Chapter 9
Will couldn’t believe what had just happened. Erva had kissed him. Passionately! And like an idiot he’d sat there as a statue would. When she’d distanced herself from him at the banquet at the mentioning of Emma and Lydia, he’d been sure she’d thought him a cad of a man. But that kiss...Lord, it would wake the dead.
That was exactly what he had been. Dead inside.
God, he was the Sleeping Beauty, wasn’t he? He wanted to laugh at being the damsel in distress, but there was no denying that Erva was saving him. Being kissed by the charmer had woken him from a slumber, from the melancholy that had nearly killed him.
And he would not let it ruin his life now. Not while she was so close and willing to kiss him.
Though he felt like a fool, he fought through it to catch her slender, soft face in his hands and returned her rapturous kiss as best he could. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d kissed a woman. Had it really been his wife’s lips that he’d last held with his own? It had. He might have had a few odd sexual encounters since then, but he hadn’t kissed a soul since Julia, a decade ago.
He bumbled at Erva’s lips, probably hurting her. She pulled away and stared at him. Hungrily he huffed, wanting her more than he’d ever wanted anything. Then she rammed her lips against his again. This time their lips melded, caressed at a fevered pitch. Her tongue slid between his defenses and touched his own. It was his undoing. He clutched at her waist, her shoulder, trying to pull her closer, taste more of her. His cock had been somewhat active all day, but in an instant he was fully erect, all his blood rushing to his too sensitive member. He ached for her.
Pulling and tasting, pushing and kissing, Will clumsily kept the kiss escalating. The carriage took a corner too fast, scooting Erva closer, but he’d been asserting his chest against her gorgeous breasts at the same moment. The impetus of the carriage and his own landed him on her in a most abnormal position, her hip against his stomach, her waist twisted so her chest met his. She kept kissing him though. Her little tongue darted in and out of his mouth. He knew she had to be uncomfortable, so he found her hips, shifted, and with a bump on the road, settled himself between her legs. How he’d gotten there he hadn’t a clue, but he didn’t care. It was where he wanted to be. Erva mewled and arched into his erection all the more.
Will only had one knee on the bench and tried to take a little weight off Erva with one arm on the seat too, the other he thought might go exploring over her body, when the carriage decelerated rather quickly and knocked him asunder. He skidded to a stop against the opposite bench and tried to sit up.
Erva sat up too. She pressed her dainty fingers to her lips, eyes wide. “What did I do?”
“Well, I did have a hand in things too.” He caught himself saying, like an arrogant arse.
Her gaze flickered to his with more than an ounce of recrimination. God, why had he said something so asinine?
“What did I do?” she repeated.
The carriage door suddenly swung open, and she lunged for it. Even while the driver begged his forgiveness for the horses acting wildly on the drive tonight, Will heard a little grunt of pain she emitted in her haste.
“Erva, please,” he called after her limping form as she tried her best to run from him.
“I’m sorry,” she said over her shoulder, holding her skirts in her fists as she hobbled along.
Will finally extracted himself out of the carriage and tried to catch up with her.
“Erva, your knee...”
“I’m okay.”
“Oh kay?”
She faltered in her steps, but then rushed on. “I’m fine, I mean.”
“Erva—”
“I’ve got her, my lord,” a maid said as another sidled up to the other side of Erva. The maids looked almost identical—tall, slender, with dark red hair peeking from white ruffled caps. The maid who had spoken to him nodded to the other. “We’ve got you, my lady. No need to run around on that leg of yours. Doctor’s orders, you know.”
How odd they knew what the doctor had said. Well, Will reasoned, the doctor must have said something and the news of it spread like wildfire, the way gossip only can.
Just inside the foyer the maids clasped onto each other’s forearms and quickly scooped up Erva between the two of them. Erva let out a small screech, but then clung to the maids. If her eyes had been large in the carriage, they were positively gigantic now as she looked up at the two carrying her.
“You,” Will heard her whisper. Then Erva looked at the other maid. “And you.”
“Yes, yes, we’ll have you right as rain by tomorrow.”
“Right as rain, that has to be an English expression. Who else would think rain was right?” the other maid said.
“A Scott. It rains a lot in Scotland too.”
Both the maids nodded and smiled at each other as they carried Erva up the main flight of stairs.
Will didn’t know why, but at that moment he felt he couldn’t approach Erva while she was with the maids. The one he recognized from this morning. Did he employ her? He tried to keep his servants at a minimum and tried even harder to know everyone he paid. But for the life of him, he couldn’t remember her name. Or the other one’s. Surely they must be sisters. So why didn’t he recall employing them?
He merely watched as the maids carried Erva up the stairs while talking about it raining in Paris too and how they wanted to go there soon. Will swallowed and glanced back down, surprised Paul had come to stand so close to him. He too stared at the maids and Erva.
“They smell fabulous,” Paul said.
“Pardon?”
“The new maids.”
Will grunted an acknowledgement.
“They smell like lavenders. They look even better. You know, they’re taller than I.”
Will glanced again at his man of business.
One of Paul’s dark brows arched. “I’ve always wanted to kiss a woman who was taller than I.”
Will smiled. “Which would you pick?”
“Ah, it would be cruel to pick just one.”
Will chuckled. He again checked the maids’ progress, and they then walked out of sight. Sighing, he felt a bit disjointed and unsure what to do.
He’d kissed Erva. Better yet, she’d kissed him.
It had been clumsy, impetuous, and so perfect.
“The town is talking of you and Lady Ferguson. Already there are rumors that the two of you have been lovers for years.”
Will sighed again. He hated gossip. But he may as well be Don Quixote fighting windmills for all the good it would do to clarify himself to society.
“You like her?”
Will peeked at Paul. He thought of telling his best friend how in one day’s time he’d gone from feeling dead to suddenly more alive than ever before. He thought about telling him that Erva stirred emotions in him he’d buried long ago. He thought about saying something regarding her beauty, and how she had him bewildered every time she’d opened her precious mouth. But his response was simply to blow out a puff of air on a groan.
Paul blinked then cocked his head. “You like her a lot.”
Will gave his friend a small smile.
“Oh,” Paul said, nodding as if he understood. With Paul, Will wouldn’t put it past the man if he did understand him and his less than communicative ways. “You know, she has money of her own right, or so the New York society says, so she’s not after your money.”
Will glared at Paul.
Paul let out his own exacerbated sound. “Well, forgive me, but most of the women who cross your path are after your money. I worried this morning that that was what she was about, just storming into your house the way she did.”
“No, I broke down her door. Remember?”
Paul grinned. “Rather splendid work. I’m sure she was impressed with that. By the by, the carpenter’s repaired the door hours ago. Although it does still smell of paint.”
Will nodded. “Thank you for
that.”
Paul didn’t say anything for a moment, and finally Will had to check his friend again.
“You keep staring upstairs.”
Will shrugged.
“You really like her.”
Sighing once more, Will finally turned to Paul. “Yes, I—I want her to stay longer than she intends.”
“Invite her then.”
Will narrowed his eyes, feeling particularly juvenile when he said, “I was thinking of something more manipulative to force her to stay.”
Paul silently chuckled. “Tying her to the furniture? Chaining her?”
“Seduction.”
Paul kept his smile, but it changed into something more lewd. “I see. So you were thinking of tying her to the bed.”
Will chuckled himself. “If she wants that sort of thing, then I’m game.” He nodded, then added, “Would—would you help me?”
Paul’s eyes narrowed.
“I mean.” Will chuckled. “I mean, I—I’ve never seduced a woman before. Would you tell me how? To do that? Exactly?”
Paul smiled. “I don’t think there is an exactness to seduction, but I’m more than willing to help you. As for my misinterpretation, if I had proclivities for men, I might try to seduce you.”
“I’m flattered,” Will said flatly.
Paul chuckled again, before growing serious. “Tell me, why do you think I could help you seduce the lady?”
Will rolled his eyes. “I wake before you, which means I’ve seen many a woman leaving your chamber. Clear evidence of your knowledge of seduction.”
“How do you know we weren’t...praying?”
“Ah, yes, I’m sure you were.”
Paul snickered. “All right, I’ll help. Let us remove ourselves from the foyer, and I believe we need brandy for what we shall discuss. A lot of it too.”
When Paul wrapped an arm around Will’s neck and half hugged him, half throttled him, Will couldn’t help but smile. Paul was shorter than he by almost six inches, so any embrace by the muscular man was more of a wrestling move than anything else.
“By the by,” Will said. “What accent do those two maids have?”
As Paul led him to the library, he shrugged. “I was wondering that myself. I know this sounds odd, but I thought they sounded Greek.”