Page 125 of An Inconvenient Vow

That was going a little far, too fast. A true De Crecy? She loathed the majority of the De Crecys, didn’t she? She should remind him, but it was hard to muster her thoughts when her heart was beating so fast. Of course, in Jeffree’s book, this was high praise indeed.

Her heart gave a lurch. Was he trying to praise her? “I want it,” she blurted, startling herself. Jeffree gave a low hiss. Before she could lose her nerve, she grasped the hair at his nape and tugged on it. “It is mine. Give me my due.”

He did not make her wait and applied his tongue both to her mouth and then between her legs with a lascivious thoroughness that had her squirming. Soon she was having to muffle her cries with her hand or the rest of the inn would know what they were about.

In the aftermath of their enthusiastic coupling, she had stroked his back and wracked her brains for words of love to whisper into his ear. She realized she was almost as bad at this as he. Instead, she remembered his demands from the previous night and told him he was her best lover.

He had lifted his head at that. “Truly?” His gaze snared hers.

“Can you doubt it? You are very generous and giving in bed. I never realized… well, that relations could be like that.” Her words trailing off, she gave him a shy smile instead.

His eyes scanned her face, and whatever he had seen there must have reassured him, for he relaxed back against the pillow bearer. “Good,” he murmured, tugging lightly at her braids. “Now go to sleep, we have an early start.”

Before falling asleep, Sabina wondered with amusement why it was that she no longer minded so much about Jeffree’s lack of polish. Even his awful, ungrateful manners did not really grate with her as they should these days. Why was that? she wondered. It was not that he had changed. Wherever he went, he left a group of disgruntled and offended people. Toward her though, he could show consideration, though it was rarely accompanied by handsome words.

Perhaps, she pondered, it was down to her previous experience. Miles had been so charming to all and sundry, even taking in her parents with his easy ways, but under all that smooth charm, there had been no substance, for he had been a faithless snake. With Jeffree, there was no pretense, but there were other things… like loyalty and passion.

At the inn the following morning he knelt down and applied a stiff brush to the dusty hem of her dress. Glancing up, she thought Osborn’s eyes would pop out of his sockets he looked so shocked by this act of service. Jeffree straightened up and moved away before she could even thank him.

Her heart swelling, she realized there was a sort of charm to her husband after all.

27

The first day’s journeying set the pattern for the rest of their four days on the road. Jeffree could not rouse himself from his sullens during the day, but it was quite a different matter when they reached the privacy of their inn chamber for the night.

On the second night, he did not even wait until after they had taken their supper. As soon as they were shown to their room, he shut the door and was all over her.

Sabina opened her mouth, but he knew just how to stop it, pushing her back against the door and crowding her against it. “Jeffree!” Her shocked gasp did not deter him one bit.

“Give me this,” he said tersely as he lifted her against the door, pressing his hips into hers for comfort. “I need it.”

Sabina’s head tipped back, and she stared up at him. “Like this?” she faltered looking scandalized. “But what if someone hears us?”

Jeffree huffed out an indignant breath. She really thought he would dishonor his own wife by fucking her against a wall like some trollop? Sadly, the mere thought of it made his cock throb so hard he could barely string two words together to deny such baseness.

Sabina licked her lips. “You-you will have to be quick,” she cautioned him breathlessly. “And quiet.”

Holy fuck, she would actually let him? He drew back his head to stare down at her. “Sabina,” he groaned as he reached down to start bunching up her skirts. “Gods, wife…”

Before long, both of them were desperate and shaking. Jeffree covered her mouth with his to muffle her cries, or maybe it was his own he was seeking to quiet. All he knew was that when he finally stopped trembling and grunting and reached that blessed plane of sweetly spent, he still could not get enough of the press of her body or the cool, sweet taste of her mouth.

He did not ever want to leave the haven between her thighs and pressed deep when he should have pulled out. “Stay with me,” he implored raggedly. What else was she supposed to do when she was still impaled on his cock, her back pinned to a heavy oak door?

Instead of calling out his nonsense, Sabina wrapped her legs tighter about his hips and slid her arms around his shoulders, petting him there, making small soothing noises, and comforting him.

Muttering a prayer of thanks, Jeffree took her mouth again with thorough deliberation, rocking his hips and wringing the last from his softening cock. He was a little worried about his preoccupation with his own wife, but what could he do at this point? It seemed he was lost to all shame.

Later that night after they had eaten and washed and had another enthusiastic bout between the sheets, he did not even have to think about the words he needed to give her afterward. They tumbled out of his mouth. “I’m glad you seduced me, wife,” he murmured. “And lured me to your bedchamber.”

Sabina had made a choked noise in her throat. “What are you talking about?” she had asked in a muffled voice as he played with her braids and tucked her in close against his body.

“Enticing me to climb up to your window,” he reminded her in a husky whisper.

She snorted. “You were the one allegedly spotted climbing my shrubbery,” she reminded him.

“I could not stay away,” he agreed.

The next morning, remembering his nonsensical words, he was embarrassed as hell and awkward at breakfast, scowling at Osborn and cursing a servant who spilled his ale. He had an uncomfortable notion Sabina knew exactly why he could not meet her gaze, though she let him off the hook and did not even allude to it once.