Louise Allen - Regency Rogues - Unlacing The Forbidden

‘No?’ She wrinkled her nose, the expression so at odds with her ladylike appearance that Rhys laughed. Yes, his Thea was still there. She grinned back. ‘That’s better! I was thinking how serious you looked. I have spoken to Hodge, by the by. Thank you for not blaming him for yesterday evening.’

Rhys shrugged and reached for the butter. ‘I should not have expected him to be able to influence you when you had made up your mind to anything. I certainly never could. I have told the hotel to place a large footman at your disposal when you go out. With Hodge, Polly and a bodyguard you should be safe from unwanted attention.’

‘Thank you.’ The smile she flashed at him was warm, with just a hint of mischief. Rhys relaxed. ‘I hope you have a very pleasant day today.’

‘I intend to visit an antiquities dealer who has a pair of globes that sound as if they would suit the library at Palgrave Hall, then I will do some shopping on my own account—Hodge has recovered sufficiently to observe that his lordship requires at least half a dozen more shirts and several more neckcloths if he is to present even a passable appearance in Paris.’

‘And will you see if you can persuade your opera singer to oblige you?’ Thea regarded him with clear, innocent eyes above her coffee cup.

‘Does nothing put you to the blush?’ Rhys demanded hoarsely through a throat full of croissant crumbs inhaled on a sharp indrawn breath.

‘I meant oblige with her agreement to travel to England to appear at the Opera House. If you are put out of countenance because of anything else you want from her, well, you told me about her yourself last night,’ Thea pointed out prosaically while he spluttered. ‘Would you like me to slap you on the back or would a glass of water help, do you think?’

‘Thank you, no. I will certainly send her a note of apology for abandoning her so abruptly.’ And that was all. Rhys mopped his streaming eyes and attempted to sound repressive. He had been mistaken in finding Thea the slightest bit alluring. The chit was as unmanageable as she had been at sixteen.

Thea pursed her lips over what he suspected was an unrepentant smirk. ‘I expect it is the prospect of shopping that puts you in such a grumpy mood—men always seem to hate it.’

‘Grumpy!’ Rhys dug his knife into the butter and recovered his sense of humour. This was Thea, for goodness’ sake. A few silk fal-lals and fine plumage were no reason to get hot under the collar. She hadn’t changed in any way that mattered—certainly not for the better—but she was in Paris for the first time. ‘Shall I get tickets for the opera tonight?’

‘For us?’ The excitement lit up her face and made him feel like a toad for the way he had reacted the night before.

‘Wear something discreet and a veil and we’ll sit in the stalls. No point in drawing attention to ourselves.’

‘Thank you.’ Thea jumped to her feet and came to plant a kiss on his cheek. ‘You are an angel. Now I will go and leave you in peace with your newspaper.’

That was positively sisterly. Rhys turned a page and tried to feel like an indulgent brother. Even so, he was definitely going to ride tomorrow.

Thea gazed out of the window onto the Burgundian countryside. Three days from Paris and Rhys had ridden every mile while she sat in solitary state in the chaise.

It was not as though having the leisure to observe an athletically built gentleman in well-cut breeches was in any way a hardship, of course. Even the fact that the horses available from the posting stations were far below the standard Rhys would normally ride in no way diminished the sight, for it only showed his skill to advantage. As a boy and a young man he had been gangly. Now he had filled out and most of it appeared to be well-coordinated muscle. What did a gentleman do to keep fit, she wondered, other than bed sport? Sporting pursuits, she supposed, firmly instructing her imagination to cover that body with clothing.

A modest gentlewoman would not stare, let alone permit speculation to run wild through her daydreams. Which doubtless meant that she fell far short of the standards of breeding expected of her. Thea contemplated this lowering conclusion for a moment, then decided that she did not care.

Rhys’s amorous interest was fixed, as it had always been, on curvaceous, tall, blue-eyed blondes of a coming disposition, and he would be thoroughly embarrassed to discover that his childhood friend had rediscovered the youthful attraction that—thank Heavens!—he had been blind to before.

The problem now was that the innocent adoration of her fourteen-year-old self had been replaced by the more mature understanding of a curious and uninhibited young lady. She understood what her body wanted and she was coming to regret, very much, that it was not going to experience it.

Still, it did no harm to fantasise. She was sure now that she was not going to find a man to love and who would love her in return, which meant she was not prepared to marry, even if Papa did find her and drag her back.

Thea stamped on the stirring of panic and made herself think of the present. If she did not marry, then that inexorably led her to the conclusion that she was never going to know what it would be like to lie naked with a man. She could not find the slightest shame in her for wishing to experience lovemaking, not after her experience with Sir Anthony. But it was certainly inconvenient for her composure that, if she had to choose a gentleman from a fairly wide acquaintance for the experiment, it had to be this one.

The vine-clad slopes of the Côte d’Or rolled past to the right of the chaise. The stop at Beaune for a change of horses had been regrettably short. The town had looked intriguing and the vast, bustling market colourful and exotic, but Rhys wanted to reach Lyon that evening, for some reason. When she had asked him the reason for his haste he’d simply closed his lips into an implacable line and strode off to talk to Tom Felling, the coach driver.

The horse Rhys had chosen at the livery stables was rather better than the previous one, Thea mused, her attention drawn back from the passing scene to the rider on the wide grass verge. He guided his mount to the side to jump a fallen tree and her breath caught at the fluid beauty of man and animal as they cleared the obstacle.

How would his skin slide under her hands—like silk or would it feel more like kidskin? How would his weight be, over her? He was so much larger than she was that it must be a matter of technique, she supposed. How would it feel when he sheathed himself within her? Would it hurt? Probably, it had with Anthony. She was less clear what happened then in bed, when lovemaking was a leisurely matter of mutual pleasure giving—movement, obviously, with that hard, strong body and her own soft, lesser strength somehow finding a rhythm and a unity.

She had seen Rhys naked as a child, swimming in the lake, but a man’s body was different. Did he have a hairy chest? Would that chafe against her breasts or tickle? They tingled at the thought. She would run her fingertips through—

‘Whoa!’ From behind, Tom Felling shouted at his team. The chaise juddered and skidded as the postilions reined back their horses and Thea jerked her attention to the window at the front and the view beyond the be-capped boys and their waving whips.

A diligence, one of the lumbering French stagecoaches, had overturned, its bulk teetering over the deep ditch that bordered the road. In the road half a dozen passengers seemed stunned with shock and the driver and guard were struggling with the team as they thrashed in panic in the tangled traces.