Taming The Viscountess Read online

  When she was done, she sealed the contents into an envelope and pulled the cord so her lady’s maid would come. She removed the chair from the door and slowly opened it to make sure the captain wasn’t in the hallway. Thankfully, he wasn’t.

  Her lady’s maid came running up the steps. Good. It was nice to know Kay hadn’t switched her allegiance to the captain.

  “What do you need, my lady?” Kay asked as soon as she reached the door.

  “Deliver this in person to my brother,” Celia told her.

  Kay accepted the envelope.

  “Tell him it’s from his sister, and it’s extremely important. He needs to read it at once,” Celia instructed.

  “I understand,” Kay replied. “Is there anything else?”

  “No. Go on.” She shooed her toward the stairs. “Hurry before the captain stops you.”

  Kay nodded and ran back down the hall.

  Celia closed the door and set the chair back up against the doorknob. She felt a little better. Not a lot. Her situation hadn’t changed at all. But at least she’d let her brother know exactly what he was putting her through. The worst thing was knowing she was going to have to live like this for the rest of her life. It wasn’t just today. No. This was going to continue for years. Years!

  Sniffing, she went to the vanity and picked up her brush. It had a nice thick, long handle. If the captain somehow made it into her bedchamber, she was going to give him a good whack with it. Then, while he was distracted, she was going to take his crutch and run off to a room that did have a lock on it.

  That would take care of things, at least for the rest of the day. She would not, under any circumstance, let him ravish her on her wedding night. She wasn’t sure if she could prevent him from taking her virginity indefinitely, but she could do it tonight. Holding the brush in her lap, she took the chair from the desk and put it in the spot of her bedchamber where she had a good view of the hallway door and the door connecting her bedchamber with his. When he came, she was going to be ready.

  Chapter Five

  The knocking at the door jarred Celia awake. She bolted up in the chair and searched for the brush. It was on the floor next to her. She was ready to grab it when she heard her lady’s maid’s voice from the other side of the door that led to the hallway.

  “Lady Erandon,” Kay called out, “would you like me to help you get ready for the morning?”

  Morning? Celia glanced at the window and saw the sun was rising in the east. She couldn’t believe it. When had she fallen asleep? More than that, how could she have spent all night asleep in a chair?

  “My lady?” Kay asked and knocked again.

  Celia glanced down at her gown. It remained untouched. The captain hadn’t snuck in here and ravished her like some barmaid who offered her services to seamen. She was still a virgin. Breathing a sigh of relief, she set the brush on the vanity and went to the door.

  Kay shot her an apologetic look. “I don’t wish to disturb you, my lady. You didn’t ask me to help you last night, which is understandable given it was your wedding night. I,” she cleared her throat, “wondered if you would like my assistance this morning?”

  Celia’s face warmed. Did everyone assume she’d been in bed with the captain? Probably. He was her husband, and a cad at that. Of course, they all thought he’d taken her innocence.

  “I would like a bath before I dress,” Celia said.

  “I’ll arrange for it at once,” Kay replied.

  Celia waited until she left before she shut the door. She supposed now that it was morning she was safe. Bad things only happened in the dark. She slid the chair across the room and put it back where it’d been yesterday. She glanced at the chair that was blocking the captain from going from his bedchamber into hers.

  Would Kay think it suspicious if she didn’t move that chair? Would she tell the staff about it? Servants had a tendency to talk amongst themselves. She groaned. She would just have to take her chances. She couldn’t let anyone know she was afraid of the captain’s lusty appetites. It’d make her the laughingstock of London.

  She took that chair away from the door and then pulled the dressing screen out. After the maids brought up the tub, hot water, soap, and towels, she had them leave so she could be alone.

  Once she was naked, she got into the tub and let out a contented sigh. No matter how bad things were, soaking in hot water always made her feel better. Granted, her predicament hadn’t changed. She was still the wife of a whaling captain who, despite inheriting a title, was in no way a gentleman. But the hot water did relax her muscles.

  She leaned back in the tub and closed her eyes. Sometimes, if she concentrated hard enough, she could almost imagine she was Corin’s wife. She had no doubt that if she’d been allowed to spend one night in bed with him, he would have fallen in love with her.

  She might be a virgin, but she had enough experience to get an idea that gentlemen liked certain things done to them. And she was well read in that area, though she’d rather die than admit it to anyone. If Lady Eloise or her brother found out the kinds of literature she had slipped under her bed, they would have been horrified. Lady Eloise would have forced her out of Ladies of Grace, and her brother… Well, her brother would probably throw her right at the captain, who expected his barmaids to read that kind of thing.

  Irritated, she frowned. She didn’t want to think of her blasted husband during a luxurious bath.

  The door to her bedchamber opened, so she called out, “I’m not ready yet, Kay. Come back in twenty minutes.”

  The door shut, and she figured that was the end of it…until she heard someone’s soft footsteps on the rug.

  “I said I’m not ready to get dressed,” she repeated, not hiding her annoyance. “You should know by now that I enjoy taking long baths.” Really! How many times did she have to tell Kay that? Given how often Kay came into her bedchamber, she was surprised the lady had left her alone last night.

  “You certainly make a lovely sight first thing in the morning,” came her husband’s voice from behind her.

  Gasping, she sat up in the tub, instinctively pulling her knees to her chest to hide as much of herself from him as possible. “What are you doing here?” she snapped as she searched for the nearest towel.

  “Looking for these?” he asked, picking up the towels from the nearby chair. He tossed them to the floor…well out of her reach.

  She glared at him. “I have a mind to cry for help.”

  With a laugh, he sat in the chair and set his crutch down, also making sure it was out of her reach. “You can cry all you want, but it won’t do you any good. I told all the servants to stay downstairs. I made it clear that we wanted to be alone.” He shot her a suggestive look.

  Drat! It was just her luck he chose the morning to make his advances. “I don’t want to be alone with you.”

  “It doesn’t matter what you want. This is a gentleman’s world, sweetheart. The wife is to cater to her husband’s every whim. For instance, did you know Lord Hawthorne makes his wife dress in the color orange? He allows for nothing else. Regardless of the day or what she does, she must wear orange unless she’s in mourning. Do you want to know why he does that?”

  “No. Nor do I care.” What was wrong with him? What kind of person interrupted someone’s bath just to talk about orange gowns?

  “He does it because he loves pumpkins, and those are orange. He collects all types of knickknacks that are pumpkins. In fact, he tries to include a pumpkin recipe in one meal every day.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Why are you telling me all of this?”

  “Because your lot in life could be a lot worse than what it is now. You could be forced to wear orange today. However,” he put his hand on his chest, “I won’t do that to you.”

  “Maybe not, but you’ll barge into my bedchamber and stare at me while I’m taking a bath.”

  “I wanted to see what I got when I married you.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Did i
t give you a thrill?”

  “Oh yes. You’re just as lovely naked as I imagined you’d be. Some gentlemen like long legs. Me? I prefer large breasts, and I most certainly like the ones you have. I’m wondering if they’re so large that I won’t be able to cup them completely in my hands. Mind if I try?”

  When he held up his hands, she splashed water at him. “Yes, I do mind! I won’t have you touching me with those grimy hands that have touched saucy barmaids.”

  “Interesting.” He sat back and studied her. “Is that what you think? That I’ve been spending all of my time at sea going from one bed to another?”

  “I’ve read books. I know what kind of lives captains lead.”

  To her surprise, he threw his head back and laughed. “The only lady I loved was the sea, and I made love to her when I sailed her waves.”

  “I’m not sure I like that analogy.”

  “But it’s the truth. I have never been with an actual lady. I was faithful to the sea.”

  “Well, I’m not some sea you can go riding whenever you want.”

  “I never said you were, but you are my wife and it’s just a matter of time before we make love. The sooner you accept that, the better.”

  She frowned. Despite what he thought, she wasn’t going to let him do whatever he wanted to her whenever he wanted to do it.

  He smirked at her as if he could read her mind. “I don’t know what kind of gentleman you were hoping to snag into marriage, but I assure you I’m nothing like him.”

  “I know you’re not. You’re a brute.”

  “If I was a brute, I would have had you last night. Finding something to barricade the door wasn’t going to save you. I could have removed the door.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. He was bluffing. There was no way he could do such a thing.

  “I know how to remove a door,” he said. “I’ve done it before when one of my crewmen locked me out of my cabin. And I assure you that he didn’t do it again.”

  She didn’t know whether to believe him or not, but the simple fact that he insisted on staring at her—not blinking once—was enough to make her suspect he was telling the truth. He seemed like the sort who would take down a door to get his way.

  “I’m not afraid to take what I want, and I’m certainly not afraid to take it when I want it. You’re my wife. Your body belongs to me.” When she grimaced, he added, “And my body belongs to you. That means you can take me whenever you want me, too.”

  “I’ll never take you,” she replied through gritted teeth.

  “Ah, but you will. You have passion, and a lady with passion has no trouble pursuing what she wants. Which reminds me.” He grabbed his crutch and used it to stand up. “My curiosity has been getting the best of me. I have to ask again. How did you try to snag that poor and helpless fellow into a scandal so he’d be forced to marry you?”

  “Lord Durrant isn’t a poor and helpless fellow.”

  “Yes, he was. You thought you had to be the one to take the lead in the relationship. A real man knows how to lead.” As if to make his point, he hobbled over to her.

  With an intake of breath, she squirmed to get away from him. Which was impossible, of course. She was stuck in the tub, and her towels were well out of reach. If she jumped out, she’d be fully exposed to him. And besides, he was so close to her that he only needed to reach out to stop her from fleeing.

  “I won’t force you to consummate the marriage,” he told her. “Fortunately for you, I am a gentleman. However, since you happen to be in the tub, I see no reason to let the situation go to waste.”

  He set the crutch against the dressing screen. Then, holding onto the edge of the tub, he knelt behind her. He couldn’t be serious! Did he really intend to bathe her? When he grabbed the washcloth and bar of soap, she made a move to get out of the tub, but, as she feared, he reached out and stopped her.

  Drat it all! He didn’t have to raise his voice or use force to get her to comply. The simple way his gaze lingered on hers, his eyes glistening with determination to bend her to his will, and the firmness of his touch had her at a loss. She’d never seen any gentleman with such a commanding presence before. And as much as she hated to admit it, she found it incredibly sexy.

  “Where would you like me to start?” he asked as he lathered the soap in the water behind her.

  “Nowhere,” she replied, though she knew it would be useless. He was going to touch her no matter what she said or did.

  “In that case, I’ll choose.” He set the washcloth and soap down. “I won’t start by bathing you. I’m going to rub your back.”

  “You’re going to what?”

  “Trust me. You’re going to like this.”

  Without waiting for her to reply, he slipped his hands under her behind and brought her back closer to him. She shrieked. Not because he hurt her. Not even because some of the water slipped out of the tub. She shrieked because she didn’t actually think he was going to do something so bold.

  He brought his hands up to her shoulders and began to massage them. She tried not to enjoy his touch. Really, she did, but as he proceeded to knead the knots in her muscles, she felt herself succumbing to the urge to relax.

  She didn’t know where he learned to do this, and after considerable debate, she decided not to ask because she didn’t want to know. Though he claimed he hadn’t been intimate with a lady, she found it hard to believe. Maybe he’d been drunk during the act and didn’t remember. Or perhaps he was lying to her in order to gain her trust. There was no way to tell if a gentleman was a virgin or not.

  These thoughts wove in and out of her mind as he continued to massage her back. Soon, she found that she could no longer concentrate on any of them. He did have good hands for this sort of thing. It was much too easy to give into the soothing rhythm of his actions. She closed her eyes and let her mind go blank. For once, she didn’t have a care in the world.

  “I see you like what I’m doing,” he whispered in her ear.

  Had she not been so relaxed, she might have jerked in surprise, but it was difficult to move.

  “You need not fight me, love,” he said. “There are a lot of things we can do together, and I suspect we will enjoy them very much. I’m not going to come to your bed at any time today or tonight. When it’s time for us to come together, you’ll be more than willing to do it. I assure you of that. But for now, I see no reason why we can’t get better acquainted.”

  Just as she was about to ask him what he meant by that, he brought the soapy cloth to her back and started to wash her. This happened to be as nice and soothing as the massage had been, so she decided to go along with it. Then, when he was done with her back, he brought the cloth to her shoulders and washed those as well. From there, ever so slowly, he started to work his way down to the area just below her neck. Her eyes flew open, and she glanced down at his hands, which were dangerously close to her breasts.

  She knew she should bat his hands away. Any lady who wished to uphold her virtue would do exactly that. But the truth was, a part of her was excited by the prospect he might very well touch her somewhere he shouldn’t. She told herself she shouldn’t be. A real lady would get out of the tub right away and get away from him. But she didn’t feel like being a lady at the moment.

  What an odd thing. How could he accomplish such a feat in such a short amount of time? When he came into the room, she was ready to fight him with all she had, and now… And now… Well, she didn’t know what had come over her to change her mind so quickly. Except there was a certain excitement in being with a gentleman who wasn’t going to go away just because she told him to.

  “Why do I have the feeling that you’re not a virgin?” he asked, his tone laced with amusement.

  “I am a virgin,” she said.

  “Maybe you haven’t done everything with a gentleman, but something tells me you’re not a stranger to being touched in certain places.”

  After a moment, she offered a casual shrug. “I might have
entertained a small dalliance one time. But it was only once, and no, we didn’t do everything.”

  “Was this Lord Durrant?”

  “No. I never did anything inappropriate with him. I didn’t even so much as kiss him.” Which was a shame. She had always wanted to know what kissing him would be like.

  “Then who was the fortunate gentleman who got the pleasure of touching you?” he whispered.

  “No one important. A friend of the family who was my brother’s age who came to visit for a couple of days. He and I were curious about the differences between gentlemen and ladies. We were young and naïve. It didn’t mean anything.”

  “I believe you,” he said.

  “Does it bother you?” she asked.

  “No. That was before we married. However, now that we are husband and wife, you will only satisfy your curiosities with me.”

  He brought the washcloth down to one of her breasts and washed it in a way that allowed him to be tender while thoroughly exploring her. The cloth brushed lightly over her nipple, and she shivered. There was something undeniably thrilling about a gentleman who wasn’t the least bit shy about going after what he wanted, which was what she had expected from a captain. He lightly squeezed her nipple, sending a spark of pleasure right to her core. She sharply inhaled. She hadn’t expected that.

  “Do you like that?” he whispered, his breath hot against her ear.

  She cleared her throat. “Yes.”

  Maybe she should have been more reluctant about letting him know she was enjoying this, but her body gave her no choice. Her brief time with her brother’s friend had been nothing like this. She had no idea a few touches could be so intoxicating.

  She glanced over her shoulder. “Are you sure you haven’t done anything with another lady before?”

  He shot her a wicked grin. “No, but crewmen have a way of talking about things they like to do with ladies, and they like to go into detail.”