Chapter Nine

December 19, 1818

Hyde Park

Mayfair

Cornelius remained silent as he slowly walked with Samantha through the park on one of the popular bridle paths. Their pace didn’t bother him; many of his friends had injuries and infirmaries, but they were widely accepted despite those things.

Because of the flurries of snow swirling in the air, the area wasn’t all that crowded, which afforded them a bit more privacy in order to converse without being overheard. Aside from a few pleasantries exchanged after he’d fetched her from her townhouse, neither of them had said much. Perhaps it was safer in their thoughts. He couldn’t say.

“Thank you for bringing me out here again. I adore the park.” Samantha’s breath clouded about her head in the cold. “While I’m here, I can forget about life’s ugliness for a time. There is also such beauty here that one sometimes forgets about when they’re rushing about their daily lives.”

Fair point.

“I’ll wager I’d accompany you anywhere in Town you’d like to go if it would make you smile like that again.” Surely, he wasn’t… flirting with her? He didn’t need a woman in his life. That had already been established, hadn’t it?

She glanced sharply at him. “Smile like what?”

“As if you’ve never seen the world around you before, and everything you do see delights you.” He patted her hand. “In many ways, I would give anything to be either that na?ve again or as uncaring.”

“It is neither of those things, Lord Timelbury.”

Cornelius frowned. “What does that mean?”

With a sigh, she stopped him on the path. “A person can’t be na?ve in this life any longer, I think. Reality is a horrible task master, but that doesn’t mean someone can’t look for the good in things, seek out the light as it were.” Emotions clouded her blue eyes, and the predominant one was sadness. “Does that mean terrible or sad things won’t happen? Of course not. But it does mean they’ll have less of a chance of hurting us too deeply or worse, taking away our chances of seeing that good.”

Please teach me how to change my thinking.

“That is exactly what you embody. The sense of happiness.” Then he gasped. “The spirit of Christmastide.” Was she having him on? Except the longer he peered into her eyes and saw nothing except honesty tinged with sadness staring back at him, the more he knew she could never lie.

Not to him and not to anyone.

“I don’t know about that.” But the pleasure in her expression was unmistakable.

“I haven’t known you that long, but you’re different than the rest.”

“The rest of what?” When she tried to remove her hand from his arm, he put his other hand over hers and prevented that from happening.

“Women.” From his gut, he knew beyond every doubt that she didn’t take that missing bracelet. I was wrong. He heaved out a breath. “I think I have become too jaded from life, and I don’t trust easily any longer.” Certainly, he’d judged her on what his previous fiancée had done to him, and that wasn’t fair.

“It is never too late to make a change, Cornelius, no matter how small.” As she tipped her head up to gaze into his face, and the snowflakes dotted her face and bonnet, he slowly slipped beneath her spell.

Was she even aware of the power she could wield?

“So I am coming to learn.” Damn it all, why did he want to kiss her? Shifting slightly, he took one of her hands and cupped her cheek with the other. Since there was no one around, he didn’t feel that stretching propriety was that grave of a sin. “Will you help me?”

“Are you asking out of genuine interest or are you asking in a further bid to try gain access to my life because of the missing bracelet?”

Heat sneaked up the back of his neck. “I don’t believe you stole the bracelet.” As he spoke, he glided his gloved thumb along her bottom lip. “Will you help me try to find it?” With each word, he brought his head closer and closer to hers until their lips nearly touched.

Before he could claim his fiancée’s lips, someone slammed into him, knocking him to the cold, hard ground. Her scream echoed in his ears as he scrambled to his feet in time to see the assailant yank her arm in an attempt to drag her along the path. Damn if it wasn’t the same man who’d gotten off a few punches on him a few days ago.

“Samantha!” In that one moment, another truth was made startingly clear—their engagement might be false, but there was no reason why they couldn’t both enjoy the hell out of it while they were together.

As he recovered his wits, Cornelius sprang at his attacker. “Take your foul hands off her this instant or I’ll rip your arm off and beat you with it.” He wrenched him away from Samantha and quickly threw a punch that caught the other man in the chin. “She isn’t part of this.”

“That doesn’t matter,” the other man said while he delivered a punch to Cornelius’ left cheek. “Lady Stover requires a word with Miss Marchington.”

Ignoring the pain radiating from his face, Cornelius fought back with a sharp right hook that caught the other man squarely in the breadbasket. When the attacker went stumbling backward, he pounced again, for this man needed to bring a message to the damned countess. He grabbed onto the man’s lapels and then threw him against the wide trunk of an oak tree, pinning him there with another punch to his jaw.

“You tell Lady Stover that Lord Timelbury is damned tired of her interference. She has no power or control over my life, and she absolutely has no access to Miss Marchington.”

“None of that is up to you.” With a growl, the man pushed off the tree, lashed out with a fist, and caught Cornelius in the temple.

Darkness wavered at the edges of his vision as he fell to his knees. The same panicky feeling welled in his chest that usually heralded an episode of day terrors, but he glanced to the side where Samantha stood. Somehow, somewhere, she’d procured a large fallen branch, and from all intents she meant to defend herself with it. The distraction was enough to stave off being lost into a memory.

For the moment.

The man kicked Cornelius in the ribs. “This isn’t over. Your reckoning with Lady Stover will come sooner rather than later.” Then he skirted around him and went toward Samantha.

But the dear woman took a swing at him with the branch. It connected on the man’s shoulder with a dull thud. Easily, he wrenched the branch away from her hand, but by that time, she’d run from him and hovered at Cornelius’ side.

“Are you all right?” With gentle hands, she assisted him to his feet. “Who was that man?” When he didn’t answer, she gasped. “He was the same one who attacked you the other day.” It wasn’t a question.

Damn, but she was cleaver. “It was.” Seemingly everywhere hurt on his body, even looking at her. “Let’s go.” After that, he could collapse without needing to be strong for her.

“To your house?” She slipped an arm about his waist, and he threw an arm about her shoulders.

“God, no. Mama has come for a visit. No doubt she’s hoped to ask me more questions about you.”

Samantha frowned. “Do you want to come home with me? I’ll order tea. You can put your feet up while I try to soothe your aches.”

“Truth to tell, that sounds like heaven.”

“Good.” She tightened her hold on him. “No doubt my father will be napping at this time of day, and since it’s Saturday, that means the housekeeper is out at market.” The soothing quality of her voice did much to make him forget his bruises and cuts. “It is also when Niles goes into the shopping district on errands.”

“I’m glad, for I’m not inclined for conversation or gawking.”

Once in the carriage, he closed his eyes and slumped on the bench while Samantha sat beside him with a hand on his arm. He rather appreciated her presence.

The trip to Portman Square didn’t take very long, and soon enough she settled him in a parlor at the rear of the house. She left him, then, no doubt to order tea and supplies as well as check on her father. Just as he was about to fall into a doze, she returned.

“You poor thing.” Compassion lit her gaze as she gave him a tight smile and sat beside him on the low sofa.

“It looks worse than it is.” When his attempt at a joke fell flat, he sighed. “Are you harmed? When that man tried to take you, I went a bit primal.”

“So I saw. It was quite… intense.” A blush stained her cheeks. “As for me, no I’m not hurt, just frightened.” She brushed a shock of hair from his forehead. “What about you? I honestly thought you’d be lost to a nightmare after that attack.”

“I nearly was.”

One of her eyebrows rose. “What kept you from fully going there?”

“I don’t know.” When he shrugged, pain went through his shoulders. “You, I suppose.”

“What?”

Conversation broke off when a footman brought a tea tray into the room. After he set it on a low table, he exited the room as quickly as he entered it. One glance at the silver tea service showed a bowl of water along with a folded stack of rags and a pot of salve.

Cornelius blew out a breath. “You made the difference, Samantha. Knowing I needed to protect you. This mess is my fault and that of the Rogue’s Arcade. You don’t deserve any of it, yet here you are, mired in danger with me.”

“Do stop, Timelbury.” She waved a hand in dismissal. “I can take care of myself.”

“Oh, of that I have no doubt.” An image of her wielding that tree branch sprang into his mind, and when he grinned, a groan escaped, for it hurt to activate the muscles of his cheeks. “Suffice it to say, now you don’t need to because you have me. We’ll fight together.”

And he truly meant that. For the first time in years, he had a mission, a purpose again, and that made all the difference.

A sigh escaped her. “For how long will I have you with me, though?” She lowered her voice. “This isn’t a true engagement, and you know it. Just one of convenience if you didn’t wish to call it baldly a sham.” The longing he’d glimpsed in her eyes that first day he’d met her had returned, and oddly, the same emotion echoed deep within his soul.

“Truth to tell, I don’t know what I want to call what it is between us.”

“Oh?” Was that… hope in her eyes?

“Yes.” Awareness for her rushed through him in a tingling, heated wave. “It has been rather lovely having a purpose again.”

For long moments, she rested her gaze on him as emotions flitted over her face. Then she swallowed and the delicate tendons of her throat worked. “Uh, you should go home, Cornelius. Unless you want me to clean and tend to your wounds?” That odd lilt in her voice gave him pause.

He snorted, for it was a touch amusing. “You would do that for me?”

“I am not a monster. You were hurt defending me.” She gestured to the tray. “And I already ordered the supplies.”

“Ah. I suppose I’d appear ungrateful if I didn’t submit to your ministrations.”

“Indeed.” There was a particular look in her eye he didn’t quite trust. “I have never had anyone defend me against an attacker before.” She took his right hand and lifted it her lips, kissed the busted, bruised knuckles. “I never knew how raw it was to watch two men fight each other. You have quite the form.”

“Is that right?” He could hardly concentrate on her words when the soft flit of her lips on his skin proved quite the distraction.

“It is, but the moment you went to your knees, I knew rage liked I’d never felt before. All commonsense left me, and I took grave exception to that man beating you.” She scooted closer to him on the sofa and kissed his chin where he’d taken a hit. “So I grabbed whatever I could use for a weapon and wanted to knock him out.” When she then kissed his temple, the hold on his control began to slip.

“I’m glad I wasn’t alone this time.” Unable to keep his hands to himself, he framed her face with his palms. “You have proved yourself different again and again, and because of that, I…” Unable to finish his thoughts when he couldn’t order them himself, Cornelius leaned toward her, for he wanted her for more than just tending to his wounds.

With a soft growl, he brought his lips crashing against hers as he’d wanted to do in Hyde Park. When a tiny moan of apparent approval escaped her, he tugged her into an embrace, settled her more comfortably into his arms, and set out to kiss her beyond senseless. There was something about the woman he couldn’t have enough of, something that he was compelled to explore, and for the moment, he didn’t care why.

Far too quickly, the kisses turned heated. He traced the seam of her lips, and when she opened for him, he chased her tongue with his. As they thrust and parried in a quest for that heated connection, blood surged through his member, tightening it.

Damn, but they would get up to wicked scandal if they weren’t careful. Was that somewhere he wanted to go with her?

Wrenching away, Cornelius peered into her eyes, saw the same desire there that was flooding his system. “Bid me nay, Samantha, and I’ll leave you untouched.” For she was an innocent and should remain that way for the man she would eventually marry. “But I want you, right here, right now, if you were curious.”

“There is nothing stopping you,” she said in a low voice. “And since I am curious about a good many things, I don’t see why I can’t explore at least some of them with you. After all, are we not engaged?”

If there hadn’t been that subtle suggestion in her dulcet tone, if she hadn’t slightly quirked a finely arched eyebrow upward, if she hadn’t briefly held her bottom lip between her teeth like a skilled courtesan, he would have been fine. He could have kissed her again, taken tea with her, and then walked away like a gentleman, but she had done all those things, and together they had the power to separate him from his sanity.

“Ah, Samantha.” Leaning forward, he brushed his lips over hers then he sprang from the sofa.

“Where are you going?” Disappointment threaded through her voice as she gained her feet while he crossed the room.

“Closing the door. This meeting is not one I wish to see interrupted or witnessed.” So saying, as soon as he shut the wooden panel, he made certain it was locked before turning back to her. “Are you quite certain you wish to continue?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “Very.” Though worry clouded the blue depths of her eyes, she held out a hand to him.

Of course nerves would beset her; she was an innocent, but knowing he would be the first man to show her carnal play had another wave of awareness skittering through his veins, enough that he forgot his aches and pains. Unable to resist her, he took her once more into his embrace, and kissed her so forcefully they crashed against the wall beside the door, and turning her, he had her snugly trapped between him and the wall.

And damn if she didn’t feel good—right—in his arms, as if she alone could settle the demons within him and quiet his fears. It was heady stuff indeed.

Cornelius kissed her, drank from her again and again, dragged his lips along the silky side of her throat while she clung to his shoulders. When she pressed her lips beneath the underside of his jaw, his breath caught. Had he been enchanted or was he simply mad? Too far gone to give thought to the consequences, he yanked down the simple bodice of her dress, worked to free her breasts from the layers of fabric beneath, and when the perfect globes were finally bared, he cupped one while taking the nipple of the other into his mouth.

“I have wanted to see these since yesterday.”

“Oh.” A shuddering sigh escaped her. She arched her back, putting herself more securely into his care. “Cornelius, I…” Her words were lost to a moan as he pleasured those pebbled tips with tongue and teeth and fingers.

No, she wouldn’t soon forget him, and there was some comfort there. Never had he wished to live on in someone’s memories… until he’d met her. “I need more of you,” he whispered against the crook of her shoulder as he slid a hand down her side and then gathered handfuls of her skirting.

“I haven’t tried to beg off yet,” she responded in an equally soft and throaty voice.

He growled and kissed her again, shared breath with her, wanted to show his possession so would know that no other man could have her, yet in this engagement, this sham, he didn’t really have a claim to either. Shoving the thought away, he bunched her skirts between them, then he eased his hands beneath the layers of fabric to clutch her buttocks. A surprised squeal came from her, and the sound made him grin. Oh, she was an innocent, but tempting, indeed, and he couldn’t wait to show her, teach her… everything.

“Tell me you want me, for I won’t have you crying foul that I took you against your will.” Already, his prick pulsed with pain-tipped pleasure. He’d explode soon and embarrass himself if she declined.

But she gazed up at him with passion-drugged eyes and kiss-swollen lips, and he knew . The same need etched upon her features fired through his blood, and he stupidly lost a tiny piece of his heart to her in that moment, and that was something he’d not thought possible again.

“I want you, Cornelius. Show me what it’s like to have a man desire me so much he can’t control himself. Let me experience what other women take for granted. Show me what I could have had all along if my life had been different… If I wasn’t too unwanted to be chosen.”

Well, damn.