The Untamed Bride

with Hamilton?”

Demon shrugged. “Royce doesn’t know the details. Sounds an interesting tale. Apparently she’s been with him since Aden. He came up through Alexandria, then Marseille to Boulogne, where apparently they ran into quite a bit of action, but eventually they got to Dover, where two of your crew”-Demon nodded to Gervase and Tony-“nabbed them and whisked them into hiding.”

“Hamilton’s a good man,” Del said. “Any word of the other two?”

“Not that Royce mentioned,” Demon replied. “I took it to mean he hasn’t yet heard.”

After dinner, the men gathered in the billiard room.

Devil looked up as Vane, the last to join them, came in and closed the door. “How are we situated?”

Vane gave him a wry grin. “We’re safe enough for the moment. They’ve got their heads together, doubtless planning an early morning jaunt.”

Del had been wondering if Deliah might attempt such a thing. Now he looked his horror. “Not all of them?”

Devil just looked at him as all the others with wives nodded. “Every last one, which brings us to what we need to plan now. How to stop them.”

“We only need to delay them for a few hours,” Richard pointed out. “Long enough to make sure they can’t reach the cathedral in time.”

“We could lock them in their rooms,” Demon suggested.

“Alathea can pick locks,” Gabriel said.

“So can Francesca, I think,” Gyles put in. “Whatever we do has to hobble all of them, and effectively, or those who get loose will release the rest.”

“What about blocking their access to transport-in this case, horses?” Lucifer suggested. “Order the stable staff to sleep in. The ladies can’t follow us if they can’t get beasts saddled or horses put to.”

Demon humphed. “Flick can saddle anything with four feet. And she’s perfectly capable of organizing the others to put horses to gigs.”

“Catriona can, too,” Richard said. “Forget that tack.”

They all thought. Hard. Some of their suggestions were wildly fanciful. By and large, all were impractical.

Devil drummed his fingers on the billiard table. “We only need to stop them from following us and arriving early morning, before or during the action. It would be useful, in fact, if they arrived at Ely after the excitement, say by ten or so. That way we could go on to Elveden all together-an inclusion to salvage some hope of our continuing felicitous matrimonial existence.”

There was silence for a moment, then Vane admitted, “That’s a serious consideration. No need to court unnecessary retribution by excluding them from sharing whatever triumph we reap.”

“What we need,” Gyles stated, his gaze locking with Devil’s, “is to stop them from leaving their beds before dawn.”

Lucifer waggled his brows. “Surely we can manage that.”

Gabriel snorted. “Sadly, determination can overcome a great deal. We can’t rely on exhaustion to accomplish what we need. We have to have something more certain.”

“Indeed.” Devil’s tone was decisive. “And as we’ve just demonstrated, when it comes down to it, there really is only one way.”

Fourteen

December 18

Somersham Place, Cambridgeshire

Later that evening, Del made his way to Deliah’s bedchamber, Devil’s strategy for dealing with the pending problem posed by the ladies wishing to join them circling in his brain.

It was, by any measure, an outrageous proposition, yet it would work, and he couldn’t think of anything else that might.

Every male linked with one of the aforesaid ladies had sworn to do their part. Only Tony and Gervase were excused. Yet while all the others-being married to their respective ladies-were in a sound position to weather the resultant and inevitable storm, he stood on significantly less firm footing.

Unless he took steps to shore up his position before he put Devil’s plan into action, he would risk losing all. Losing her. That was not something he wished to contemplate. It was certainly not a situation he would accept.

Ergo, it was now imperative that he take the necessary steps-to offer for her and secure her, and through that gain the right to protect her at all costs. Once she’d agreed to be his, she couldn’t argue with him doing everything-and anything-necessary to protect her.

She might try, but then it would be she standing on shaky ground.

Reaching her door, he paused, conscious at some deeper, rarely stirred level that, aside from all else, it was somehow now fundamentally important for him to know she was unquestionably his-declared to be his-and that she was safe. He needed her to somehow balance him; she was now essential to the framework of the life he wanted to live.

She was crucial to his future, and not having her agreement to be that critical and necessary part of it wasn’t a situation he could any longer accept.

Before he went out to face the Black Cobra, he needed to know she would be there-his-when he got back.

Determination hardening to resolution, he reached for the knob and opened the door.

Firelight flickered inside. A single candle was burning on the table by the bed. Beyond its glow, the rest of the room lay in deep shadow.

Deliah was waiting, already in her nightgown with a warm shawl draped about her shoulders to defeat the winter chill. Arms folded, she’d been standing before the hearth gazing at the fire. She turned as he entered, and smiled.

That smile embodied everything he wanted, not just for tonight but for every night for the rest of his life.

He returned it as he crossed to halt before her. He looked into her eyes as he drew her into his arms.

She held his gaze. Searched it.

Read something in his eyes-saw something of his resolution, his purpose. Head tilting, she parted her lips-

He bent his head and kissed her. Gathered her closer as, after an instant’s surprise, she responded. Ardent as always, instantly willing to follow his lead, to waltz into the fire and the flames with him.

To let mutual passions flare and burn.

The last thing he needed was for her to ask questions-not yet, not now. So he kissed her to distract her.

Then he realized, and kissed her to persuade.

To convince.

To woo.

She was supple and giving in his arms, all feminine curves and lush challenge. Raising her arms, she wound them about his neck and kissed him back, enticing and provoking. His arms locked as she pressed against him, into him, and his world narrowed and condensed.

To just this. To her, and all he’d found in her arms.

To her, and all he felt for her.

Sunk in her mouth, his tongue dueling with hers, he seized the moment, used it to show her.

What she meant to him.

How much he needed her, wanted her, desired her.

Deliah read his message with ease, but when he lingered, holding her in the kiss, letting the exchange stretch until her wits and senses spun, some part of her wondered.

Some tiny rational part of her mind looked, and saw. Sensed and felt with every heartbeat something deeper. Some element she hadn’t seen, or hadn’t noticed, hadn’t felt before. It didn’t feel new, just…more.

Even as she sensed it, and wondered, he pressed deeper, tasting her, inciting her to taste him, to drown in the