still the truth, and he did not hide from his truths. The last few days, eight to be precise, had been filled with endless passion and laughter, unlike anything David had ever experienced and doubted he would ever know again.

Each night he took Emma into his arms, riding her long and passionately into several climaxes. He was insatiable for her and had first been worried because of her inexperience, but his wicked minx matched him passion for passion. They burned together in the night before falling asleep in each other's arms.

They took long walks during the day. Other times they picnicked by the lake, reading and chatting. They raced along the lanes of his estate, and even yesterday, they had fished together on his lake. How her face had glowed with delight that it was her trout that were prepared for dinner by Mrs. Gilchrist. David did not miss that the air about his servants had also changed. He had never seen them so proper. Breakfast was a palatial spread meant to impress his guest, and she showed her appreciation with her hearty appetite and lavish praise for their service. Flowers now adorned almost every room in the manor, and Mrs. Gilchrist looked at him with an expectancy he hardly understood. Dinner was also lavish and sumptuous, and David found that he enjoyed dining with her above stairs. He liked even better that she happily joined him below stairs for luncheon and to play cards with his servants. There was nothing pretentious about Emma; she was unfailingly kind and charming.

David did not know what to make of her, but he could tell that he was falling into something beyond his understanding. He saw it in her gaze whenever she lingered on him, yet they did not speak about the inevitable conclusion of their passionate affair.

The dogs barked in the distance, and a flock of pheasants took to the sky. David lifted his Manton and took aim.

"Do not kill them, David! Look how free and happy they seem?"

He glared at the Manton in her hand, and she arched a brow. "What?"

"We are hunting, Emma. The point is to shoot the birds from the sky."

She shot him an aggrieved glance. "I do not like the idea of killing them."

"It is not a waste of life but a hunt for food. We will distribute the excess to the villagers."

"I still do not like it."

Amusement darted through him. "So, you happily catch the fish but not the birds, hmm?"

She wrinkled her nose in that charming manner. "It does seem a bit foolish, doesn't it."

He lowered the Manton, reached out and touched the tip of her nose. "There is nothing foolish about you."

Tender humor lit in her eyes. "Whenever my family hunted rabbits during the fall and foxes during the winter, I never partook in their sport. Logically I know the food we eat was hunted…but…"

"I understand."

She smiled. "You do?"

"Yes."

Then he reached for her and kissed her.

"I cannot help feel you mean to ravish me in the woods," she murmured against his mouth.

"A capital idea."

"I teased!"

David urged her from the horse and rested their Mantons by a large oak. She stared at him with widened eyes, filled with an equal measure of apprehension and thrill. His Emma was an adventurous minx, and he was damn glad for it because he could not prevent himself from taking her even if a herd of elephants trampled through. David dragged her against him, kissing her with carnal lasciviousness. Their tongues tangled, and she purred against his mouth.

"This will be quick and rough," he said against her mouth.

"I've never had it like that," she teased, desire darkening her blue gaze.

And she was damn right. Every time he took her, David lingered over the taste of her skin, sipping on her sighs of surrender, savoring her sweetness, and worshipping her body. He had loved Emma, tupped her even, but he had never fucked his darling. The dark lust rising inside him now and the need to satiate this hunger said she would not be spared from his lust. But she burned with him, returning his kisses with passionate fervor. Her responses were wonderfully wanton. When he spun her to brace her gloved hands on the large trunk of a tree, pushed her riding habit to her waist, tugged his gloves off to drop them on the forest floor and test her readiness, she soaked his fingers. He ran his fingers lightly up and down her quivering soft stomach, keeping his touch lingering and provocative.

"Do not tease me, you wretch," she moaned.

Desire knifed through him, sharp and insistent. David groaned, opening his flap with unsteady fingers. He gripped his cock, placed it at her sex, and shoved it deeply. Her wild cry echoed in the forest, and she jerked to the tip of her toes. Her slender back quivered against his chest, and her head dropped weakly against his. She was so damn wet and too tight. "Does it hurt?"

"Yes…but in a good way," she sobbed.

David snaked his fingers around her front and found her clitoris. He glided his thumb over it several times, pressing and circling, wrenching hot gasps from her before he started moving. The delay had not tempered his lust but pushed it to a desperate height. He rode her hard and fast, hooking his hand below her waist to hold her for his deep, quick thrusts. His Emma responded with beautiful passion, her wetness soaking the front of his trousers as she clenched and unraveled on his cock with arousing force. She made a wanton, achy sound that went right to his cock.

"More, David," she pleaded, sounding dazed. "Please!"

A lust he had never known sparked in his body, and he pushed her hard, allowing passion to consume them for several torrid minutes. With a groan, he released deep inside her body, grunting as she clamped down tightly on his cock as she attained her pleasure once again.

"That was incredible," she said with a pleased giggle, wilting against him.

That soft laugh rippled through him, creating the warmest feeling he'd ever had on the inside. A maelstrom of emotions stabbed at his chest. "I'll not love you," he hissed in the curve of her throat.

She stiffened, and he cursed his damn mouth. This was hardly the thing to say to your lover when you were buried balls deep in her clenching quim. Ripples of her pleasure still ghosted over his cock.

"Afraid?" she taunted, arching and turning her head slightly to peer into his eyes.

That was the last thing he expected. "Afraid?" he hissed, annoyed yet somehow sensing she was right.

"Yes, David…are you afraid of loving me."

Defiance and a spark of something wicked stared back at him. David stared into those eyes full of longing and passion. He did not want to deny her anything but lay the world at her feet. He cursed viciously and silently because he saw tenderness and something far more complex in her eyes. He always…always walked away from a lover or an affair whenever ‘feelings' got involved.

He kissed her, his mouth bruising and almost punishing her for ripping away the safety net he'd placed between them. Without any prodding from her, he gentled his kiss, closing his eyes and tenderly cradling her face. Damn it, he was the one who had ripped away the net because he had not controlled the feelings rushing through him. He ended their kiss and withdrew from her body, using his handkerchief to clean her. David froze. In the days they had been lovers, he had always been careful to release outside her body.

Hell.

She brushed her fingers against his jawline. God, her touch felt good.

Something hesitant flickered in her eyes. "What is it, David? You've gone still."

He kissed the bridge of her nose. "Would you take a walk with me by the seaside? We could collect fossils or seashells."

Pleasure brightened the dark beauty of her eyes, and she nodded. "Yes."

Still, there was a lingering question in her gaze, but she did not push or prod, which was one of the things he admired most about her. That warm, gentle patience. It always coaxed him to speak to her in a manner he had never done with another but found solace in it. He waged a fierce battle with caution and the needs beating at him.

He mounted his horse, and instead of allowing her to ride her own, he brought her up before him. David needed to feel her close to him. He urged their horses through the thicket of his forest, heading south to where the coastline was. She leaned against him, her sigh of contentment echoing through his body. Emma Fairbanks had haunted him for over a year, and David felt she would continue to do so for his whole life. He only needed to figure out what to do about it.