Twice a Rake Read Online Free

began to clear away the place settings.
    Perfect! “I think,” she said finally, “it is high time for the ladies to excuse ourselves to the drawing room while the gentlemen enjoy their port. Aunt Sedgewick, would you not agree?” She stood and made her way from the room without further ado.
    She might possibly have escaped a talking to from Father over her horrid inattention. Probably not. But she could hope.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    Finally, after two more hours of what to most would be agreeable discussion, but to Aurora was rather more repellent discourse, their guests all took their leave and she was free to retire to her chamber.
    She rushed her lady’s maid through her nightly ritual of undressing and preparing for bed. Too many ideas were pouring through her mind. She needed to get them down before they floated into the air, never to return.
    Once she was alone, she lit two more candles and placed them on her escritoire. She slipped her inkwell out and placed it just so, then took her quill in hand and opened her journal.
    Aurora reread the last thing she had written: Lord Quinton drew dangerously close to me.
    Oh, yes. Yes indeed, he did. Gooseflesh covered her arms again, spreading all the way down her body to her toes. A story about Lord Norcutt or any of her other potential or past suitors with such a statement might perhaps elicit gooseflesh, but for an entirely different reason.
    Enough with thinking about Norcutt. She had a far more pleasant task ahead of her that evening, and he held no place in it.
    Aurora dipped her quill in ink and placed it to the parchment of her journal. Then the story took over.
     
Lord Quinton drew dangerously close to me, so close I could smell his expensive cologne and feel the warmth of his skin. Then closer again, until his eyes burned down into mine, filled with a yearning sort of ardor, and his sun-kissed locks shone bright in the pale moonlight. “My dearest Aurora, I cannot live without you any longer. I must have you for my very own.”
Before I could react, Lord Quinton’s lips fell upon mine, soft and supple and wantonly delectable. He pulled me into a closer embrace and our bodies touched in an intimacy I’d never before experienced. Slowly, gently, his hands moved from my arms to my back. Then they slid lower, close to my derrière. I could almost feel them there. Despite my better judgment, I even wanted to feel them there. I wanted him to touch me. I wanted to feel his strength against me. Never before had I felt so shameless, so uninhibited. So wanted.
“My lord,” I cried out, not fully wishing his attentions to cease but knowing they could scarcely continue, though I desired nothing more than to become his very own. “We cannot. My father — ”
“Kiss me now, sweet Aurora. I will go to your father in the morning. Surely he cannot deny our love. Surely he will favor our union.”
“Our union? Oh, dear good Lord.” It was about to happen. He would make an undying and irrevocable promise to me, right at that moment. I could feel it. I could even taste it — sweet, like an ice.
“Yes.” He sank to his knee and pulled my gloved hand into his own. “Please, my dear, do me the very great honor of becoming my wife. Allow me to lavish my love upon you for the rest of our days, and to bask in the glow of your beauty. Aurora, marry me.”
My heart sang out “Yes, yes, yes!” Perhaps my voice did as well, because in an instant Lord Quinton again rose to his full height and pulled me close to his body where I could feel his strength and gentleness. Again, his lips touched to mine in a loving embrace. I was the happiest woman in the world.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    Aurora failed to sleep. Her fascination with Lord Quinton kept her up until the last ember of her candlelight snuffed itself out, leaving her with no alternative but to rest.
    Still, her mind raced. Just before losing her light, she had written The Wedding. She wrote it so clearly, her mind had nowhere else to turn