Read Online Amanda Scott by Lady Escapade - Free Book Online Page A

ruefully. “Pettyjohn will have a fit,” he said, referring to his toplofty valet.
    “Did you send him on to the abbey?”
    “Aye, and young Marlie and that awesome Miss Floodlind of yours, along with Forsham, who will see to it that my phaeton and the hunters get there safely, as well. I brought only Fairburn to arrange accommodations on the road for us if we had need of them. I daresay we shan’t. I had thought at first to go straight on today and rack up at Marlborough. But even if we travel slowly, we ought to make Bath easily enough by suppertime tomorrow and Alderwood soon after dark. Are you quite ready for bed, Diana mine?”
    In answer she lifted her arms and slid them around his neck, breathing in the familiar scent of him, feeling a tingle when the tips of her breasts touched his bare skin. She leaned against him, savoring the moment, then let out a sigh of pleasure as his hands moved down her sides, tracing the curves of her body as though he would refresh his memory after two nights without her.
    He bent his head to press his lips against her hair, murmuring, “I missed you these past nights, sweetheart.”
    “I never sent you away, sir,” she whispered. “You just didn’t come to me.”
    His hands tightened at her waist, and she feared for a moment that she had succeeded in arousing his anger again. But a moment later he lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed.
    Diana felt warm inside, and as he began to caress her, finding first one then another of the most sensitive parts of her body, the warmth grew until every fiber of her seemed to ache for him. She decided he was toying with her, even perhaps punishing her a little, but she had learned over the months just how to tantalize him in much the same way, and so now she exerted herself until he was groaning with the attempt to restrain the heat of his passion. Suddenly, he moved over her, taking her swiftly, but she was ready for him, and the culmination of their efforts came in long waves of pleasure.
    “I thought you were suffering from exhaustion, sir,” she said demurely a moment or two later as she lay within the shelter of his arm, her head resting in the curve of his shoulder.
    “And so I am,” he retorted, “and all these sirs of yours sit mighty unnaturally upon your lips, I’m thinking.”
    She chuckled. “At the moment I’m feeling submissive, my lord, but the attack will pass, I daresay.”
    He grunted, but the sound was a contented one. They lay quietly then, not speaking, until Diana knew by his even breathing that Simon had drifted into sleep. Lying there beside him, she was unaccountably reminded of their first night together.
    After all the excitement and festivity of the wedding, held at Trent House in Grosvenor Square, it had come as a shock to find herself suddenly and completely alone with Simon in his own house in Duke Street. But Simon had been so loving, so gentle, so careful of her sensibilities—She nearly chuckled aloud at the last thought. She could scarcely have laid claim, even then, to many sensibilities, only to a vast curiosity. And Simon’s first touch had sent veritable flames racing through her body.
    Not that their first experience had been altogether successful, she remembered, smiling. One might even have described certain moments as awkward and others as definitely painful. But the pain had passed and the awkwardness had diminished in time until they had learned how best to please each other. And the fact that Simon had truly set himself to please her was one of the things she liked best about him. He still made the effort—in bed, at least. But in other ways, their relationship had deteriorated drastically.
    Why, she wondered now, staring into the glowing coals of the dying fire, had they fallen out of love? For surely, despite anything Lydia might say or anything that might pass between them in bed, they no longer truly loved each other. The mighty flame of passion that had burned so