An Earl Out of Time (Time Into Time)

An orchestra was playing from a raised structure in a central stand and people were dancing in front of us. Waiters moved through the throng with loaded trays held high on one hand or supported on their shoulders and small groups and couples were wandering off into the tree-lined walks behind.

‘Dine, dance or stroll?’ Lucian asked.

‘I can’t dance these dances,’ I whispered with one eye on Sir Clement.

‘Of course.’ He turned his head so his face was close to mine and brushed a fleeting kiss across my cheek. ‘And supper can wait a little, I think.’ He snapped his fingers at a passing waiter and ordered wine. ‘We will watch for a while then order supper and take a walk while it is prepared, if that appeals?’

It did, very much, and the other men seemed happy with the suggestion too. People began to come up to the box to talk and I was soon introduced to more new faces than I could hope to remember. Lucian topped up my wine glass to the point where I lost all my nervousness about doing or saying the wrong thing, little almond biscuits appeared from somewhere and a rather drunk buck reeled over and tried to persuade me to dance with him until all three of my escort stood up as one and he backed off.

Even Sir Clement seemed to be enjoying himself, joining in when James began to sing along to the tune the band was playing.

‘Look.’ I pointed to the other side of the oval space that the boxes surrounded. ‘Lord Welney.’

James leaned over and passed me a pair of opera glasses on a stick. ‘Who is he with?’

‘An extraordinarily respectable-looking couple and three young ladies.’ I gave the glasses to Lucian, who used them and handed them along.

‘No-one I know. Clem?’

‘Man called Tanner, a City merchant with a lot of money,’ Sir Clement said after a glance through the lens. ‘He is after a title for one of his girls and a foot in the door in Society. Looks as though Welney has found his banker, provided he behaves himself until the fish is landed.’

The glasses had worked their way back down to me again. ‘Mr Tanner looks as though he has more sense than to make over a lot of money with no strings attached. I’ll bet he will keep Welney on a short leash.’

‘This puts Welney absolutely in the clear, I would say,’ James observed. ‘He would not try risky abductions if he had this fish on the line.’

‘Quite.’ Sir Clement was plunging into gloom again. ‘More negative information.’

‘Shall we have th

at stroll?’ I suggested, to break into his mood.

Lucian ordered supper in an hour and we left the box. James steered Sir Clement towards a building on the edge of the dance area saying something about Gresham’s new mistress that I guessed I was not supposed to overhear and Lucian tucked my hand into the crook of his arm and made for the little pathways.

Probably, in daylight, the wooded area would seem to be merely a large and tangled shrubbery, but at night, lit only by scattered hanging lanterns, which thinned out as paths moved away from the main walks, it was fairyland.

Couples appeared and disappeared, there were giggles and low, sensual laughter and Lucian turned down a path that was just wide enough for us to walk side by side. I could hear the tinkle of water and then we were in a little glade with a mossy pool in the centre and a fountain trickling over rocks.

Around the edge were three empty benches set into arbours and Lucian went to one. ‘Shall we sit a while?’

It felt daring and slightly wicked to be alone together, unchaperoned by even Garrick, and I realised just how much I had become immersed in this world, this time.

I turned towards Lucian but I could not see more than the pale oval of his face. ‘I can’t see you,’ I murmured, the atmosphere making me want to whisper.

‘Does that frighten you?’

‘No, because I know it is you, even if you had not spoken. I know the scent of you now. That smoky, citrus-ey cologne, whatever it is that Garrick uses on your neck cloths, your soap. Your skin.’ Clean male skin, slightly musky, entirely arousing.

Lucian made a sound that was almost a growl, deep in his throat, and kissed me.

He wanted more than kisses. So did I. When he pulled me onto his lap just how much he wanted me became very evident. Whether the part of my brain that was confused and conflicted about this entire situation was going to let us have what we both desired, remained to be seen. But here, now, I was going to kiss this man and probably a deal more.

He nuzzled down my neck, around my throat and then licked deep into my cleavage, bending me back over his arm to give himself access. His tongue slid along, under the edge of my neckline, found my nipples and the next thing I knew my breasts were free of the gown and its tiny apology for a bodice.

Lucian’s mouth on me was electrifying. I pushed up against it and made no attempt to struggle as his free hand slid up my leg, pushing my skirts with it. The erotic impact of his hand on the bare skin of my thigh above the garter was staggering. I was beginning to grasp the attraction of stockings and corsets but I was utterly frustrated by his clothing. His chest was enclosed by a snug-fitting waistcoat, his coat was too tight to push off his shoulders, I was thwarted by the lack of a fly to unzip and I couldn’t work out how to open the falls of his evening breeches.

And I wanted to open them because the thin fabric was doing absolutely nothing to hide the magnificence of what was inside. I wriggled and growled and Lucian laughed against my breast.

‘Later, let me make love to you now.’ And his hand finished its upwards journey and homed in with absolute assurance on its target and proceeded to reduce me to jelly, then to a squirming, panting knot of tension and then lit fireworks that would surely rival whatever was happening later that night.