Page 31 of Lily and the Duke
Pleasurable as it had been to make love to Lily, both within the excitement of a house of the demimonde and the quiet of his own study, neither of those locations had offered the complete privacy Gabriel wished the two of them to have for their future liaisons.
Gabriel wanted to be able to hear the uninhibited moans and gasps, Lily’s screams as she reached the pinnacle of her release. Sounds which she had necessarily been forced to stifle in both those previous locations. He also wished to be able to hold her in his arms after their pleasure had abated.
The quicker Gabriel could secure their privacy, the sooner he would be able to arrange to meet with Lily again. Somewhere where he would have the freedom to strip her completely and look at and touch all of her naked body. Also allowing him to feel and hear her every response to his lovemaking.
Something Gabriel believed he was becoming as deeply addicted to as he imagined those who visited the opium dens situated in the slum area of Limehouse along London’s docklands were prone to do.
Thank God Gabriel’s own addiction was only for making love to Lily. But it had grown stronger and more demanding in the days since he was last able to be alone with her.
So deep was his longing to be with her again now, he had even agreed to accompany Chloe and his aunt to a musical soiree this evening after learning Lily was to be there too. Unfortunately, she would be in the company of her mother and sisters-in-law.
Gabriel was well aware those circumstances would mean it was unlikely that he and Lily could be alone together. But just to see her again, to be in the same room, breathing in the same air, would, Gabriel hoped, satisfy some of his hunger for her.
“Has Lady Tremayne realized yet how obsessed you have become with her?”
Gabriel glanced sharply at Hellsmere. “I am not—”
“Do not make the situation worse by lying to me about it,” the other man warned.
Gabriel’s nostrils flared as he fought the urge to tell one of his closest friends to mind his own fucking business. “I would prefer that we not discuss that young lady at all,” he stated coldly. “How goes your own investigations into the identity of Prinny’s spy?”
Hellsmere narrowed his gaze for several seconds before he answered Gabriel’s obvious attempt at a diversion. “My own three candidates are all innocent. Every one of them has proved to be as boringly predictable as might be expected.”
“Predictable?”
“Each is lining his own pockets as much as he can. Each has a mistress. As I said, boring and predictable.”
As had been Lily’s explanation as to why she did not wish to marry any gentlemen of theton.
Hellsmere grimaced. “Those gentlemen are all far too busy thinking of how to ensure their own comfort to be remotely interested in spying, for Napoleon or anyone else.”
Gabriel was aware that he still had two ministers of his own left to investigate. Just as he was aware that he had been neglectinghis duty to Prinny so that he might pursue Lily and, latterly, secure somewhere for the two of them to meet.
He had never shirked his duty before now. Not to Prinny, not during his marriage to Mariah, nor during the years of being Chloe’s only parent.
Gabriel knew he was now guilty of being less than his attentive self to both Prinny’s requirements of him as one of his close confidants and Chloe’s needs as her father.
“I repeat, does Lady Tremayne know that you are obsessed with her?”
Gabriel gave a pained wince. “I am not sure what my feelings are for her.” Not so much that he intended discussing them with Hellsmere, in any case.
“I am.” Hellsmere snorted. “Not since Clara, including during your short marriage to Mariah, have I ever seen you so preoccupied and willing to do anything, go anywhere, even to a ball, in order that you might see a certain young lady again.”
Gabriel’s shoulders slumped. “What is your opinion on the matter?”
The other man’s brows rose. “My opinion can be of no relevance.”
“Except it is.” Gabriel released a heavy sigh.
“Why?”
He shook his head. “Am I making a fool of myself again, do you think?”
“Why should you think that?”
“Because Lily is so much younger than I am. Because she has her whole life ahead of her, and mine is half over. Because she is a close friend of my own daughter. Because—”
“It seems to me that you are trying to find excuses to prematurely end things between the two of you.”
