Lady In Waiting Part 15

She felt a warm nuzzle at her ear then, and the hum of his low, comforting voice beside it.

"I am here, la.s.s."

Her gaze darted toward him. Their eyes met and a shard of panic cut through Jenny. She flung herself bolt upright in the bed. My word. She was in bed with Lord Argyll!

"What am I doing here? In b-bed... with y-you?"

"Dinna ye remember anything, la.s.s?" His voice was as warm as the body she felt pressed against her underneath the covers.

Jenny struggled to think, tried to piece together some logical chain of events that would culminate with her lying in bed with Lord Argyll. But nothing came to her.

This made no sense at all!

She s.h.i.+vered violently, and felt her nipples harden as she shook. Glancing down, Jenny saw that she was entirely naked. At once she scooted under the blankets again.

Had she lost her mind?

"I remember n-nothing at all." Her teeth were chattering, knocking hard against each other as she spoke and she could not seem to stop them. "Callum, p-please. W-what is h-happening. Why are we h-here... t-together?"

He pulled her against the warmth of his bare chest and drew the counterpane close about her. "Dinna fash, Jenny. 'Tis all right now."

She felt him gently kiss the top of her head.

"Ye slipped on the ice, and fell down into the ca.n.a.l. Nearly drowned too, fer yer coat and gown drew ye straight to the bottom."

"My gown. Where is it?"

Callum lifted a finger and pointed through the opening in the bed curtains. "Dryin' by the fire, with me own clothes."

Jenny twisted and strained to see her ensemble. But when she saw it, she wished she hadn't looked. It was too horrible, for there everything was, propped on a wooden drying rack, rumpled and stained.

Tears began to course down Jenny's cheeks as she stared at her beloved walking ensemble.

"Och, come here, love. Ye're rememberin' now, aren't ye? 'Twas a horrible accident, to be sure, but 'tis over now."

Jenny nodded. He was right, she was remembering.

"Shh, just stay close, la.s.s. Stay warm. 'Tis the only way."

And then, as she became more lucid, she realized she was lying naked in the arms of an equally naked man! She tried to push away, but his arm tightened around her.

"We can't do this. 'Tisn't right!" she croaked, realizing only then that hugging Callum's warm body had cured her teeth of chattering.

"Aye, 'tis right. 'Twas the only way I knew to keep the both of us from freezin' to death."

Jenny stared blankly at the draped curtain that formed a ceiling over the bed. The room was dark. 'Twas night! Her mother would be worried. Mr. Edgar too. Oh, no. Her employers!

"I have to get h-home. What must the ladies be thinking? They must be ever so worried." She paused her rant and her eyes surveyed the chamber. "Callum, just where are we?"

"In Laura Place. In the house I've taken fer me stay."

"Your house?" Jenny swallowed deeply as the dire consequences of being in a bachelor's house registered. "I can't be here. I just can't." She tried to get up again, but he s.h.i.+fted and rolled atop her, his arms like bars on either side of her, preventing her escape.

His crisp chest hair brushed against her bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s, making her nipples harden and her cheeks flush. Between her thighs she felt him too, rigid and pulsing slightly against her, hastening the warmth to the most intimate part of her.

"I sent word of yer accident to the Featherton ladies. They know where ye are and sent back a note of thanks fer saving ye. And ye canna go anywhere... not this eve anyway."

Lud, it was hard to concentrate on what he was saying when she herself was lost in sensation. In the candlelight, Jenny could see Callum was more serious than she'd ever seen him. "Why can't I leave?" she managed.

"There is nigh on two feet of snow on the ground. And that over the ice that caused yer fall. So ye'll not be doing anything but stayin' in bed until the both of us are warm and weel again."

"The both of us?" Jenny looked over at her gown again, and at the kilt, coat, and lawn s.h.i.+rt beside it at the fire. Then she remembered what he'd said and suddenly it all made sense.

"You saved me. You jumped into the water, and saved me."

"Aye, I did."

"You risked your own life to save me." A smile took hold of Jenny's mouth.

"Aye," he almost growled. "Now stop repeatin' it, or ye'll make me regret I ever hauled ye from the ca.n.a.l."

This proved it. He could have sent the footman or coachman into the water after her, but he dove in himself. Jenny wrapped her arms around his waist and stared up into his eyes. "You fancy me, Lord Argyll. You do." Joyous laughter welled up inside of her and as it burst from her lips it shook her body, and she felt him grow stone hard against her.

"Christ, Jenny, ye've got to stop movin' like that when I'm atop of ye. I'm cold, la.s.s, but I'm human too."

But that made Jenny laugh all the more.

"Jenny, please. Ye've got to stop movin' like that. Stop laughin'. Jenny. I mean it."

Then suddenly his mouth pressed against hers, and the mirth died in her throat. Instead a wanton moan welled up inside of her as she became all too aware of the growing hardness now pressing gently between her legs. Wicked excitement grew within her.

Jenny slipped her hands from Callum's lean waist and trailed her fingers along his sides, feeling the ripple of his ribs, the cords of his muscles beneath her fingertips.

And it was bliss. Her hands moved between them both, to the point where their bodies parted, and she ran her palms over the mounds of his chest, over his pebble-hard nipples.

Callum drew his mouth back from hers then, and peered deep into her eyes. "What is it aboot ye, Jenny, that makes me want ye like no other? Ye're so different."

Jenny didn't want to hear how different she was. She knew why she wasn't like any highborn debutante he'd met.

But he didn't. He didn't know she was a fake, a fraud.

A lowly lady's maid. The back of her eyes began to burn.

Still, he deserved to know and now was the time to tell him. She had to admit everything, no matter how heartbreaking it was going to be. She laid her index finger vertically across his lips.

"Hush, Callum. Please. There is something I must tell you." Her mouth went dry and her throat felt as if it were packed with wool.

Oh, how she wished she did not have to do this.

"Ye dinna need to say anything, la.s.s." Callum gently nipped at her lower lip. "I already know."

Jenny widened her eyes to stare at him, and a tear slipped down across her temple, into her hair, and dropped to her ear. "You do?" Jenny tensed.

"Aye, I know ye love me."

She exhaled slowly.

He smiled at her. "And as much as I've tried not to, I've come to love ye as weel."

Tears raced freely from her eyes and splashed into her hair. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Didn't know until that very moment how much she wanted to hear those words.

Callum rested his weight on his elbows and slid his hand into Jenny's damp hair and ran his fingers along her scalp. Then he drew his hand through her hair, allowing the locks to slip between his fingers.

Jenny s.h.i.+vered with pleasure, feeling each and every piece of hair fall from his fingers to the pillow.

She felt a wet warmth on her collarbone as he kissed a trail to her breast. The path of kisses tingled, making her arch her back upward and press her body firmly against him.

His rounded tip rose up as she did so. She felt its hard ridge move against the soft flesh of her inner thigh, and brush against her most sensitive of places, making her gasp and press down upon him.

"Tell me ye want me, Jenny, or tell me to find another place to sleep. Fer if ye do that again, I dinna know if I can stop meself from makin' ye mine."

Her heart was pounding and her body felt feverishly tight, aching. "Makin' ye mine." Lud, she'd never wanted anything so much.

Though a little unsure, she knew what he meant. Mostly anyway. Annie, who'd biblically known half the footmen in Bath, had told her all about it in explicit and colorful detail. She'd even shown Jenny the way to touch a man, demonstrating by running her fingers up and down a pine rolling pin.

It had sounded so wicked, but at this moment, she wanted to do nothing so much.

She looked up into Callum's dark eyes, and without breaking her gaze, she brazenly slipped her fingers between them and took him into her hand as she opened her thighs to him.

As she brought him farther between her legs, Jenny felt him flinch in her hand with antic.i.p.ation and she let him touch her, just barely.

Heat rioted between her thighs as she withdrew her hand and instinctively raised her knees.

But he hesitated.

"Please, Callum," she whispered huskily. "I want you."

He stared down at her, and still he hesitated. Why, Jenny did not know. But she didn't want to think on it, she only wanted to feel.

Raising her hips, she pushed her body down upon him, taking him hard inside of her. She closed her eyes and gasped at the slightly painful sensation of his length and girth filling her, stretching her. But the sting quickly subsided and only the warmth and fullness remained.

Callum kissed her lips as he settled himself firmly between her thighs. "Och, la.s.s, ye'll be the end of me," he said in a low heavy breath as he nudged her gently, moving deeper into her wetness.

Jenny moaned aloud, her body throbbing pleasurably around him as he began to thrust into her. He held his weight over her, his arm muscles rigid and hard, as he braced himself upon his hands, positioned on either side of her shoulders.

Following the valleys between the rises of his tensed muscles, she gripped his arms for support and raised her hips, meeting each of his slow, patient thrusts.

Callum watched her, his dark eyes sparkling in the candlelight. His brow became damp with moisture, catching the hair that brushed there.

He was so beautiful. And he was hers.

At least for this night-a night she could hold in her memories forever.

"I love you, Callum. I do," she barely whispered, for somehow it felt almost as though she were saying good-bye. But it was important that he knew that no matter what the future brought, that at this moment in time she loved him. Truly, deeply loved him.

And in her heart, she knew she forever would.

Then, as if her words of love had unleashed his self-control, Callum began to thrust faster into her, harder. With each push, a coil seemed to tighten within her core.

Jenny writhed with pleasure as the tension building within her grew more intense. She squeezed his arms and her nails bit into his hard muscle.

Something made her want to take him deeper, hold him within her, and so she wrapped her long legs around his hips, locking them with a cross of her ankles.

Callum groaned, and suddenly his eyes went wide. He tried to pull away from her, but Jenny tightened her legs around him preventing him from escape. She ground herself against him, tightening her own feminine muscles, trying desperately to force the release lingering just outside her grasp.

An explosion of heat suddenly shot from her center through her body, and she cried out, arching her back and clinging to Callum as her muscles convulsed around him.

"Oh, Jenny, no." Callum's eyes closed, and he released a long exhale.

Beneath her palms, she could feel heat break across the surface of his back and the muscles of his b.u.t.tocks and back tense just before he collapsed atop her.

He lifted his head then and peered down at her. "Oh, Jenny, ye dinna ken what ye've done."

Feeling horribly embarra.s.sed, she looked him directly into the eyes, so there was no question she understood his meaning. "I think I might."

Callum leaned to his side, and reached back to unlock Jenny's ankles. He pushed away and rolled to sit at the edge of the bed, shoving a shaky hand through his damp hair. "Nay, ye dinna."

Jenny leaned to her side and with the flat of her palm ran her hand gently down his back.

He pulled away. "Please. Dinna do that." He exhaled in one great gush. "What have I done? What the h.e.l.l have I done?" she heard him murmur.

Tears began to collect in Jenny's eyes. She allowed herself to fall back against the pillow where she covered her face with her forearms.

They had shared something precious. Something wondrous. But he regretted it.

An hour later, Jenny lay deathly still in the bed staring at the dwindling fire. Callum still lay next to her, though he hadn't said a word to her in all that time. She had a plummeting feeling that he thought she'd sought to trap him into marriage.

But she hadn't. Perdition, had she thought about the consequences of what she was doing, she certainly wouldn't have done it.

She would have never purposely put herself in the exact position her mother had been in-being with child and in love with a man who would never marry her. Could never marry her.

Oh, he might have consented to marry the grand Lady Genevieve, but he'd never wed Jenny Penny, the servant. And worse, a servant who secretly peddled tingle cream to his equals.

What had she gotten herself into?

Her eyes and nose tingled, making her sniffle.

"Jenny, come here, la.s.s."