“This one,” he said hoarsely. Gillian hoped the trauma of his wounding hadn’t caused an illness in his throat. “You’ll do this one first, followed by the next one, and if I survive that, all the rest of the Imperial-bloody-Exercises of Eros.”
She looked at the page he was waving in front of her. “Are you sure you are up to that? Your wound—”
“Purifying,” he gasped, staring at her breasts, sending a fevered wave of desire washing over her. “My blood needs purifying. This minute.”
Gillian pushed him gently onto his back and reached across his heaving broad chest for the Oils of Araby. “Well, if you are certain that you are up to it…”
“Noble?”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaarg!”
“Noble, I’m not sure you are supposed to be having that reaction.”
“Gaar.”
“Yes, I understand you enjoy this exercise, but the pamphlet does not indicate that you should be panting at this point.”
“Urrrrrr.”
“Noble, my darling, we’re only to the second Imperial Exercise of Eros. How do you expect me to go through all twelve if you are going to expend all of your blood-purifying energies on writhing about in that manner and moaning?”
“Eeeeeeeerm!”
“Oh, I beg your pardon; my hand slipped off your bodily endowment. My, those Oils of Araby certainly do heat up upon application, do they not?”
“Uuuuuuuung.”
“One moment, my darling, I’m just reading the instructions for the third exercise. Let me see…apply the ethereal essences to the wellspring of vigor and manliness. I wonder where that is? Just here, do you think?”
“Nnnnnnnnaaaang!”
“Oh, my, yes, that certainly would appear to be a wellspring of vigor and manliness. Do you think you would have the same reaction if I touched you there again?”
“Nnnnnnnnaaaang!”
“Amazing! Once more?”
“Nnnnnnnnaaaang!”
“That’s absolutely fascinating. Noble, I wish you could open your eyes long enough to see this. I had no idea it was physically possible. You have tremendous muscle control.”
“Gillian.”
“Yes, my love?”
“Take me inside of you. Now.”
Gillian looked down at her panting husband. His chest, lightly sheened with perspiration from the effort of purifying his blood, was heaving as he struggled to catch his breath, while his hands were compulsively clutching large quantities of the bedding. “I beg your pardon?”
“Ride me.”
“Ride you?”
Noble opened his eyes just long enough to place both hands on Gillian’s hips and hoist her over him. “Ride me.”
Gillian looked down. “But you are covered in Oils of Araby and ethereal essences. I would hate for them to go to waste.”
He moved her back and forth across his oiled, essenced bodily endowment. She felt so good, he almost spilled his seed right then and there. He gritted his teeth against the building rush of energy. Gillian’s eyes darkened as she picked up the rhythm. “Perhaps it might benefit the purifying process if I were to…ah…ease you.”
He lifted her up slightly and tensed his entire body as she slowly sank down upon him, her heat enveloping him with a pleasure that was so intense it was almost pain. As she slid downward on him, slowly, consuming him inch by painful inch, Noble shed the last remnants of control and thrust his hips upward, joining himself completely with her body and her soul. His spirit merged with hers and soared higher and higher until he thought he would shatter into a million bright, glittering pieces. At the highest point he shouted her name, pouring out the emotions of his newly opened heart, singing her praises and whispering words of love and joy.
He had left her behind on his journey to heaven, but still he felt her lips on his face, on his cheeks and eyes. Odd how comforting such a simple gesture was. He felt consumed by a strange lethargy that soon melted into something more elemental when Gillian shifted on top of him.
He opened his eyes and gazed into the bright, shining green eyes of the woman seated astride him. “My dear, let me tell you about a list I made earlier this evening. I believe it will go a long way in making up for my…er…appalling lack of manners of a moment ago.”
Gillian smiled back at him and wriggled slightly. A streak of fire shot from his groin out to all points of his body.
“I will need your Oils of Araby.”
A sudden line appeared between her eyes.
He smiled at her frown. “You look tired, my dear. I believe your blood could use purifying as well.”
CHAPTER TEN
“M’lady?”
Gillian moaned slightly and buried her head deeper into the pillow.
“My lady?”
There was that pesky voice again, trying to draw her away from the sated, relaxed feeling that had held her in its embrace ever since her Lord of Araby bestowed his own ethereal essences upon her. Repeatedly. With much vigor and manliness.
“My lady, you have guests.”
As mind-numbingly enjoyable as those Imperial Exercises turned out to be, what filled Gillian with happiness were the words Noble had spoken. Among the words of pleasure and passion, he had admitted that he loved her. She hugged those words to herself, cherishing them, holding them close in her heart. He loved her.
“The guests are in your sitting room, my lady.”
Oh, it was true he probably didn’t even realize he had spoken the words, but he had spoken them, and that meant that deep inside of him, probably in some small corner of his heart, she held sway over his beloved Elizabeth. If she could just nurture that love, it would grow, and he would come to love her as he did the former Lady Weston.
“They’ve been waiting for half an hour now, my lady, and Mr. Crouch asked me to tell you that he’d prefer you not meet with the women.”
Women? Guests? What on earth was Annie babbling about? “What time is it?” Gillian asked sleepily, burrowing her head deeper into Noble’s pillow. She loved his scent.
“Almost noon, my lady.”
“Mmmm.” He smelled so…so…Noble-ish!
“Gillian!”
Gillian groaned. She knew that voice.
“Gillian, you lazy slugabed, get up! I’ve been waiting for you for almost an hour, and here you are lolling around in bed.”
“Go ’way, Char. Sleepy.”
“I don’t care if you are sleepy, you’ve got to get up. Noble’s mistresses are here!”
The mistresses! Gillian sat up in bed. God’s shinbones, how had she come to sleep so late?
“The mistresses came? All of them? They all came? No one sent back a response; I didn’t think they were coming!”
“Here, you, open a window. Gillian, you must instruct the servants to see to the airing of these rooms. This room is quite…” She sniffed and wrinkled her nose. “…stuffy.”
Gillian blushed and pulled up the sheet.
“Yes, they all came, and they’re all downstairs waiting for you.”
“Water, Annie; I need water quickly. Have tea served to my guests, and tell them I will be along shortly. And tell Crouch not to worry, his lordship is out for the day.”
“Good lord!”
Gillian paused in the act of reaching for the dressing gown her maid had laid across her feet as she left. “What?”
“Are you ill? Have you some sort of pox? You’re covered in little red marks.”
Gillian looked down at her arms. “Where?”
“There, on your bosom and neck.”
Her blush deepened as she tried to pull the bedding up to her chin.
“It’s nothing, Char.”
“It’s not nothing, it’s an epidemic!” Charlotte leaned closer, her eyes narrowed in concentration. “Lord, are those bite marks?”