The Dangerous Mr. Ryder

at. Dare she say them? Once said, they could never be unsaid.

But he did not ask. Of course, he did not want her to say it. Eva felt her heart sink, all the warmth his presence had surrounded her with shrank away. Why, with her handprint on his face, would Jack want her explanations?

‘Aren’t you going to ask me why I am here?’ The deep, amused voice did not sound like the angry man she had left at the masquerade.

‘I assume you were driven here by the storm.’

‘As it happens, I was heading for this place. Eva, has it not struck you as rather strange that I am here at all?’

‘Oh.’ She stared at him. ‘Of course. I was thinking so much about you it never occurred to me. You should be in London!’

‘I should be where you are,’ he said gently, taking her hand and pulling her to him. ‘I wanted to spend one night here before going on to the castle. One night to remember the first one, one night to get my speech in order.’

‘Speech?’ She was feeling stupid, numb, Somewhere a voice was whispering that this was going to be all right, but she dare not heed it.

‘The one where I fall to one knee and kiss your hand.’ He knelt in front of her and lifted her hand to his lips with his cold, damp one. ‘The one where I tell you I love you and ask you to marry me.’ He waited patiently, his lips curving into a smile against her knuckles.

‘But you said…’ She stumbled to a halt, gazing down on the bent head, the otter-sleek wet hair, the vulnerable, exposed nape. ‘You love me?’

‘I love you. I should have told you then, in London. Instead I said a number of stupid, angry things. Eva, I let my pride get in the way of how I feel about you. I reacted without thinking about how we could make this work, and I know we can.’

‘And I did not even think about how it needed to be made to work. I did not think about compromise, I just wanted you in my life. My old life, as though I could uproot you, demand that you fit into the court at Maubourg.’

‘We need to invent a new life.’

‘Oh, yes.’ A new life, with Jack. Who loved her.

‘There was an important thing you had to say to me,’ he prompted.

‘I have never said it to any man before.’ Eva tugged at his hands until he rose and stood very close, looking down at her. Her heart was banging against her ribs. She had to explain that this was not an easy thing, a thing she had given before. She searched for the words. ‘Louis did not expect me to love him, and although I respected him very much, I never felt anything more for him than that. But I want to say those words to you, and for you to know how important they are for me.’

‘Which is why it is hard to say.’ Jack nodded. ‘I understand. If it were not important, it would be easy, that is how I felt. I have never said those words, either.’

‘I love you.’ Eva put one hand on his shoulder and lifted the other against the bruises on his cheek. His skin was stubbled and cold, but she felt as though she was warm right through from that one touch. ‘I love you with all my heart, and I wish very much to marry you.’ And then it was suddenly easy to say. ‘I love you, I love you, I lo—Jack!’ He swept her up in his arms again and carried her to the bed. She stared up at him from the soft white quilt. ‘Jack, you must get warm, you are soaked through.’

‘I intend to get warm, very soon.’ He had discarded his neckcloth, his numb fingers were fumbling the buttons on his shirt; she knelt up on the bed to help. He tossed it aside and she found that her hand was pressed flat against the front of his breeches, against the only hot part of him. ‘Just as soon as I get these off.’ He moved her hands away and unfastened the fall, pushing them off so he stood naked and magnificent and completely unashamed in front of her, showing her just how much he wanted her. ‘There. Now you can warm me up.’

‘Dry your hair first,’ Eva said shakily, half-convinced she had fallen asleep in front of the parlour fire and was dreaming this.

‘Undress.’ Impatient, Jack reached for a towel and began to rub his hair, his eyes never leaving her.

There was no disobeying him, there never was. Eva slid off the bed and began to unbutton her gown, heeling off her slippers. She should undress slowly, she thought, tease him, but she was too impatient. Her fingers moved faster and faster, pulling at her petticoats, yanking at her corset strings, fumbling with her garters until she was naked.

Jack tossed the wet towel on to the tumbled heap of her clothes and turned to sit on the bed, pulling her towards him until she was standing between his legs.

‘Now then, your Serene Highness, how do you propose going about this?’

‘Like this.’ Eva put her hands on his shoulders for balance and climbed up so she was kneeling on the edge of the bed, straddling the narrow hips, her thighs pressed tight against his flanks, the heat of her tantalising, just above the thrusting erection. She wriggled, seeking just the right angle, making him gasp and clutch her waist, then she slid down in one hard movement to take him, all of him, possessing and possessed.

Eye to eye they were still, her breasts pressed against him, his barely controlled, panting breath fretting their nipples together into an almost unbearable friction. Then she leaned her weight in, feeling the inner muscles gripping and holding the whole hot wonderful length of him as they fell in a tangle of limbs, back on to the bed.

Jack rolled her, his voice a growl, his mouth everywhere, tasting and licking and kissing as though to reclaim every inch of her. ‘I love you,’ he gasped in her ear, ‘I love you.’

‘I love you,’ she answered, only to find his kiss swallowing the words as his mouth sealed over hers, drawing the breath and the soul out of her body. He drove into her, harder, deeper than she had thought possible, and began to move, driving her wild, her body arching under his, her legs curled round his hips, her heels locked, urging his taut buttocks down.

‘I love you.’ Which of them spoke? She did not know, only that the world was turning into black velvet night, that she was spinning in space, that the pleasure flooding her body was his gift to her, just as she gave him all the love in her heart as he reared up, taut with ecstasy above her, gasped her name and collapsed into her embrace, their bodies still locked in delight.

Jack was conscious of determined hands dragging the covers up over his body, opened one eye and found he was burrowed comfortably into Eva’s bosom. Bliss. He extended his tongue and touched one pink nipple and was rewarded by a squeak of outrage and a giggle. He shifted his position and began to give the stiffening peak serious attention.