Benedict's Challenge (Regency Club Venus 3) Read online

  She looked so much better today than she had yesterday. There was color in her cheeks and lips now that she was being fed regularly. The violet gown she wore also gave her complexion an ivory glow and made the blue of her eyes appear an even deeper shade.

  The fact that she constantly used those lips and eyes to smile at him was still a little disconcerting. Most young women were either in awe of him or wary of the sharpness of his tongue. Chloe—she still refused to tell him her surname—smiled at him warmly and often.

  It was…pleasant.

  More than pleasant, to be gazed upon with approval by such a beautiful young woman.

  “I apologize for my terseness, Jimmy.” Benedict now grimaced. “It has been…an eventful few days.”

  The younger man grinned at him. “So no mad Lady Winter locked away in the east wing, then?”

  Benedict had occasionally noted these past nine days that Jimmy did not always speak with the Cockney cant by rounding his vowels and omitting his h’s and the g’s on the end of -ings. He had certainly not done so just now.

  Jimmy’s teeth, which a week ago Benedict had thought to be black with decay, also appeared less so now, leading Benedict to question whether the younger man might have made his teeth look that way with the application of soot. There had been a fire lit in the infirmary every day to ensure Jimmy was kept warm, but Jimmy himself had not been able to get out of bed for several days after the attack.

  Making it impossible for the younger man to reach the soot and continue to blacken his teeth?

  Jimmy still wore some of Benedict’s older clothing and boots, along with a dark gray superfine and heavy topcoat. This, along with his carefully combed hair, the occasional lack of a Cockney accent, and white instead of blackened teeth, meant Jimmy might easily pass for a gentleman in Society, albeit an impoverished one.

  Benedict could only conclude from these anomalies that Jimmy was yet another person with secrets to hide. But as Benedict was hiding some of his own, he did not feel justified in questioning the younger man.

  It was a different matter with Chloe. She was an unprotected female, and her manner of speech proclaimed her to be educated and a lady. It could have serious consequences for both of them if she was discovered living in the household of an unmarried gentleman who was not her guardian nor related to her in any way.

  Bringing Chloe and Jimmy to the country with him was possibly not the wisest thing to have done, but it had at least ensured Chloe’s safety for the moment. Benedict hoped to be able to persuade her into telling him more about herself so that he was fully informed before they returned to London.

  He had spoken to the members of his London household before leaving, warning them against speaking to anyone or revealing the whereabouts, if asked, of Benedict or his two guests. He believed Lord Gordon, because of Benedict’s interest in Chloe the previous week, and once the other man had exhausted all other avenues in his search for Chloe, might try to learn that information. Benedict had also sent a brief note to Julius Soames informing him of his plans, with the request he not share that information with anyone else, but especially not Lord Henry Gordon.

  He now gave his two guests a formal bow. “I will see you both at dinner this evening.”

  Jimmy’s brows rose. “Ya expectin’ me to ’ave dinner wiv the two of ya in the main ’ouse?”

  The cant was back with a vengeance, Benedict noted with amusement. “You are both staying in the main house as my guests, so yes, that was my intention.”

  A tide of red slowly colored Jimmy’s cheeks. “I’d be more comfortable sleepin’ owt in the stable and eatin’ in the kitchen wiv the uvver servants.”

  “But you are not my servant, young James—” Benedict broke off his teasing as Jimmy drew in a hissing breath and the color drained from his cheeks as quickly as it had entered.

  Yes, Benedict decided, Jimmy—James?—was most definitely keeping secrets. “Both of you go along with Mrs. Underhill, and she will show you to your bedchambers and see you are provided with refreshment,” he instructed briskly. “The two of you look as if you are in need of a rest after our journey,” he added after a glance at their pale faces.

  Jimmy, Benedict believed, because he had called the younger man by the more formal name of James. Chloe, because no matter how brief their hours of travel, she would not have been comfortable with the injuries she had and where they were situated.

  “I will come and check on your dressings before dinner,” Benedict told her.

  “Oh, but—”

  “It was not a request, Chloe,” he cut in softly but firmly.

  Her lashes lowered. “Very well, my lord.”

  Benedict watched Chloe and Jimmy as they followed his housekeeper up the wide staircase to the bedchambers, not wholly convinced by Chloe’s air of obedience.

  But for the moment, he had another matter in the east wing urgently in need of his attention.

  Benedict hurried through the house and then up the wide staircase to where the private rooms were situated on the first floor, He tapped lightly before opening one of the doors and stepping into the sunny room.

  A young woman seated in front of the window now turned to look at him. Her face instantly lit up with pleasure as she jumped to her feet and ran to him “Benny!”

  Benedict caught her as she launched herself into his arms in total confidence he would not let her fall.

  Because he never had and never would.

  Benedict was not, as Jimmy had surmised, hiding his wife, the “mad Lady Winter” up here, but he was keeping someone very precious to him hidden away from prying eyes and hurtful mouths.

  Chapter Five

  Chloe felt slightly apprehensive as she waited for Benedict to come to her bedchamber later that evening. Not because she was afraid of him, but because he had not questioned her too deeply as yet regarding how and from whom she had received the wounds upon her bottom and thighs. But he did not seem the type of man who would continue to avoid the truth nor fear confrontation. A confrontation she could no longer avoid when Benedict came to dress her wounds.

  As such, Chloe knew he would want more answers from her, sooner rather than later, other than her name and where she was born. What and how much she could tell him was her current dilemma.

  Lord Benedict would have no choice once he knew of her true circumstances but to send her back to live in Lord Gordon’s household. Having once escaped, Chloe would now rather die than return to that prison of cruelty.

  But to lie to Benedict was equally as unacceptable to her, after he had been so kind as to take her into his home and now bring her away with him to the country, out of harm’s way.

  Not only had he done those things, but the trunk that had been waiting for her in her bedchamber not only contained new gowns but also new undergarments and bonnets, as well as pretty shoes and sturdy boots. There was also a box containing several small items of jewelry, such as earbobs and hairpins. She was, even now, wearing one of the gowns, fashionable and high-waisted and made of rich red silk. She also wore pearl earbobs and matching pins in her hair.

  Yet more kindness from a man who declared himself to be bereft of that emotion.

  Perhaps there was a middle ground where Chloe did not actually lie to Benedict but managed not to be exactly truthful either? Except Chloe could not think how best she might do that.

  A knock on the bedchamber door ended her musings, and she quickly crossed the room to open it.

  One look at the determination in Benedict’s expression after she had bid him enter told her that her thoughts were wasted because her time for prevaricating was now at an end.

  Benedict looked magnificent in his black evening clothes and white linen as he stepped into the center of the bedchamber. He carried a familiar black doctor’s bag in one hand. “Pretty as the gown is, and however beautiful you look in it, it will have to come off,” he stated without preamble.

  Chloe’s heart leapt, and a wave of arousal swept through her w
hole body at the suggestion of her being half naked in Benedict’s presence. It caused the hairs on her arm to rise and her nipples to tighten beneath her chemise before that heat then settled and centered between her thighs. It also brought a blush to her cheeks, and her eyes felt hot and feverish.

  Lord, how much she wished Benedict were saying these words to her in a romantic way, rather than as a doctor wishing to examine his patient!

  But he had just called her beautiful, she reminded herself wistfully. “Would you help me by undoing the buttons?” She presented her back to him. “The maid who helped me to bathe earlier also fastened my gown for me, but now she has returned downstairs.”

  Benedict’s pulse was racing, and his cock grew thicker, longer, and harder the more his gaze devoured how beautiful Chloe looked in the red silk gown. Her golden curls were swept up and secured with several jeweled pins, leaving her shoulders and the tops of her breasts bare. The red color of the gown perfectly complemented her golden hair and ivory complexion. It also emphasized the deep blue of her eyes and gave her kissable lips a deep rose color.

  Dear God, had he really just thought the phrase “kissable lips”?

  He was not a sentimental or romantic man. Possibly because he had never had the time or opportunity to be so.

  But here, alone with Chloe in her bedchamber, he felt both those things.

  Perhaps he should not be alone with her but recall the maid?

  But if he did that, the maid would see those wounds Benedict was sure were from where Chloe had been whipped, and the last thing Benedict wanted was to cause Chloe any more pain or embarrassment. She had already suffered enough. He didn’t care what she had done to offend Lord Gordon, she had not deserved to suffer this hurt and humiliation.

  And Benedict must control and suppress his desire for her. When necessary, he bedded ladies of the demimonde, certainly regularly enough so as to satisfy his carnal needs. He did not need, could not—

  Dear God, he had desired and wanted Chloe from the moment he first looked at her, and that desire and want had remained constant within him this past week. It had only grown stronger these past twenty-four hours of being with her. He could so easily imagine baring her completely and then feasting on her breasts and the juicy and delicious nectar between her thighs—

  No!

  How could he even think about these things, let alone want them? His loyalty was and always would be with Beatrix, and he would not allow anyone or anything, most especially something he did, to ever hurt her.

  Benedict loved Beatrix dearly and would do anything for her. Had and would continue to do anything for her for as long as they both lived. If he should die first, he had made provision in his will for Beatrix to continue to be taken care of until she died too.

  In the meantime, he would keep her safe and continue not to allow anyone to hurt her by word or deed.

  Not that he thought Chloe would do that. He knew from her easy acceptance of Jimmy’s presence in the carriage today that she was far too kind and considerate of other people’s feelings to want to hurt another living soul.

  Except, perhaps, Lord Gordon.

  The only expression of discord Benedict had seen in Chloe was when he talked of Lord Gordon.

  “Benedict?”

  He blinked to refocus his attention on Chloe. She was looking back over her shoulder at him, her expression one of puzzlement and concern. No doubt at his continued silence.

  Benedict did his best to give her a reassuring smile as he reminded himself he had come to this bedchamber as Chloe’s doctor. Nothing more, nothing less.

  That being the case, he stepped forward and began to unfasten the tiny buttons down the back of her gown.

  Her skin felt so warm when his fingers inadvertently brushed against her spine.

  Her skin looked so creamy.

  Deliciously edible, as Benedict bared inch after inch—

  No!

  He could not do this. Could not involve another soul, most especially someone as young and lovely as Chloe, within the loneliness his life had been for so long.

  He unfastened the last of the buttons on the gown, keeping hold of the material as he allowed it to fall to Chloe’s slippered feet. He then gathered it up in his arms and draped it across the back of the chair in front of the window. “You will need to unfasten your drawers and then lie down on your stomach on the bed with your chemise raised at the back,” he instructed with far more coolness than he inwardly felt.

  Chloe looked beautiful in the red gown, but she was even more ravishing out of it.

  Twenty-four hours of eating properly and being relieved of the constant strain she appeared to have been under seemed to have taken away some of the sharp edges where her bones had been too visible. She was still light and delicate-looking, but even half dressed, she now faced him with an unmistakable dignity.

  Benedict’s cock, still hard and aroused, gave an approving throb.

  Chloe, once lying on her stomach on the bed, could only feel relief at having been spared the embarrassment of being bare in this way, due to her having been unconscious, when Benedict dressed her wounds the first time.

  It was embarrassing for two reasons.

  The obvious one being that she was now only half clothed in front of a man who made her heart pound and her body ache.

  The second one being that she had these unsightly wounds at all. Ones that had obviously been deliberately inflicted.

  She had thought she was going to die that day, Lord Gordon having been filled with a rage such as Chloe had never seen in him before.

  Over the following week, racked with pain and burning up with fever when one of the deeper wounds had become red and filled with pus, she had many times wished that she had died.

  But the fever finally broke, her wounds, although still unsightly, had begun to heal. They had become even more comfortable after Benedict had cleaned and put salve and dressings upon them yesterday.

  The fact Benedict, as he sat on the side of the bed where she lay, was now able to easily remove those dressings, along with his murmurings of approval when he did so, was reassuring.

  That he could see her completely bared bottom and the tops of her thighs was less so.

  Did bottoms blush?

  Probably not, but skin definitely became flushed, and Chloe felt that flush all over her body, from her face down to her toes, and that included her bottom.

  That heat deepened when Benedict continued to sit silent and unmoving beside her.

  Finally, when Chloe could stand the tension no longer, she turned her head to look at him. He stared back at her with glittering dark eyes. The color was high in his cheeks, his lips moist and his jaw tight, and his hands were clasped into fists as they rested on his thighs.

  Chloe swallowed at this visible show of tension on his part. “Benedict—”

  “I am a doctor and have taken an oath to heal and protect life, but that has not stopped me from wanting you from the moment I first set eyes on you up on that gallery,” he ground out harshly. “Having you here now, being able to touch you as well as look at you, is tempting me beyond the limits of my control.”

  Chloe continued to look at him as she rolled over and then moved up and forward onto her knees, until their torsos were only inches apart but not quite touching. “I have wanted you for the same amount of time.”

  Benedict’s gaze moved from her lips to her eyes. “You have?”

  “As much as I am able to understand such things, yes,” she acknowledged self-consciously.

  A comment which reminded Benedict only too clearly that Chloe was nineteen years old. Too young and innocent for an experienced man of two and thirty. One, moreover, who had no future to offer her.

  Besides which, whatever Chloe felt for him could be confused with gratitude for his having removed her from London and the threat of Lord Gordon. Benedict should not, in all conscience, take advantage of such feelings.

  Except he was only a man, and his senses w
ere currently filled with the heady perfume of Chloe’s warmth and arousal. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips moist and parted, her eyes warm with invitation. Almost as if removing her gown and baring her bottom to him had aroused her as much as it had him.

  Perhaps it had? The aroused nipples pressing against the front of her chemise said it had.

  When Benedict looked down between the two of them, it was to see the golden curls that covered Chloe’s mound were fully visible above her unfastened drawers.

  Yes, Benedict had learned great restraint and self-control, but for the past week, he had desired to see and touch this woman every one of his waking moments and to the depth of his being.

  He gave an inward quiver as the perfume of her arousal caused his cock to become even harder and heavier. She smelled of a mixture of the floral soap she had washed with and a female musk that grew stronger as her arousal deepened.

  It was the same arousal which now held Benedict firmly in its grasp.

  His hands seemed to move of their own volition, fingers spread wide when they clasped Chloe’s bare hips so that he might pull her toward him. Their bodies, his fully clothed, Chloe wearing only her chemise and unfastened drawers, now touched chest to breast.

  Benedict gasped as Chloe held his gaze, and he watched her swing one of her legs across his thighs before she settled down on them. The throbbing hardness of his cock now nestled against the heat of her mound.

  “Would you kiss me?” Chloe requested achingly.

  Benedict gave a low groan, one of longing rather than protest. His gaze held Chloe’s as he slowly lowered his head and his lips claimed hers, giving her time, if she should need it, to change her mind.

  Instead, he saw only certainty and desire.

  Chloe’s lids fluttered closed at the first touch of Benedict’s warm lips against hers. Lips that were both firm and demanding and yet also coaxed her into returning his passion.