The Fortune Hunter (32 page)

He whispered her name in the moment before his lips brushed hers. This gentle, almost chaste touch was not what she ached for. When she brought his mouth back to hers, she heard his low groan of desire. It resonated within her like something alive, emblazoning the fire in her most private depths.

He pressed her back into the bed, and she gasped hungrily against his mouth. When he stroked her leg, luring it to entwine with his, she was certain no sensation could be more wondrous. She discovered how mistaken she was when, drawing her sleeve along her arm, he bared her breast to his questing mouth. Fiery flicks of his tongue teased its very tip. Her whole body quivered before the sensuous assault. The heat of his mouth and the flush of his breath etched rapture into her.

Wanting to give him the same pleasure, she grazed his ear with her tongue. A tremor raced along him and through her as he framed her face with his hands. His kisses were feverish with craving as he brought her up to sit between his knees.

The hooks along the back of her gown fell away before his eager fingers. Rising to kneel in front of him, she smiled as she let her dress drop into a pool of silk on his legs. She loosened her stays and tossed them aside. Her eyes closed when he ran his fingers along her bared breasts, cupping them in his broad palms. Bending toward her, he tasted her sensitive skin.

“Hamilton,” she whispered, unable to say more when she was ablaze with the need that was becoming an agony.

With a low laugh, he drew her trembling fingers to his cravat. Her attempts to undo it were hampered by his frenzied kisses. Throwing it and his collar aside, she opened the front of his shirt to reveal the firm skin she had imagined caressing so often.

“A moment,” he murmured as he pulled off his coat and kicked off his shoes. Removing his waistcoat, he added, “I vow I would not have been a slave to fashion tonight if I could have guessed you would make me a slave of the passion I long to rouse within you.” The devilish glow returned to his eyes as he grasped her hands and brought them to the buttons of his breeches. “Or shall I make you my slave tonight?”

“Hamilton, teach me what I need to know.”

He brushed her hair aside and nibbled the curve of her shoulder. In a voice thick with craving, he whispered, “My pleasure, my sweet, my pleasure.”

Recklessly, she undid the buttons on his breeches. Her breath caught as he stepped out of them, and she saw the most virile angles of his body. She brought him back down into the bed and gasped when each wiry hair across his chest stroked her. Meeting him, mouth to mouth, she became lost in the roiling sensations as he slid her silk stockings along her legs. Her back arched to keep him close to her when he removed the last of her clothes.

As if he had never touched her before, he began a slow exploration of her, his mouth lingering against her skin while she writhed with ungovernable longing. His hand slid along her hip to her knee, then edged along the inside of her thigh. She clutched his shoulders as the rapture became unbearable and his fingers sought higher.

“Feel how much I want you,” he breathed against her skin.

She could not answer. Words had lost all meaning. She pressed against him as he initiated her to the enchantment within her own body. Each motion, each touch, each kiss threatened to consume her. Caught in a vortex, she opened her eyes to see him rising above her. She slipped her arms around him, bringing his mouth back to hers as he brought them together.

The raging storm whirled around her … through her … and through him. They were
one
in the ecstasy. When the explosion ignited within her, she heard his gasp. She knew, with her last, coherent thought, that the splendor of this moment was well worth whatever it might cost her.

Chapter Eighteen

Something tickled Nerissa's nose, drawing her out of her luscious dream of Hamilton holding her close. She brushed it away and burrowed back into the pillow. Mayhap if she did not open her eyes, she could recapture the delight.

Her nose wrinkled when the itch returned. She rubbed the back of her hand on it. She frowned as the ticklish sensation transferred to her hand.

Opening her eyes, she saw a strand of her hair propped in front of her face. Past it, a white shirt was only half-buttoned and revealed a strong chest. She raised her eyes to Hamilton's smile.

“Are you always so late abed?” he asked as he sat next to her, his arm resting on the pillow on the far side of her head.

“What time is it?” The bed curtains blocked the windows, and she could not guess the hour from the way the sunlight swept across the rug.

“Nearly midday.”

He chuckled when she regarded him in astonishment. As she sat, keeping the cover modestly against her, although there was no part of her he had not explored intimately during the night, he did not move. No more than a shadow's breadth separated them.

With a voracious moan, he swept her into his arms and against his mouth. She released the covers as her hands slipped beneath his open shirt. Even though he had given her little time for sleep that night, the need to touch him had not diminished.

“You are sweet,” he whispered. “I think I shall keep you here with me the rest of the day.”

“I can't.” Sliding her legs over the side of the bed, she reached for the clothes she had tossed aside during the night.

“Why not?” He ran a finger along her bare leg as she pulled on her chemise and stockings.

“I must return to Bath.”

“Today?”

She smiled as she heard the dismay in his voice. She knew that feeling too well, for she hated the thought of even a moment away from him. Dressing quickly, she tied her stays in place as best she could. “Cole sent a letter to let me know he intends to return before the week is out. I must be there to welcome him home.”

“You do not need to go back.”

Nerissa pulled her gown over her head and settled it into place. As he hooked it closed, she whispered, “What do you mean?”

“I thought you might wish to stay here with me.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “Or we can return to Queen Square, if you wish.”

Walking away, she put her hand on one of the columns, marking the bed's alcove. She did not face him as she said, “You are asking the impossible.”

“Why?” He turned her to him. Encircling her face with his hands, he asked, “My sweet, do you wish never again to share what we had here?”

She drew his hands away from her face and held them in hers. “Hamilton, don't ask me such silly questions. Staying with you would be the most glorious thing I could imagine, but I am not like Mrs. Howe.”

“Blast Elinor! I have forgotten her, Nerissa. Why can't you?”

“You have
not
forgotten her.”

“Nerissa, I assure you—”

As he had so many times, she interrupted him. “You carry her in your heart, even when you hold me. Her legacy of pain still resides there. As your father was betrayed by that thief, you were betrayed by the first woman you dared to love.”

Hamilton watched her cross the room to where a full-length mirror was set by a window. She pulled a chair in front of it and sat down to try to rearrange her messed hair.

“Only Philip has learned to trust again,” she continued, “and he has won the prize he values more than pride or vengeance. He has won Annis's love.”

“Be glad for them, but I cannot offer you the same.”

“I know.”

“You know?” He had not thought she would be the one to shock him this morning. As she brushed her hair back and tied it with a blue ribbon, he stroked her slender shoulders. He looked into the reflection of her eyes in the glass.

Her fingers settled on his, and she smiled into the glass. “Dear Hamilton, I love you.” She laughed gently. “No, you need not look so stricken. I do not ask you to say the same back to me until you can say those words with genuine sentiment.”

He whirled her around on the chair and bent until his eyes were even with hers. “There is no room in my life for you now. Until I have done as I vowed, I must think of nothing else.”

When she rose, he stepped back. She crossed the room and found her slippers. Pulling them on, she said, “Do not make the same mistake you feared Philip would make. Do not throw your life away on something that may be only a meaningless posturing.”

“This vow means everything to me.”

“Then,” she said quietly, as she walked toward him, “I feel sorry for you, Hamilton. Some day, you may find that conveyancer. You shall have hunted down your fortune and gotten your vengeance.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek that was rough with morning whiskers. “I hope that will be enough for you.”

She gave him no time to retort as she went to the door, opened it, and shut it softly behind her. It was just as well, because, for once, he had no quick retort.

“And, of course, you must stand up with me, although Janelle is beside herself with envy that I shall be married at Windham Park,” Annis said as she picked up one of the cards in the pattern book and tilted it. “Do you think this would make a lovely wedding dress, Nerissa?”

Nerissa smiled and said absently, “It would look lovely on you.”

“You are being too generous.
Madame
would much prefer to be making a wedding gown for you.” She leaned forward and smiled. “You have been oddly reticent since we returned from Windham Park. Are you sure you aren't concealing something from me? I saw how Hamilton was looking at you when we were in the country.”

Nerissa put down the book that she had not realized she was holding, and walked to look out on the street beyond her sitting-room window. She hoped Annis could not guess how hard it was to hide the truth. She loved Hamilton with every inch of her being. Only his need to avenge his father's humiliation had prevented him from saying the same to her.
Hadn't it?
She must believe that, or she was sure she would shatter and babble the truth.

The past two days had been the longest she had ever endured. Annis had moved back to Camden Crescent in preparation for Cole's homecoming, but that was not the reason Nerissa suffered such a void in her life. She had hoped Hamilton could convince his guests to return to Bath quickly, but that had not happened. Although she had been sucked into the whirl of excitement as Philip had come into Town long enough to garner Mrs. Ehrlich's approval of his suit, each hour seemed more interminable than the previous one.

How many goose's gazettes had she spoken? Frye believed that Nerissa had spent that last night at Windham Park with Annis, planning the wedding. She never had been false with her abigail before, and it disturbed her deeply.

With a sigh, she looked at the table by the window. On it were the papers she must sign in order to sell Hill's End. They had been waiting for her upon her return to Bath, but she had not signed them yet. Once she did, she surrendered her last hope of a miracle preventing the sale.

“Nerissa?”

At Annis's discomposed voice, Nerissa gave her friend a smile. “You are seeing the whole world in the rosy glow of the love you share with Philip. You would be wise not to allow it to deceive you into seeing things that are not true.”

“Don't try to trip me the double!” Annis set herself on her feet and folded her arms across her bosom, looking for the first time like her formidable mother. “My eyes can see quite clearly. More clearly than ever before, if you wish to know the truth. You love Hamilton.”

“I would be spoony to fall in love with a man who makes it no secret that he wishes to enjoy his bachelor's fare, wouldn't I?”

Annis's face toppled into a mask of sorrow. Running to Nerissa, she took her hands and drew her to sit on the window bench. “Oh, my dearest Nerissa, how do you endure loving a man who refuses to own that he loves you, too?”

Nerissa could not silence the sobs that erupted from her heart. As Annis held her, whispering words of consolation, Nerissa wept for the only remaining dream she had. She feared the dream of loving Hamilton was as doomed as all the other hopes she had dared to cherish.

“The Mail should have been in Bath hours ago.” Vexation tainted Frye's voice as she strode along the walkway. “It may simply be delayed, or Mr. Pilcher may have decided to take it tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

“Miss Dufresne, are you listening to me? Will you slow down?”

Nerissa pulled her shawl closer to her chin. A raw wind made the day unseasonably cool, and she wanted nothing more than to get back to Laura Place. Not only could she get a cup of hot tea, but she would not have to chance meeting someone who had been at Windham Park. If she saw one of Hamilton's guests, she would know that Hamilton was back in Bath, too, although he had not called.

Frye could not hide her satisfaction that he had not come to Laura Place. Nor had she allowed Nerissa to wait for him to give her a look-in. She had insisted on her charge accompanying her on errands every afternoon, even chilly ones like today.

“I am listening to you, Frye,” she answered irritably. “And I am hurrying because I am cold.”

“You are becoming just like your brother,” the abigail chided. “Only you do not walk about with your nose in a book to warn us of when you are off among your dreams. Now, I was saying.…”

Nerissa tried to listen as Frye prattled on about the latest
contretemps
at the butcher's shop, but she did not care a rush that Mr. Young was charging a penny more for a pound of mutton. Suddenly Frye's voice rose to a shriek just as Nerissa was stepping into the street to their house.

Nerissa looked to her left to see a carriage bearing down on her. Leaping back onto the walkway, she gasped as the vehicle came to a stop only inches from where she had been standing. She closed her eyes while she fought her shivers of dismay. Becoming lost in her thoughts was proving to be a deadly pastime. She heard a squeak from the carriage, followed by assertive footsteps.