Chapter 31

FOR THE SECOND TIME in as many days, William was being interrogated. Well, he guessed the first one didn’t count as Charles had already found him innocent.

Nonetheless, here he sat before the woman of his dreams, and he wished the world would swallow him whole. He just about had the confidence that Mab would no longer judge him based on his deplorable financial state, but there was certainly no amount of explanation to get him out of an accusation of murder.

Disregarding the fact that he didn’t possess the eloquence to describe his situation, even if he did, the truth was so outrageous that Mab would never believe him. He wouldn’t have believed the story if it were not for the fact that there was evidence. Evidence which was now on a carriage on its way back to his sister’s estate.

William wondered if this was Fate trying yet again to warn him away from Mab. After all, Fate had already proven the lengths it was willing to go to keep him from Mab. He’d almost died from hypothermia in a pond, nearly cracked his skull open tumbling down a rocky hillside, and now he would have to explain a convoluted murder that he’d only just found out about himself. He really ought to just call it a day and accept that Mab and he were never meant to be.

His gaze drifted up to meet hers. The orange glow from the firelight danced in her forest green eyes like wildfire. He was surprised to see no fear etching her face, nor disgust, nor accusation. Instead, her features were soft, aside from one flaming brow notched in intelligent contemplation.

To hell with Fate! I’ll have her or die trying.

“Mab,” he said softly. “I know that what you heard on the terrace must have seemed like a devious plot to murder my brother, but if you allow me to explain, Charles was in fact referring to—”

“The murder of your father,” Mab finished for him.

William opened his mouth but struggled to find his words. Eventually, he settled on, “How could you possibly have known that when I only found out this very evening?”

Mab’s lips curled into the most cunning smile. “My uncle and I would spend an admittedly unhealthy amount of time gossiping. Though only with each other,” she added, as if trying to assure him that she wasn’t a loose-lipped lady. “It was just a way to pass the time at tedious balls. Any snippet of information gathered about the ton as we made our rounds would be dissected and analysed over a nightcap. Alas, we were mostly wrong. Or we just didn’t have enough physical evidence to back up our outrageous claims, but it didn’t matter as it was just for fun. I found myself doing just as much after I overheard Charles on the terrace. Though we’ve never met, I did recognise your name.”

Though we’ve never met.

It stung to know that the most prominent moment of his adolescence, the day he recognised the love of his life, had been forgotten by her.

“I did immediately assume that Charles was referring to a plot to murder the Viscount. I needed to know if you had anything to do with the plot to murder your brother, or if Charles was simply an opportunist seeking an heir presumptive to exploit, which is why I asked you here tonight.”

“Neither are true,” William said, not hiding the pleading tone to his voice.

Mab nodded. “I have only just come to the same conclusion. I once visited my cousins when I was a child, and I recalled that Lucius was known to be a gambler and a cheat, even back then. Charles mentioned that your brother was involved with nefarious men, and from my own experience, I know exactly the outcome of dealings with those kinds of people. I assumed that his gambling has got him into some trouble, and that was what Charles was referring to. But that didn’t explain what he meant by ‘the matter of the Viscount’s untimely death’. It was an odd way to phrase it. And then I remembered that your father, the previous viscount, had indeed met an untimely death. And I wondered if, perhaps, he was suggesting that your father had been murdered.”

William’s mouth opened, but no words came out.

“And then everything just fell into place. You alluded to something that your sister had thought that you had done that was bad enough for her to estrange herself from you. And you’ve just said it has recently come to light that your brother is the one responsible. Presumably, you are talking about the murder of your father. What I haven’t figured out is why Lucius, the heir, would murder his father.”

William was simultaneously stunned, impressed, elated, baffled and in complete and utter awe.

“The only thing I can think of is that his gambling had gotten him into trouble, and he needed access to his funds early,” Mab said nonchalantly, as if she hadn’t just cracked a seemingly uncrackable case.

“You have figured out everything but how my brother murdered him.”

Mab blew out a breath, tapped a finger to her chin and said, “With his symptoms, it was bound to be poison.”

“It was, in fact. Lucius had left a bunch of autumn crocus leaves in the kitchen in the hopes they would be mistaken for wild garlic and used in my father’s dinner.”

“That would make sense,” Mab said. “They grow at the pond close to the Viscount’s estate. I picked some as a child thinking it was wild garlic but decided not to eat them as they smelled bitter. It was years later that I realised they were fatal if ingested.”

William had a profound moment of realisation that very second. It had taken a man who had spent his entire working life honing the skills of deduction months and an incredible amount of luck to solve. And yet before him stood a woman who had the imagination, cognitive ability and confidence to connect snippets of information together and come to her own conclusion, rather than just waiting to be told what she should think by a man.

Women like Mab were truly an untapped resource, and he felt privileged to see first-hand how a mind like hers worked. He felt like he should throw open the window and shout to the world just how amazing Mab was.

But first, he really ought to tell Mab herself. In one swift movement, William had moved from his seat to the floor, settling on his knees in front of Mab. As if their bodies were unconsciously in sync, her hand slipped into his outstretched one, causing Mab to suck in a breath of surprise. William brought her delicate fingers closer. Warmth flooded his body as his lips pressed against her knuckles. His body yearned for more, the need to feel her skin against him only just overpowered by his need to tell her how in awe he was of her.

“You are a wonder to behold,” he said, an unfamiliar rasp to his voice. “You have the most individual of minds. I am in complete and utter awe of you, and it’s a privilege—”

William’s proclamation was cut short when Mab’s lips collided with his. Heat pooled in his groin as her hand slipped from his, finding its way to the back of his head, her fingers entwining with his hair. Her kiss wasn’t the shy kiss of a maiden experiencing desire for the first time, but the all-consuming passion of a lover who knew what they wanted. Her soft lips opened for him, his tongue tangling with hers in matched strokes of burning desire, a need to possess and be possessed by one another.

Her fist clenched around a tuft of hair, his head falling backward as she gently took his bottom lip between her teeth and sucked hard. William didn’t think it was possible for his erection to grow any more pronounced, but it was as if Mab had set out to prove him wrong. An involuntary moan escaped him as her fingers relaxed, her teeth releasing his lip.

She settled back in her chair, her lips wet and swollen, the pupils of her eyes so dilated that only a thin band of forest green encircled them. There was a split second where neither of them moved, both offering the other the chance to come to their senses, to stop and walk away. But when it was evident that neither would, the corner of Mab’s lip twitched and she crooked a finger, beckoning him like a siren.

William had always had an issue with his height. At quite a few inches above six foot, he’d never had any second-hand clothes that fit him as a teen, and paid a premium to have clothes made for him as an adult. Not to mention that it was incredibly difficult to keep a low profile when he was head and shoulders above every other man in the room, Aunt áine’s guests notwithstanding. But in that moment, he’d never been happier about his height. As Mab’s legs slid open, William was able to remain on his knees as he leaned in, the perfect height to cover her body with his, pinning her to the armchair. His lips once more connected with hers. The heat of her core burned through the thin fabric of her nightdress as she wrapped a bare leg around his waist. His hand found its way between the plush cushions and the small of her back, the coolness of something metal brushing against his fingers.

Mab broke their kiss, her eyes flying open as a small yip! issued from her. Her fingers darted behind her, brushing against his. A moment later, she pulled an ornate pistol from between the cushions, a sheepish grin on her face as she placed it on the side table .

A sensible man would ask his lover why she had such a lethal weapon about her person, but William had no sense left at that point.

His lips found their way to her cheek, his tongue darting out to trace the angle of her jaw, and to her earlobe. He took her lobe between his lips and sucked hard, allowing the tip of his tongue to flick over it, soft and slow for the first couple of flicks, followed by a single hard flick. He hoped she was imagining that her earlobe was the little bundle of nerves that lay between her legs, for he certainly was.

Mab let out a moan, the muscles in the leg she had wrapped around his waist contracting, pulling her core closer to him.

God, he wanted nothing more than to sheath himself inside her, to feel that heat envelop him. But despite the primitive, desperate need for his body to claim hers, what little blood his brain still retained told him “Not just yet”. Every single image he’d once conjured of his love, the real Mab had transcended in every possible way, and he had no doubt that the joining of their bodies would be the same. The problem was that William knew that his soul, which was already yearning for her, would be ruined for good if their bodies joined but Mab decided that she would not marry him. There was a saying that it was better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

To hell with that! William thought.

Perhaps it was selfish of him, a poor bid to protect the very last modicum of dignity he had left, but in this, he would rather safeguard his vulnerable heart. He was madly in love with Mab. But he would have her love returned to him, or nothing at all. For if he gave himself wholly to Mab, it wasn’t just their bodies that would join. His soul would be forever seeking hers. And if this was only a moment of lust on her part ... William would rather nurse a bruised soul than attempt to revive a broken one.

But while he wasn’t prepared to give himself fully to her without knowing if it was love or lust on her part, he had to do something to quell the craving searing in his blood.

He pressed his lips to the crook of her neck, his free hand grasping hold of her delicate ankle, lifting her leg high enough that he could hook it over his shoulder. The silk of her nightdress rippled as it glided down her thigh, exposing her thatch of fiery hair. His hands moved purposefully slow down the back of her thigh, her skin soft and supple under the callused pads of his hands. A moan escaped his lips as his fingers met the evidence of her arousal. She was slick for him, her body ready to be filled. His fingers glided through her folds, circling her entrance before moving higher.

Her nub was hard as he dragged the length of his slick finger slowly over it, her body bucking beneath him. He adored the way her body responded to his touch, and as he placed his finger against her entrance, a fresh wave of arousal greeted him. The leg around his waist clenched, a plea for him to continue, which fell on deaf ears.

William wasn’t a cruel man. But he certainly was a tease. And the only thing in this moment he desired more than sheathing himself to the hilt inside the woman of his dreams was to hear her beg for his touch.

But his Mab was a stubborn woman, and he had an inkling that she’d never begged for anything in her life. William was determined to change that. He would have her beg him tonight to use his fingers to fill her, and he would leave her thinking that if that was what he could do with his fingers, what realms of pleasure awaited her when he gave himself completely to her.

He wanted that thought to plague her every waking moment until they came together again, like she had plagued his dreams for the last fifteen years. Although William certainly wouldn’t be cruel enough to leave her wanting for that long. Until the soiree tomorrow evening would be a just enough punishment.

That was, of course, if she would marry him.

His fingers swirled at her entrance, and the urge to plunge into her hot well was proving difficult to resist. He ran his thumb over the length of his finger, gathering some of her arousal, before gliding it over her swollen nub.

“ God ,” Mab mumbled as her head rolled back, her hand once more finding its way into William’s hair. It wasn’t God’s name that William wanted to hear, though. And he wouldn’t give in until it was his name on her lips.

William’s head moved lower; his lips glided over the silk of her nightdress until he felt a peeked nipple graze his bottom lip. He latched on, sucking her silk-clad breast into his mouth, his tongue taking it in turns to circle her nipple before flicking it.

“ Jesus ,” Mab panted, pushing his head into her chest as he suckled harder.

Again, not the name he was looking for.

As William continued to tease her nipple, he bent his finger, allowing the joint to push slightly into her as his thumb began to circle her clit. Mab’s breathing became heavy as his thumb continued to sweep, just out of reach of the most sensitive nerve endings. A series of soft moans filled the air around them, and Mab shuffled in an attempt to direct William’s thumb to the exact place she needed it to be.

A fissure appeared in his resolve, and he allowed his thumb to sweep over her swollen nub. A callus catching on the thin hood of her clitoris had her bucking beneath him.

“William!” she cried as she ground her core onto the joint of his fingers. “I need more.”

His name on her lips had him pulling his fingers from her. Mab only managed the slightest exhale of disappointment before he plunged a finger inside her, her walls clenching as he returned his thumb to her clitoris.

The leg across his shoulder quivered as he stroked his finger slowly in and out of her, his name the only coherent word issued amongst a sea of gibberish as her eyes rolled back in her head, her back arching to the point that he lost his grip on her nipple .

Mab’s fingers grasped the armrest as his hand found its way under her gown, the silk of her dress bunched and leaving her backside bare. His fingers dug into her flesh as he repositioned himself over her, his lips crashing into hers in a devouring kiss. His britches grazed against the front rail of the armchair, his erection pressing into the plush cushion between her spread legs.

William allowed his body to take over – he hadn’t much choice as he was so lost in the moment. His tongue ran over the roof of her mouth before entangling once more with hers. His hips thrust against the chair, the friction of his length against cotton leaving no doubt that he would find his release in his britches. Each thrust of his hips matched the stroke of his fingers inside Mab. Her nails clawed at his back as her walls tightened around him.

She finally broke the kiss, his name on her lips as her body tensed, her walls pulsing around his fingers as her climax broke. He didn’t take long to follow; his release had him seeing stars as his hot seed hit the inside of his britches.

His body felt like it was on fire, somehow both as heavy as lead and as light as air as wave after blissful wave flooded him. It wasn’t until Mab’s legs unclenched from around him, and her body went limp beneath him, that he finally had enough sense to begin moving his limbs. She clenched around him one more time as he removed his fingers.

He couldn’t resist a taste of her, and Mab’s eyes widened in surprise as he traced his tongue up the length of his slick finger. She tasted divine, a combination of subtle musk and nectar, William thought. And it was certainly a taste he wouldn’t be getting out of his mind anytime soon.

Mab’s eyes darkened as she watched him, and he might have manoeuvred his tongue over his fingers in a slightly more erotic manner than was required. It was worth it, though, to see the way she bit her lip, her hips undulating.