Heiress for Hire (Duke's Heiress #1) - Madeline Hunter Page 0,84

perfect and he wanted her only more now. He gritted his teeth and restrained himself yet again, so whatever she experienced would not be interrupted.

It seemed like forever they remained like that, with him throbbing inside her, hot and demanding, with his whole body tight as a bowstring. He was about to give up on heroics when she opened her eyes and looked down. She leaned forward, kissed him, and began moving.

She soon joined him again in frenzied passion. The coil of pleasure tightened, increasing his hunger and pushing for more. He thrust hard again and again. His release came in an explosion of pleasure that buried him.

She sank down on him, her fingers gripping his shoulders and her breathing hard and short. He wrapped his arms around her back and bottom so they stayed together a while longer in every way. She remained with him as sensations slowly gave way to thought. Even then he kept her there, because most of those thoughts wandered around her.

He finally loosened his hold. She rolled off him and onto her back beside him. He figured out how to cover them both with the tangle of bedclothes they had created. He embraced her with one arm so she came closer.

“I am speechless,” she said lowly into his ear. “I have no way to know for sure, but I think you are probably a very good lover.”

He enjoyed her flattery to a ridiculous extent.

She nestled down closer and deeper. “You spent the day on inquiries, didn’t you?”

“I did. You were correct about Dolores. There was an old resentment, over a man that my uncle warned off most effectively. He paid the fellow to disappear. She is still angry.” He was going to let it rest, but found himself adding. “And Kevin admitted to me that he indeed returned from France earlier, and met with Uncle Frederick. They had a row.”

She didn’t move or speak for a long time.

“Not on the roof,” he felt obligated to add. “And not that night, but the evening before.”

“Well, that’s different, isn’t it?”

It is if he is telling the truth. Damnation. For hours he had not been turning that over in his head. Inevitable that it would all start again, though.

“It is difficult to investigate one’s own family. Perhaps you should wait for an official inquiry. If there isn’t one, you can take it up again if you think you should.”

He watched her profile and the way the low light limned it. The tangle of her hair spread out over the pillow, its silken strands feathering his face. He had not told her, or anyone, that his inquiry was the official one. It had crossed his mind to tell Peel to find someone else to do it, though. Only then he would have no control over it. No ability to turn that blind eye, or avoid ferreting out information on people he did not think required investigation. Like Kevin. Or Minerva.

He had wondered when she would go to this topic. Right now had been a good choice. Their intimacy allowed more honest talk than daylight ever required.

“If it is someone in the family, I would want to know first,” he said.

“So you could tell that person to purchase packet tickets?”

“Something like that.”

She turned her head to look at him. “Have you ever done that?”

“There was one time when I might have. I was too trusting of the person’s innocence, however, until it was too late.”

“I hope you did not blame yourself for trusting, no matter what it meant to the direction of events.”

“It was a mistake that I paid for dearly, that is all.”

She peered at him, as if trying to see his thoughts. When he said no more, she looked away. There was no hurt in her, from what he could tell. She merely accepted that he chose not to share the story with her.

He looked away too, at the ceiling. She turned into his arm and rested her head on his chest.

Did you kill him? Only twice had he answered that question, and even then not told everything. He did not speak of it. He did not explain.

“I was in the army and at times conducted investigations. That was where I started and learned. After Waterloo, I was with my regiment in France, part of the army that remained there while matters were sorted out. A Frenchman was found dead in the town. Knife wounds. Someone said one of our men had been seen nearby. I was