He’d groan and rub his face, his body demanding that he fling open the door and fall into the water with her. She’d be soapy and bare, her skin flushed with heat. Even stroking himself for relief didn’t do much good. The only hands that could appease him were hers.
Leaving for Doncaster couldn’t come quickly enough for him—but then again, Mac was loathe to abandon the cozy setup of the two of them in one house. Daniel was there too, of course, the boy cheerfully escorting Isabella about. Mac would trail along with them, wishing Cameron could take care of his own son, but not having the heart to send Daniel away.
Mac strolled into the drawing room the day before they were to leave, while Daniel was out stocking up on books. That is, Daniel claimed that he was off to the book shops, but he was likely holed up somewhere playing cards with his friends.
Isabella sat near the window overlooking the garden behind the house. An open magazine rested in her lap, but she wasn’t reading it. She gazed out at the rainy garden, the scarlet glory of her hair bright against her gray and blue frock.
She looked around when she heard him enter, and Mac saw that her eyes were rimmed with red.
He moved to the sofa and sat next to her. “Love, what is it?”
Isabella looked away. “Nothing.”
“I know you far too well to believe that. ‘Nothing’ usually translates to ‘something dreadful.’ ”
Isabella opened her mouth to argue, then closed it again and slid a cream-colored paper out from between the pages of her magazine. Mac took it and read.
My dearest sister,
I am excited beyond all measure at the prospect of communicating with you again. Mrs. Douglas has my deepest gratitude. My debut will commence this spring—dare I hope that I will be able to see you after my coming-out? I will look for you at every soiree and musicale and ball, longing for one glimpse of the beautiful sister I miss with all my heart. I must not linger on this note, or Papa will suspect something. I dare not risk you writing back to me, but if you were to give Mrs. Douglas any little message, or even the promise of a kiss when at last we meet, I would treasure it as the most precious diamond. Ever your loving sister,
Louisa
Familiar anger at Isabella’s father rose as Mac read the missive. Earl Scranton was a selfish, priggish bastard. Isabella had cried without consolation when, after writing to her sister and mother immediately after her marriage to Mac, her letters had been returned by her father, cut into shreds. The earl had added a stern note forbidding Isabella further contact with the family. Scranton had never lifted the ban, not even when Isabella had ceased living with Mac.
Mac handed the letter back to Isabella. She slid it into her jacket, nestling it over her heart.
“This Mrs. Douglas is your old school chum?” he asked, striving for something light to say. “The one who could scramble down a trellis in her nightdress?”
Isabella nodded. “She offered to send my love to Louisa for me when she saw her again. Apparently she coaxed a note from Louisa to give me in return.”
Mac leaned uncomfortably into the corner of the small sofa, few pieces of furniture able to accommodate his large body. “Good for Mrs. Douglas.”
“She’s rather sorry for me.” Isabella gave him a faint smile. “But I’m grateful for her help.”
“I am too.” Mac fell silent, and Isabella looked out the window again.
Earl Scranton was the same kind of unforgiving terror Mac’s own father had been, though in different ways. Mac’s father had been volatile, hot-blooded, and violent, whereas Isabella’s father was ice-cold and never raised his voice.
The litany of the many ways in which marriage to Mac had ruined Isabella’s life paraded through his head. That she’d stuck with him for three years said much about her fortitude.
“We leave for Doncaster tomorrow,” Isabella said without turning from the window. “You will not share a hotel suite with me there, so put the idea out of your head.”
Mac stretched his arm across the back of the sofa. “You won’t be staying in a hotel, love. Hart has hired a house for all of us, you and your servants included. Ian insists that Beth will be more comfortable in our own accommodations, and I agree with him.” He propped his feet on the tea table, still seeking a comfortable position. “Beth will want you with her.”
Isabella threw him an exasperated look. “Mac, we are separated. That is the end of it.”
“No, it is not.”
She frowned at him, green eyes filled with anger. He was glad to see the fury; anything to erase her heartbroken look.
“I left you to save my sanity, Mac,” she said. “I’ll hardly return to it if you continue to drive me mad.”
“You like me driving you mad.” Mac let his grin blossom. “Your life is empty when I’m not giving you hell.” He broke off as Bellamy pushed open the door to allow Evans to carry in a tea tray. “Tea, excellent. I’m famished.”
Isabella regarded the setup of two cups and saucers with annoyance. The servants seemed elated to have Mac in the house and had settled into the habit of preparing all meals for two. Which delighted Mac.
Evans and Bellamy retreated, and Mac brought his feet down. “Now, then, Isabella, a courting couple would take tea together, would they not? A gentleman would call on the lady, and she’d serve him tea.”
“Not alone.” Isabella reached for the teapot. “Her mama or prim governess or maiden aunt would sit against the wall, keeping a disapproving eye on the young couple.”
“Very well, we will pretend that Great-Aunt Hortense lounges behind the potted palms.” Mac gave a mock salute to an empty chair on the other side of the room. “Then what?”
“Then nothing. I’d pour out, and you’d drink the tea.”
Isabella filled the cups as she spoke. Mac’s heart skipped a beat when, without asking, she prepared it the way he liked it—two sugars, no milk. She remembered.
Mac took the cup and set it next to him, waiting politely as she lifted the cloth from a basket and laid a scone on a porcelain plate. He didn’t reach for it until she’d prepared her own tea; then he pulled the scone into two pieces, mounding its soft innards with pale yellow cream.
“One of the only things the English do right is scones and clotted cream,” he said. “The Scots invented scones of course, but the English do them well.”
“I am English,” Isabella reminded him.
“I know that, my lovely Sassenach.”
Mac took a deep bite of scone. Isabella’s gaze fixed on his mouth as clotted cream oozed over his lips. Mac licked them clean, deliberately taking his time.
“This is quite good.” He gave her a wicked smile. “Would you like to try it?”
His heart beat faster as Isabella’s cheeks stained pink. “Yes, I would, rather.”
Mac lifted the piece of slathered scone to her. Isabella took it between her lips, her tongue coming out to lift it inside her mouth. Mac’s body grew hot as he watched her chew, her slender throat moving as she swallowed.
Mac held up his thumb, showing her a bit of cream clinging to it. “I have a little here.”
He waited for her to push him away, to bathe him in scorn and tell him that the game was over. Instead, she guided his hand to her mouth, closed her lips around the tip of his thumb, and sucked away the cream.
Mac groaned. “You are a cruel, cruel woman.”
Isabella released his hand and sat back. “Why?”
“Tempting me with a taste of what I can’t have.”
“It is you who refuses to be satisfied with only a taste.”
He set down his plate and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t want a taste, Isabella. I want all of you. Again and again, for the rest of our lives. That’s what marriage means, my wife. Together forever. Bound in love.”
“In duty, you mean,” Isabella said.
He laughed. “Sassenach, if you believed marriage was for duty alone, you’d never have eloped with me in the first place. When you met me
you didn’t think, Ah, here is a dashing rake. Let me run off with him so I can be dutiful. No, you wanted some entertainment instead of marrying a dried-up stick your father picked out for you.”
“Perhaps, but most marriages turn into duty and habit, from what I have witnessed.”
Mac fell back against the sofa. “Oh, God, Isabella, you’ll slay me with your pessimism. Look at Ian and Beth. They’re mad about each other. Are you saying their marriage has changed to duty and habit? ”
“Of course not.”
“Nor did yours. Don’t lie.”
“No,” she said softly. “It didn’t.”
Thank the Lord for that. He remembered the nights she’d smiled down at him in his bed, her warm body on his while she rode him. Duty, my balls.
“The proof is that when I drove you mad, you ran away,” Mac said. “A dutiful woman would have stayed and put up with me.”
“Gracious, I pity such a woman.”
“I know you do, because you are not that woman. What you ought to have done was smash me over the head, repeatedly, until I came to my senses.”
“Perhaps my leaving was meant to do just that.”
He hid his dart of pain by reaching for the bowl of cream. “You certainly got my attention, love.” He scooped a glob of cream onto his first two fingers and gave her a sly look. “Now, I dare you, my fine lady from Miss Pringle’s Academy: From which part of my anatomy would you like to lick this cream?”
Chapter 8
The Lady of Mount Street has retreated to her Cottage in Buckinghamshire, where her Garden Parties have become legendary. She is all smiles despite the sudden absence of her Lord, and she presented a Poetess who is likely to take London by storm. An unruly baron whom more salacious gossip paired with the Lady was coldly and unmistakably rebuffed, leading this paper to rejoice that the Lady remains a pillar of virtue.
—July 1876
Isabella stared at the mound of cream on Mac’s blunt fingers, and her mouth went dry. She kept her gaze on the cream so she wouldn’t have to look at his wicked smile and the gleam in his eyes.
Mac didn’t think she’d do it. He thought she’d tell him to go away, or burn him with some acerbic witticism. He didn’t think she’d dare reach over and gently lift a fold of his kilt. But she did.
“What did you say a Scotsman wore under this?” she asked.
Mac’s pupils widened, black swallowing copper. “Isabella.”
“If you thought your dare would make me blush like a schoolgirl, then you do not know much about schoolgirls.”
Mac laughed. His laughter died as Isabella rose, walked to the drawing room door, and turned the key in the lock. Mac remained on the sofa, watching her with a stunned look.
“The cream is melting,” she said.
Mac snapped his gaze to the dribbles of cream running from his fingers. Isabella came to him, caught his hand, and licked his fingers clean.
Mac always tasted agreeable. Isabella savored the smooth sweetness of the cream overlaid with the tangy salt of his skin.
She sat down, touching the tartan again. “Show me?”
Mac swallowed, his laughter gone. He took the hem of his kilt, drew in a breath, and scooted the fabric up to his stomach.
He was bare beneath, his cock dark and hard as it rested on his tight abdomen. He was breathing rapidly, the cock moving a little with his pulse. Isabella remembered the exact feel of it in her hand, how long it was and how thick, exactly how far she had to pull her hand up to complete one stroke. She also remembered precisely how it tasted and felt in her mouth.
Mac had always enjoyed the way she touched him. He’d sometimes joked that she must have studied cock pleasuring at Miss Pringle’s Select Academy, because she did it so well.
You taught me, Mac, she’d whisper.
He’d also never gone bare under his kilt. Isabella knew full well that Mac usually wore drawers beneath, claiming that it was all very well to be traditionally Scots, but he had no intention of freezing his goolies off to satisfy tradition. He’d worn nothing today for her. To tease her.
Time for Isabella to turn the tables. “Stand up,” she said.
Mac got to his feet in a comically short time, the kilt still lifted. Isabella reached for the bowl of clotted cream, dipped her fingers into it, and smeared cream on his tip.
“Vixen.” Mac’s voice was ragged. He liked to call her that whenever she instigated play.
The word slid into a groan as Isabella leaned forward and closed her lips around him. His hands balled to fists over the fabric. Mac didn’t reach for her, didn’t touch her, just held the tartan out of the way in a white-knuckled grip.
Isabella suckled his tip, letting her tongue trace all the way around the flange. She dipped her tongue to the underside of the shaft to catch the cream that had dribbled there.
Mac rocked a little on his heels, but he didn’t try to pump into her; he barely even moved. Not that Isabella didn’t react herself. She was hot between her legs, and her breasts were tight, her heart pounding behind her corset.
They used to play games like this with each other—stealing pleasure without removing their clothes, seeing how far they could take each other. Even more enjoyable when they did it in an unusual place, such as in a deserted hall outside a ballroom, a summerhouse, Mac’s studio. Isabella remembered how they’d tried to stifle their sounds of pleasure and their laughter.
Mac wasn’t laughing now. “Little vixen,” he whispered. “Naughty minx. My beautiful, wicked wife.”
Isabella reached for more cream. Mac’s cheekbones were flushed, his eyes desperate. Isabella focused on his cock again, slathering it lovingly with the cream.
Mac furrowed her hair with one hand. “I can’t hold out, love. It’s been too long.”
Isabella couldn’t answer, too busy nibbling and licking and suckling. She swallowed the cream she’d coated on him, and now she enjoyed the hot, velvety taste of Mac himself.
Mac touched the nape of her neck. “Pull back, sweetheart. I’m about to lose myself.”
He used to warn her like that in case they were in danger of being caught, or were too near a public place, or in case Isabella didn’t want to take the game to its conclusion. The courtesy warmed her, and she responded by sliding one hand to his bare buttocks and staying put.
She felt him move in little pulses, and then his warm seed spilled into her mouth. He bunched her hair, his hips rocking as Isabella took all of him. “I love you,” he said brokenly. “I love you, my little Sassenach vixen.”
Isabella savored him until he had no more to give. She pulled away and Mac collapsed to the sofa, breathing hard, his kilt draping him modestly once more. Isabella reached for her teacup, but Mac jerked the cup from her hand, clattered it back to the table, and wrapped his arms around her.
They sat together a long time, Mac holding her, Isabella’s head on his shoulder. Isabella felt the thrub-thrub of his heart under her ear, his warm lips on her hair. If it could only be this way always, the two of them quietly absorbing each other, they could possibly live in peace. But they were both too volatile, too selfish, and Isabella knew it.
“Three and a half years,” Mac was saying. “Three and a half years since I’ve felt that. Since I’ve felt you. Thank you, love.”
Isabella looked up past Mac’s sandpaper chin to his copper-colored eyes, which were tired but fixed on her. “You seemed to need it.”
“That wasn’t charity you just gave me, my sweet. You enjoyed that.”
She gave him a faint smile. “Perhaps I felt it my duty as a wife.”
“Pull the other one. It’s got bells on.”
She widened her eyes. “Good heavens, it has bells?”
Mac burst out laughing. His breath smelled of strong tea and cream. “Lord, I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you so much.” He stroked a languid hand through her hair. “If anyone can tame the wild Mac, it’s you.”
“I think I don’t want you tame. I like you wild.”
>
“Do you? That’s encouraging.”
Isabella pushed away from him and reached for her now-cold tea. It was fine tea, but its taste was lost after the headiness of Mac.
“I won’t rush you, Isabella,” Mac said. “I won’t. Promise.”
“But you’ll risk freezing your goolies off and move yourself into my house?” She smiled, and he smiled back. It was dangerous, Mac’s smile.
“I never promised not to torment you. Or tease you, plague you, or make your life hell.”
“That is for certain. Thank heavens we are heading to Doncaster where we’ll be surrounded by the rest of the family.”
“Yes, I’m looking forward to moving in with my three brothers and nephew, all bent upon invading our privacy and driving me insane.”
“I think your family is lovely. Four brothers looking after each other.”
“Brothers who can’t mind their own damn business.” Mac picked up his cup and took a long drink of tea. “I prefer my valet. He keeps his opinions to himself—unless I’m bent on ruining my clothes—and he brews one hell of a pot of tea.”
Isabella took a thoughtful sip. “You know, I read a novel as a girl, about four sisters in America. They paired off rather like you do—the oldest sister looked after the youngest, as Hart does with Ian, and the two middle sisters looked after one another, as do you and Cameron.”
Mac’s eyes widened in mock horror. “Good Lord, are you comparing the wild Mackenzies to four virtuous girls from America? I beg you to never say this in public.”
“Don’t be silly. It was a sweet story.” Isabella clenched her teacup. “Come to think of it, one of the sisters was called Beth, and she died.”
Mac’s arms came around her, his smiles gone. “Don’t even think it, love. Beth is made of stern stuff, and Ian won’t let a thing happen to her. Just as I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“How can you know that?”
“You have my word on it. Mackenzies never go back on their word.”