Scandalous Miss Brightwells [Book 1-4]

“And loving Jack above all is to entirely misrepresent what love is. Oh yes, that’s just perfect.” He’d found her nipple, and the warmth of his palm as he stroked her breast, in between rolling her nipple around his palm, caused an utterly delicious warmth to travel up her legs all the way to her groin. She forced herself to blink open her eyes so she could read his expression. “I love Jack with a mother’s fierce protective instinct. You’ll feel that when you have children of your own, I hope, Rufus.”

“Of our own, Eliza.”

She liked the fact he suddenly looked so happy at the prospect. “Children of our own? Oh yes, that’s a perfectly wonderful sounding idea,” she said on a sigh, that was both contemplative at what he’d said, but tinged with a growing bodily appreciation of what he was doing, ending on a squeak as he put his mouth to her breast and began to suckle. She put out her hands intending to wrap them round his back, and along the way encountered his very large manhood as he’d now caged her body with his own.

Wrapping her hand around him, she murmured, “You really are the perfect gentleman and my utter ideal of the manliest man, too, Rufus. Ever since I fell in love with you literally two seconds before I found myself face to face with Jack, I thought you the kindest, most honourable of gentlemen. And I’m so glad you want to have children with me.” Increasing the pressure of her hand at the same time as wriggling and arching a little to meet him, she added, “Can you please ask me that question again. Starting from the beginning, and properly. You know, the question that comes before the talk about having children.”

He laughed, raising his face to look at her. “Oh my goodness, Eliza, you are quite delightful! I didn’t know you had such a playful side when I was perfectly happy to be in love with you for all your other good qualities.” Clearing his voice, he squeezed his eyes closed, briefly, as if enduring a great test, then said, “Just for a second, though, would you mind not putting so much pressure on me down there. I want to gather my thoughts and say this as you’d want to hear it.”

“As I want to hear it? But I want you to say it as you want to say it.”

“Yes, but it’s the same thing.” He swooped to kiss her briefly on the lips, then rose above her so he could look her in the eye once more. “You’ll want to remember the words I use to tell you how much adore you, and how being with you makes me feel complete for the first time in my life. I need to have my wits about me, not addled by the utterly sinfully and wickedly pleasure I’m feeling right now.”

“I don’t mind if your wits are addled, or if mine are, either. This truly is the most sinfully wicked pleasure I’ve felt in my life. You can move your hand down a bit while you’re telling me.”

“You mean here? Oh, my, Eliza, you really are feeling the same as me.”

Eliza gasped and hunched her shoulders as he felt the slick desire between her legs. Shivers of anticipation ran through her, and she moaned softly as he began to stroke her.

“That is quite the most beautiful sensation, and you are quite the most beautiful man,” she whispered.

“Eliza, before I go any further, I want to know—will you marry me?” His voice was strained. “I promise to ask you again on bended knee in the conservatory. In fact, I was going to do that tomorrow morning so that it would all be beautiful for you and conventional, and then we could emerge, beaming, with you on my arm, while Lady Fenton and Lady Quamby clapped and looked tearful, and exclaimed that it was only due to their intervention that finally you’d accepted my proposal.”

Eliza had increased the pressure on his manhood as he spoke, and was now massaging it in a way that was clearly quite distracting for him. As for her, she was drowning in bliss.

“A perfect idea!” she whispered, wriggling some more, then arching, and finally wrapping her legs around his waist. “My answer is an unqualified yes in this instance.” She was vaguely aware of how addled her own wits were becoming as she tried to push out the words before pure pleasure took over. Taking a few quick breaths and feeling the heat build within her, she gasped, “Yes! We’ll pretend for everyone else that you’re making your proposal in just the gentlemanly fashion everyone would expect. That sounds just perfect, don’t you think?”

“Just perfect,” he managed as he breached her entrance on a groan of pure satisfaction, moving his head down to meet her lips. “Like you.”

Epilogue

Two years later

Dawn was breaking, and the night had been a long one. At first, Eliza’s labour had progressed well, but from midnight, one complication, then another, had soured what was supposed to be a gloriously happy event

for their little family.

Rufus stopped his pacing to stare through the window at the lovely garden outside. It was summer, and Eliza had chosen to give birth in the room next door. It’s where she’d first slept when she arrived at his house, nearly two years before.

“Uncle?” The door opened and Jack’s little face appeared, crumpled with sleep and concern. “Is everything going to be all right, Uncle?” He padded across the room, dragging the quilt he had wrapped around his shoulders, and stood next to Rufus to stare across the dew-covered lawn, glistening in the breaking dawn.

“Your Aunt Eliza should be enjoying this view right now, with the new baby,” Rufus murmured, as he ruffled the boy’s soft curls. Despite his terrible fears, he had to be calm.

Jack yawned. “I thought the baby would be here by now. I listened all night for the knock. Nurse Mabel said you’d find it under the mulberry tree over there, but it’s too cold out for a baby. Don’t worry, Uncle. It’s just late.” He gave another great yawn as he rested his head against Rufus’s side and Rufus felt a surge of affection for this joyful, clever child who’d brought Eliza such happiness and him a greater appreciation of life’s important nuances. Nothing could ever be regarded in terms of black and white.

“Thank you for the reassurance, Jack. You’re quite right, of course,” he said, smiling down at the child. “But you should go to bed, now.”

Jack yawned again.“I’d really like to answer the door, if I might. I’ve got so much to show my new cousin. Did you order a boy or a girl? Nurse said you weren’t going to tell anyone. She said surprises are nice. Personally, I’m not too fond of surprises, but I’ll be happy whether it’s a girl or a boy.”

“Easy to please, aren’t you, Jack?” Despite his growing concern for Eliza, Rufus found himself smiling again. Jack did that to a person, he’d discovered. The boy was a delight to have around, and there’d been no raised eyebrows when he’d been introduced into the household as his ward, even though he’d spoken like an urchin. The assumption was, of course, that Jack was the result of one of Rufus’s liaisons, and being the honourable fellow Rufus was, he’d taken responsibility. His sisters had viewed Eliza in an even rosier light as they’d remarked upon how accepting she was. They believed she must love Rufus a great deal to treat Jack as her own, engaging a highly recommended tutor and ensuring the child was as finely dressed as any of the gentleman’s sons with whom she seemed to want him to associate.

Rufus had been very happy at the way events had turned out.

Not now, though. Not with tonight’s unfolding drama that made his gut churn and only served to highlight how essential Eliza was to his happiness.

“Mr Patmore!” The urgency of the midwife’s voice cut through the silence and Rufus’s reflections.

“I think you should go back to your room, Jack,” Rufus said, trying to hide his fear. “I’ll let you know if—when—our little visitor arrives.” He patted the boy on the back, and gently propelled him towards the door as he hurried towards the anxious-looking woman.