Petrified

by The Author's Mightier Pen

In two timelines Anna Smith is trapped. In one, it is a marriage of a convenience to save her stepfather's fortune. In another, it is literal. In both, Anna's freedom depends entirely on John Bates. Will he help her escape or is he an enemy in disguise?

19. Throw in the Towel

London, England – 1816

"Why is it always dinner and not some less grand event?" Anna placed the earring carefully and then moved to the other ear as John moved behind her. "Why could we not meet people over tea and a book?"

"Because this forces you to converse with people you might find dull in other situations." He kissed the side of her neck.

"I'd still find them a terrible bore." Anna moved to pick up her gloves. "But it is a business interest meeting so perhaps I'll find it a bit more exciting than some of the other dinners we've suffered through."

"I do admit, there's a toll this life takes on the kinds of people you have to know to make sure roads are smoother in the future." John shuddered, "And I do sympathize with some of the conversational lags."

"Then this'll be the last one we accept for awhile?"

"We could escape to the country and take a holiday from it all." John took Anna's hands, kissing them despite the material covering her skin. "Another tour of our factories to see how the changes are progressing?"

"I'd like that." Anna smiled and put her hand on John's cheek before kissing him briefly. "And I'd also like to talk about another reason for a holiday."

"Other than work?"

"It has something to do with work." Anna's thumb brushed over John's cheekbone. "But it's more about who continues our work."

John frowned a moment and then his eyebrows almost brushed his hairline. "Are you… Could you be…"

"I don't know. I could be but, even if I'm not, it's something for us to think about." Anna shrugged, "I'd like us to start building a family, John."

"I want that."

"Then let's get through this dinner and we'll discuss it."

"And, perhaps, engage in how we'll make it more of a possibility." John wagged his eyebrows and earned an exasperated kiss from Anna in return.

"Perhaps." Anna leveled a finger at him, "But only if you promise we're going on a holiday."

"Starting tomorrow we're unreachable." John raised his right hand. "On my honor and my title."

"Then we can discuss the 'making' process after our evening." Anna took John's proffered arm. "It'll give me something to focus on during dinner."

"As long as it doesn't distract you."

"I'm a professional, Mr. Bates," Anna put her other hand on her chest in mock offense, "I'm never distracted."

"That almost sounds like a challenge."

"I'll not make it one on this occasion." Anna tugged on John's arm, "The sooner we're there the sooner we're home."

"If only it were so." John guided them down the stairs. "There are many dinners I wish I could've ended earlier with 'early there, early gone' as the mantra."

"We can always hope it works this once." Anna sighed, "What if, next time, we insist on an activity that might actually get my blood pumping instead of boring me to tears?"

"I'm not sure that kind of behavior is suitable in public."

Anna pursed her lips at John. "As much as I'd love to respond to that comment with a physical example of what you mean," She noted the slight shiver that moved through John's body. "However, I mean something like riding or shooting or even walking out in public."

"Maybe we could start a trend." John took his coat from the footman and put it on before taking Anna's coat and holding it out to help her into it. "Having another ball or a shooting function would certainly be more interesting than simply hosting a dinner but it does make it harder for people to talk."

"Sometimes I think we all talk far too much." Anna rolled her shoulders to settle her coat and then took John's arm. "Especially the people who have the least to say."

"Such is life." John leaned over to kiss Anna's cheek. "But we can comfort ourselves with the idea that, tonight, there won't have to be much talking at all."

Anna grinned at him and dared wag an eyebrow. "Is that a promise, Mr. Bates? Are you promising me a silent evening?"

"As many silent evenings as you wish." John snagged her free hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it before releasing as they exited and took the steps down to their carriage.

"If I am to say one thing," Anna settled herself on the seat as John sat across from her. "It's that I was hoping summer would be warmer than it's proving to be."

"They say the crop yields will be low because of the chill." John shook his head, "I suspect it might affect our businesses."

"That's something we'll need to discuss." Anna leaned forward, "I don't want to close any of our factories. And, if we can help it, I don't want to risk anyone's job. It might tighten our belts but I think we can manage that."

John could only smile at her and nod. "My thoughts exactly."

They exchanged quiet, sporadic conversation as the carriage trundled through the streets and out into the countryside. The light of the evening slowly faded through reds and oranges to a deep blue and then an inky purple as they arrived at their destination. With John exiting first, it offered him the chance to extend his hand and help Anna from the carriage before they set off into the house arm-in-arm.

A set of footmen helped them out of their coats before they followed another footman to the sitting room where they greeted the others there in separate conversations. Conversations that failed to hold John, or Anna's, interests long enough to stop they passing one another long-suffering looks. One such look had John grinning so hard he failed to cover it before earning a reprimand at his reaction to what he gathered had been a rather sad story. A story, once he heard the details again, that made him fight to roll his eyes about the tragedies of losing money in horse races.

If the boredom of the evening, and the early courses of their dinner, were a prelude then it proved useless in foreshadowing. For just as John swallowed a bland vegetable in time with a nod toward a woman who could only complain about the lax attitude of one of her sons, he struggled not to choke when a latecomer to dinner entered the room. Everyone at the table stopped but John caught Anna's frozen motion, her fingers gripping her spoon so hard it trembled in her grip, at the sight of the man who passed a satisfied smile at those gathered at the table.

"Apologies, sincerely, I was waylaid on the road." Mr. Green took an available seat and John swallowed to try and keep himself from wrapping his fingers too tightly around his knife. "It would seem that we've all started without me."

John noted the pallor of their host before meeting Anna's eyes as she discreetly shifted her chair away from Green. Green held up his glass and half-drained it within a moment of the footman filling it. A smack of his lips held the room in a confused thrall before Green nodded to all seated at the table.

"I didn't mean to interrupt your dinner or conversations. Please," He waved his hand toward them, "Continue."

Conversations stuttered and bumped back to their original places, distracted sentences betraying the confusion of those around the table. The conversation that had entrapped John did not continue as the woman at his side broke protocol to speak to the companion on her other side. If not for his focus being completely occupied with Green, John might have summoned the public ruffle of offense but given the individual on the woman's other side seemed to be a longer-term acquaintance he faulted her nothing. Instead he kept his focus on carefully controlling the knife on his plate and checking Anna's reactions.

For the rest of the rather stunted dinner, conversations broke and fragmented and reformed in Green's presence. It was as if he, and not the host, took control of the room and watched those under his newfound authority with a feigned benign approval. And if the slight twitches of the host's fingers John could only guess that whatever influence Green exerted over him was similar to the hold he might have held over Mr. Guthrie.

Formerly held over Mr. Guthrie.

Dinner finished, perhaps sooner than originally intended, but the curiosity of the table could no longer be sated by food so all, as if in unison, declined separating by sex and all went through to take their after-dinner drinks in the larger library. A library where John went immediately to Anna's side and tried to convince a pair of acquaintances to join them in a card game as a distraction.

A distraction that failed to keep them out of Green's sights as he brought a chair to their table and squeezed himself into the game. He took cards John dealt for the other man at the table, giving both John and the other man a shark-toothed grin and making himself comfortable in his chair. "What a surprise to see you again, Lord Reerbourne. Who could've predicted this?"

"Certainly not me, Mr. Green." John dealt out another hand of cards before shuffling the rest of the deck and leaving it in the middle of the table. "It seems your invitation to tonight's events forgot to include the time."

"It included the time," Green examined his cards a moment, shuffling them to resettle the order. "But, as I said when I entered the dining room, I was waylaid on the road here."

"I'm sure." John kept his voice curt and dealt out two cards.

"You don't sound convinced." Green pursed his lips as John took three cards from Anna and dealt a new set to her.

"It's not my business to make assumptions one way or another about the lives and complications of another." John repeated the re-deal of cards for the other couple at the table before turning to Green. "Do you have any cards to exchange?"

Green frowned at his cards before tossing down three and taking the new ones John dealt to him. "I didn't take you for a poker player."

"I wasn't sure I knew you well enough to have you take me for anything."

"Then you two aren't acquainted?" The other woman at the table frowned, "You seemed to know one another when he-"

"The Duke and I are… more recently acquainted." Green offered the woman a shallow smile before reordering his cards as John laid a third on the table, face-up. "A chance meeting at the theater."

"I don't believe in chance." The other man at the table frowned at his cards before laying them all face-down. "If I did I'd say there was a chance I could win this game any of the times I play it."

"Poor Tony," The other woman offered him a feigned pout before making a face at her cards. "He's not got a bone in his body for a convincing bluff and he hates the idea of deception."

"That's not true at all." Tony rolled his shoulders. "I just find my skills aren't best executed at the card table."

"It's all supposed to be fun in the end Ms. Lane-Fox." Anna shifted in her seat before nodding toward John. "It's why John taught me how to play. It's a way to think differently about a situation and see how you can turn it to your advantage."

"And, at the end of the day, you simply solve a disadvantage with money, right?" Green laid his cards face-up. "That's how people like the Duke here solves problems. Throw money at them and hope they solve themselves."

Ms. Lane-Fox took her turn to frown. First at Green, then at her hand of cards, and finally shook her head. "I don't know what version of His Grace you know, Mr. Green, but that's not the man I know."

"We've all got different faces we show only when we want to." Green's eyes flicked up to catch John and Anna's. "Isn't that right, Duchess? I'm sure you didn't have the face you've got now when you were an inch from poverty before the Duke swept you into marriage."

"I'd walk the line you're teasing very carefully, Mr. Green." John ground the back of his teeth as Green snorted and leaned back in his chair.

"Why? Because you paid off your father-in-law's debt and thought all would be resolved as simply as writing that check?" Green shook his head, his taunting laugh continuing. "No, that kind of burden isn't lifted in an instant."

"The debt was paid." Anna laid down her cards, a smile of triumph at the winning hand she held serving almost like armor against Green's sneer. "Whatever hold you had there is gone."

"The stink is always there." Green leaned over the table and took a dramatic sniff in Anna's direction. "I even get a whiff off you still, Your Grace."

Anna's jaw worked a moment, a muscle twitching slightly in her cheek before she stood and pushed her chair back. Her mouth opened, as if to say something, but she simply turned on her heel and walked away from the table. For a moment John was tempted to follow but, instead, busied himself shuffling the cards back into the deck and leaving it on the table before he stood.

"If you'll excuse me, I'd best make sure my wife is feeling well. I'd hate to think dinner isn't sitting well with her."

"I'm sure what's not sitting well with her is the reality of her position." Green took the cards and shuffled them for himself. "It's a difficult pill to swallow when you've got to face it."

"The pill we're all struggling to swallow tonight, Mr. Green, is you." John straightened his jacket and nodded at Tony and Ms. Lane-Fox. "Viscount, Ms. Lane-Fox, it's been a pleasure and I apologize that I must beg your leave."

Without taking their official leave, John left the library and found the nearest footman who gave him the general direction of Anna's flight. A flight that took John to the second floor and a smaller family library there. An ear to the door told John that Anna's subsiding tears left only a few scattered sniffles as he knocked lightly on the door.

"Anna? It's me."

"Come in." John entered the room and closed the door behind him, locking it for good measure as Anna rose from her borrowed seat. Her fingers tugged at one another as she offered a sad smile. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For leaving so abruptly." She waved a hand, John catching sight of a crumpled handkerchief tucked under her fingers. "I'm sure you had a time trying to explain it to Tony and Mabel."

"Not at all." John made a motion with his hand. "They were probably just jealous that you did what they wanted to do."

"Be serious."

"I am. Do you think they wanted to be near Mr. Green?" John dramatized a shudder as Anna snorted a laugh. "It was noxious to be in his presence."

"I can't disagree there." Anna took her seat again as John joined her on the chaise lounge. "I think he wants something from us."

"Money I'm sure."

Anna nodded, "More than likely."

John took Anna's hand and kissed it. "We'll solve him like we do all of our other problems, I promise."

"And how's that?"

"Together, of course." John smiled and Anna met it with one of her own.

"Thank you." She squeezed his hand and took a deep breath before wiping at her eyes quickly. "We should probably return to the library. And I should apologize to Tony and Mabel for-"

"No." John shook his head, "I'm sure they understand. And even if they didn't, you don't have to explain yourself to anyone."

"But I do, John." Anna took a deep breath, "We've a reputation to uphold and while Mr. Green can barge into a room late and demand the attention of the guests in an abhorrent manner, I can't. I don't want to think about what anyone would say about us, or you, because of my behavior tonight."

"I think everyone'll be talking about Mr. Green's presence more than you leaving it." John sucked the inside of his cheek for a moment. "But if you want to go back down then I'll offer you my arm."

Anna frowned, "What other choice would we have but to go back down?"

"Well," John leaned back slightly in his seat, "We've this room to ourselves and the door's locked…"

"John," Anna's attempt at a chide was immediately lost in the rush of blush that reddened her cheeks.

"Anna," John leaned forward again, taking a firmer grip on Anna's hand. "You're worried about what people will think of you for walking out or for not coming back or if we left right now without a goodbye or an excuse."

"Yes." Anna's eyes narrowed, "I don't understand what that has to do with a locked door."

"It's important that you know, in this moment, that I don't give two figs what anyone in the library downstairs thinks about any of those things." John stood and tugged lightly on Anna's hand to urge her to stand with him. "All I care about is you and what I care about, right now, is making sure you only care about yourself for the next few minutes."

"John we don't-"

"Because I want to show you what I think about you." John closed the distance between them to bring his other hand to stroke slowly over Anna's cheek. "Anyone and everyone else can hang. We could leave in this instant and I would move heaven and earth to make it so."

"I know you would." Anna turned into John's hand to kiss his palm. "But to leave is to admit defeat and I won't do that. Not to someone like Mr. Green."

"Then we won't admit defeat to him." John leaned forward and kissed one of Anna's cheeks and then turned to the other to repeat the action. "Because you are not defeated. Not now, not ever."

He pulled back from her cheek but shifted to put his lips almost on hers. "Do you feel defeated, Anna?"

"No." Her answer was barely a whisper and John's lips ghosted over hers before he spoke again.

"Would you like to see what I think of you? Do you want to see why no one else's opinion of you will ever matter?"

"Yes."

The note of urgency and interest in Anna's voice almost had him swallowing it in an insistent kiss but John held back. A moment hung between them, a delicate balancing act that he needed to manage carefully. And with gentle hands cupping Anna's face, John carefully placed his lips on hers to bring them into a kiss.

He held it for a moment, allowing the last of the frustrated tension in Anna's body to dissipate before he drew back. Enough to end the kiss but not enough for either of them to see one another clearly. A fact that would only have mattered if Anna's eyes were open but they stayed closed and her lips did not change from their configuration. It was almost as if she waited, frozen, for the next move.

"This is why no one else matters." John's voice kept to a whisper, hushed as if calming a skittish animal. "You are the only thing that matters."

His fingers dragged slightly at Anna's jaw as his thumbs caressed her cheekbones. Anna's eyelids fluttered as John's lips dotted careful kisses that barely touched the skin of her cheeks on his journey to leave no place on her face untouched. The only pauses to John's work came in the form of leaving little compliments and whispering his intentions.

When he finished, John pulled back far enough to see the fulness of Anna's face and waited. Her eyes fluttered open but she did not move, caught as if in a spell by John's eyes and the gentle touch of his hands on her skin. John could only smile and dip forward again, stopping just short of touching his lips to hers again. "I am going to seduce you, Anna. Right here, in this room, with all those people just downstairs."

Anna's breath caught and John paused but did not move. The hitch in her breathing forced him back to the knife edge he walked so carefully but John waited and Anna's breath smoothed again. He smiled to himself and kissed just to the right of Anna's lips but pulled back before she could chase him. Repeating the motion on the left side left Anna's huffing slightly and John smiled even wider as he continued to speak.

"I intend to leave you breathless, wanting, satisfied, and completely adored in this room. But," John's lips, once again, were only a hair's breadth from Anna's and he held there. "If you want me to stop then tell me."

"You'd stop?"

"In a heartbeat," John pulled back to ensure his eyes and Anna's held one another in thrall as he spoke. "Whatever you'd ask I'll do. Without a doubt, without question, and without a pause. If it is in my power, I'd give you the world Anna."

"Then," Anna's tongue darted out, running along her lips to leave them just moist enough to caught the shine of the light. "Don't stop."

John's smile almost strained the muscles in his cheeks but he did not stop until he kissed Anna again. Kissed her with more passion and less dainty hesitancy. Kissed her as she deserved to be kissed until Anna's gloved hands crunched in the rigid fabric of his waistcoat and her other hand slid silky fingers into the hair at the back of his neck. Kissed her until they both had to break away for air.

That was the moment John's hands drifted from Anna's face. In a moment they rested on her hips and Anna, reading the moment in a different direction, went to step into John's embrace. Instead John risked the surprised confusion in Anna's expression and turned her in place before bringing her back to his chest and holding there to kiss at her neck.

"This is how I'll seduce you, Anna." John's hands, quickly shed of gloves he flipped to a side table, ran over the satin of Anna's dress and his callouses occasionally caught on the material to leave the rasping sound echoing in the muffled silence of the room. "With my voice in your ear, my hands on your body, and the tantalizing presence of me behind you."

"Yes," Was all Anna could breathe as John's fingers slowly rucked up the skirt of her dress as his lips continued to dot a path along Anna's neck. Her gloved hand dug into John's hair at the back of his neck, clinging when John's fingers glided up her thighs to reach the edge of her silk undergarments. And the claw of her nails through fabric only had John's hand slipping inside the material to touch her.

Anna bucked in John's grip, her hips digging back when John ran a finger through her dampening folds while his other hand slid her knickers down her legs to give his first hand more room to maneuver. Soon they clung to her ankles and Anna leaned back into John to kick herself free of the garments to allow her legs to spread. And once they did, John's hand had more room to maneuver. Room he used to slide his slide his fingers more freely along her wet folds.

With his other hand at Anna's hip, holding her against him to keep her movements steady as she bucked against his ministrations, John adjusted to try and catch more of Anna's dangling skirt. A twist of Anna's hips, and a second of adjustment in his grip, allowed John to keep her skirt out of the way and crook his fingers inside her. Anna's fingers almost ripped at John's hair and he leaned into her grip to leave his kisses lining her neck as his thumb pressed at her clit.

"What do you feel when I do this?" John twisted his wrist just so, with his thumb still rubbing circles at Anna's clit, and Anna's entire body tightened like a coiled spring. "Can you even remember why we're in this room?"

Anna shook her head, hair brushing against John's cheek and mouth as he continued to whisper in her ear. "Do you know what seeing you like this does to me? Can you feel it?"

"Yes." Anna barely managed to gasp it out was John added a third finger and tried to drag the other along her folds. The awkward angle twinged his wrist but he persisted. Persisted enough to leave Anna's other hand gripping his wrist like a claw as she gyrated and ground against his fingers.

John's hand at Anna's hip shifted, holding tightly when Anna bucked back into him and ran her barely covered ass against the front of his trousers. It paused his work for only a moment as he bit the tip of his tongue to stop himself rutting forward into her. Instead he refocused his efforts on moving his fingers deeper inside Anna while, on the retreat, he thrummed his thumb against her clit. And, with the added drag of his pinkie brushing against her wet folds, Anna trembled and came in his arms.

A momentary thought about noise had John quickly working his lips over Anna's to swallow the sound of her orgasm in a kiss. She moved into it desperately, her movements sloppy and uncoordinated as John's fingers slowed and eventually retreated from her quivering muscles. Muscles that clenched and tried to cling to his fingers as if to keep him buried inside her longer. But, as John broke the kiss to allow them both a chance to breathe, he brought those fingers to his mouth and sucked them clean.

The dilation of Anna's pupils, combine with the hitch she could barely afford in her breathing, led John's smile to move into the next stage of his seduction. He brought their lips together again but instead of succumbing to the edge of desperation in Anna's mouth, he used it to distract her as his fingers deftly undid the ties of her dress and let it drop to the floor. The swish of the fabric brought Anna out of the kiss but she pressed closer as John's hand smoothed over her exposed skin and continued to divest her of any impediments until she stood naked in his arms.

"Do you want me to continue?" John trailed kisses over Anna's cheek as his hands continued their journey over her body. Each graze of his callouses over her skin left her shivering in his grasp and she keened when one of his hands came to her breasts and knead and massage there. But the keen turned to a whimper when John's other hand ventured down and returned to lightly stroke over her soaked folds, now completely exposed to the temperate air of the room. "Or do you want me to stop here?"

"Go on." Anna urged, rocking into John's grip and surrendering her gloves as John plucked them from her arms between his ministrations. Efforts Anna soon joined as one of her hands covers John's between her legs to run her fingers alongside his and the other returned to its claimed place at his neck. "I want to hear what else you think of me."

"I think you're worth spoiling." John punctuated each sentence with a kiss as he steered them toward the window seat. The relative dimness of the library, and the signs of no one in the garden at the late hour, left him confident enough to put his back to the view for a moment. "I think you're worth showing to the entire world in your glory. I think everyone deserves to know how wonderful and magnificent you are. And I think I'm selfish that I want no one but me to know. And I think you're so far above me because you allow me to know at all."

John paused, biting at his lip for an instant before he continued. "Would you like to come now or would you like to set yourself like a queen being worshiped?"

"I'm not a queen." Anna managed, her nails digging into John's scalp as his fingers grazed into her folds again.

"You are to me." John pivoted them, quickly arranging their positions to seat Anna on the cushion and put him on his knees before her. The movement left Anna breathless for a moment as John lifted one of her legs onto his shoulder and shifted forward just enough to press a kiss to her stomach. "And I want to lavish my queen with all the adoration she deserves."

In a moment one of Anna's hands flew back to the window, pressing against it to provide a pivot point so she could grind against John's mouth. His hands wrapped around her hips so Anna's lifted leg lay in the crook of his arm and the other pressed against his side with her heels digging into his thigh when she canted her hips against his mouth. But John took no notice of that, or the pain of Anna's grip on his hair as she tugged and twisted him where she wanted him. All that John cared for was the sounds Anna made as she drew closer and closer to her finish, finally coming with her screech buried in the fabric of a borrowed pillow.

John rested back, shifting to a crouch to try and relieve a fraction of the burn in his legs, and wiped at his mouth with a handkerchief. A handkerchief that Anna snatched from his grip so she could press her lips to his unencumbered. When she pulled away, leaving John slightly dazed at the way she sucked the air right out of his lungs, the blue in her eyes was almost entirely lost to the dilation of her pupils. Her nails grazed just behind John's ears and her whisper seemed almost as frantic as her frenetic energy.

"Take me now John. Take me here." She pushed him back enough to move on the window seat and spread her legs a little wider.

John examined the situation a moment before he removed his jacket and almost ripped the ascot from his neck. It fluttered to the floor as John's fingers collided with Anna's to unbutton the front of his trousers and move them and his pants out of the way enough that Anna's fingers could brush against him. The touch of her fingers, delicate in comparison with his but still baring callouses of her own, left John almost rutting into her loose grip and his hand smacked against the window in an attempt to maintain his balance and keep himself upright.

"Anna…" He ground out, his hips almost operating with a mind of their own as Anna tightened her grip on his erection. "This position… I can't-"

She went to stand and John kissed her furiously, almost lost in the sensations now running through him as, with a few touches, Anna turned his seduction back on him. Whether she was fully aware of it or not, as frantic as he was to bring them together as she seemed to be, Anna proved to almost unhinge John's plans. But he could sacrifice them in a heartbeat if she wanted it so.

Instead, Anna followed John's direction and moved to her knees on the window seat. It offered the perfect height for Anna to lean against the window and for John to run the length of his arousal through her soaked folds. They both groaned, John's forehead pressing between Anna's shoulder blades as his fingers flexed at her hips. A moment later, all pretense gone. John thrust forward and they both struggled to bury their moans of pleasure.

There was little finesse left in them. For all the carefulness of the sudden seduction John had planned in haste, they surrendered to the more animalistic and primal desires coursing through them. Whether because they knew a sound could give them away and cause embarrassment or because they did not care if they were caught or seen, they rutted against one another in a frenzy. Hasty kisses and biting nails had them trying to rise the tide together. A tide they crested almost in step with one another but John led first and Anna, due to their combined but sloppy efforts, followed him a second later.

The residual shudders and shivers of flexing muscles and trembling legs had them pulling apart slowly so as to not lose their balance. John's fingers loosened their hold on Anna's hips as he helped her sit back on the seat while he practically fell into a chair beside her. Their fingers met, entangling but a moment before they separated and attempted to breathe a bit more easily.

But, as John went to rise and collect Anna's clothing, one of her knees dropped onto the seat between his legs. John lifted his head to see Anna, imperious and regal above him as she gazed down from her height advantage. An advantage that allowed John a glorious view of her breasts and left him at her mercy when Anna leaned forward to press her thigh against his still sensitive arousal. And when she rocked against him John groaned at the sensation of immediate perking interest.

"Did you think we were finished?" Anna's voice, almost husky in the way it whispered out of her. "Did you think you were the only one who could seduce?"

"Your very presence seduces me."

"I know." Anna's hands rested on John's shoulders before her fingers flicked down to undo his buttons until his waistcoat and shirt hung open. "That's why I plan to use it to my advantage and take what I want from you."

"Any time you like."

"Good." Anna used her hold on John's shirt to tug him forward enough to remove the offending articles from his body so they dropped onto the recently defiled window seat. "Because one good turn deserves another."

"It costs me nothing to be kind."

"But it'll cost you everything not to come." Anna's grin left John shivering as her hands smoothed over his chest until they stopped at his trousers. She tugged at them and John used the arms of the chair to hoist himself up enough that Anna could finish disrobing him.

Now, with their clothing scattered all over someone else's library and their nude bodies ready to defile another piece of foreign furniture, John practically vibrated with the effort of keeping himself still as Anna used her body to spread his legs so she could settle between them. And it only became worse as she ran her hands over his thighs and tripped her fingers toward his rising erection. In fact, his nails dug divots of their own into the fabric of the chair arms as Anna's hands closed around him and set to a syncopated rhythm of grips and tugs and twists that had John's hips rising from the cushions.

It only grew worse when Anna used her tongue and lips to tempt kisses and tease licks over him. And when she took him fully into her mouth, coaxing him to the thicker and long lengths, it was all John could do to try and name his family history instead of submitting to the primal urge to come. But just at the point where his self-control could hold out no longer, Anna retreated.

With a smile John could only describe as both seductive and exactly what he deserved for his earlier work on her, Anna reclined back against the desk behind her and spread her legs. One of her hands held the edge of the desk while the other moved between her legs. Then, with a crook of her eyebrow, she used her own fingers to bring herself over the edge.

John almost joined her. He even rose from the chair to fall to his knees before Anna but she stopped her efforts almost immediately and shook her head. "No. You just watch for now."

"But…" John could not even form a proper argument. So much of his brain was taken up by the sight of Anna that the other part of him barely kept his primal desire in check long enough to feel a bit offended. "But I want to."

"I know." Anna met John's gaze, "That's why it'll be sweeter to make you wait. Even if for another moment."

So John waited and dug permanent impressions of the grotesquely paisley fabric of the chair arms into the palms of his hands as he watched Anna bring herself to climax without the benefit of lifting a finger to help her. Instead he could only watch as she sagged into the desk long enough to catch her breath. And, when she did, Anna almost immediately rewarded John's patience.

With one leg on jammed between John's hip and the chair, Anna threw the other over John's lap to straddle him and immediately rocked her reddened folds against him. John's body tensed, his force of will keeping him from touching Anna or coming at the feel of her sopping folds running over his straining arousal. It was Anna's fingers, lighter than he would have expected, holding just under John's chin that brought his eyes to hers as Anna rose up on her knees.

"You can touch me now John."

With that, she sank and sheathed John in a second.

They combined a mixture of moans and groans together, both whimpering when Anna rose up again to begin working them both toward a finish. It did not take long. Not with as wound up as they both were. So when Anna finished, riding John as completely and utterly as if she were a jockey and he the prize stallion for a race, John could do nothing but follow her over the edge.

His forehead almost stuck to Anna's shoulder as their sweat mingled. It took him a moment to even consider caring about the length of time they had been away from the gathering downstairs or the scent of the room that now reeked of them and their illicit activities. But once he did, John carefully coordinated his movements to resettle Anna in the chair as he set about trying to clear the room.

When he reached the window, John blinked at what he thought might be a shape on the lawn but it vanished when he cracked a pain to allow a chill breeze to sweep into the space. Ignoring the slight prickle at the back of his neck, John used the convenient wash basin just off an alcove of the room to rinse himself and then do the same to Anna before trying to set their appearance. An effort that was almost entirely wasted as his hair could not be tamed back from its disheveled state and Anna's dress bore signs of wrinkling.

They both could only shrug and retreat from the room, leaving the door open to allow the breeze to run through the space and, hopefully, remove the evidence of their activities. But if there were any questions about their absence they were lost immediately when they returned to a drawing room in an uproar about the host and Mr. Green. Or an absent Mr. Green and a host bearing signs of having engaged in fisticuffs with someone.

Tony came to John's side, barely sparing their appearance a glance but John caught the knowing smirk of Ms. Lane-Fox. "It appears our host owed quite a bit of money to Mr. Green."

"Hence his presence here." John frowned, "But why does he look as if he's fought for his life?"

"Because Mr. Green made a lewd comment about offering to take the prize by bedding His Grace's wife and…" Tony shrugged, "I'm sure you can see where that comment left him."

"Was Mr. Green injured?"

"He took at least one to the jaw and another to the eye but he had more experience than our host." Ms. Lane-Fox finished her drink. "He left but I think it ended the party and we're all simply waiting for a way to leave without appearing as if we're abandoning ship."

"Then allow us to be the first." John took Anna's hand and walked to their host. "Thank you, Lord Sinderby, for the evening. Unfortunately the Duchess isn't feeling well so I believe we'll retire."

"Of course." Sinderby waved at them. "Have a good night."

John nodded at the man before leading Anna from the room, noting the general release of breath and tension as the first official exit gave the rest of the guests excuse to leave. A tidal wave they avoided by being the first to retrieve their coats and have their carriage brought to the doors. And, once they were inside, it was only a moment before John found his head hitting the back of the carriage and his lap overtaken with Anna.

"Anna?"

"I don't think I'm quite finished with you." Anna brought their lips together, controlling the kiss. "Not yet."