Free Lady Arabella's Scandalous Marriage by Carole Mortimer

her loosened curls self-consciously. ‘I—What would the servants think?’
    He raised blond brows. ‘I do not pay them to think, Arabella.’
    ‘Yes, but—’ Her words ceased as Darius’s hands cupped either side of her face, the soft pads of his thumbs a light and evocative caress against the softness of her lips. ‘Darius…?’
    Darius was fully aware of Arabella’s uncertainty, knew she had no idea how sexually provocative she looked at this moment, with her golden curls wild about her shoulders, eyes dark and uncertain beneath lowered lashes, and her parted moist lips in a full and inviting pout.
    He had begun this flirtation with his wife as a means of diverting her from questioning him any further as to his earlier conversation with Bancroft, but now Darius found that his gaze was fixed upon the invitation of Arabella’s parted lips, and ruefully he recognised that his only desire now was to taste them.
    Arabella felt small and slightly fragile as he curved his arms about her waist and crushed her breasts against his chest, pulling her hard against him before lowering his head to capture those pouting lips with his own.
    She tasted of wine and peaches, which Darius now recalled were the only two things Arabella had consumed at their wedding feast. The wine perhaps to allay some of her nervousness? The peaches because they were light and exotic? Whatever the reason for Arabella’s choice, they were a heady combination to Darius’s senses. Intoxicating, as well as inviting.
    As Arabella herself was intoxicating and inviting.
    It seemed to Arabella at that moment as if no time had elapsed at all since Darius had made love to her in Hawk’s study a week ago. The desire she had known then was once again bursting into flames as he kissed her with a thoroughness that took her breath away and made her body burn.
    All of her sisters-in-laws’ contradictory advice fled as Arabella returned the heat of those devouring kisses, pressing against Darius to make even closer contact as her arms entwined about his neck and her fingers became entangled in the thick silkiness of the hair at his nape.
    His lips were firm and commanding against her own, teeth gently biting, tongue tasting as it explored the shape of her lips before slipping into the heated cavern of her mouth.
    Arabella gasped slightly when she felt Darius’s hand curve around one of her breasts as he continued to kiss her. His thumb caressed unerringly over its sensitive tip as it pressed against the soft material of her gown, sending rivulets of desire coursing down between her thighs, readying her, she felt sure, for even deeper intimacies.
    It was—
    There was a sudden shifting, a lurching of the ducal coach, and it tilted precariously to one side, tossing Darius back against the door, his arm still about Arabella’s waist. Her eyes went wide with shock and fear as Darius pulled her down on top of him to land on the floor of the coach in a tangle of arms and legs. The lamp swayed precariously for several long seconds before it too fell to the floor beside them, extinguishing the candle inside and plunging them into complete darkness.
    Arabella began to scream.

Chapter Five
    ‘C alm down, Arabella! Arabella, I order you to stop that noise instantly and allow me to think!’ Darius said firmly.
    His words had no effect on her obvious hysteria. Not that he could exactly blame her for her distress, when they were blanketed in darkness inside the tilting carriage with a cacophony of noise outside made up of men shouting, dogs barking, and horses whinnying in a horrible manner that seemed to imply at least one of them had been injured in the crash.
    For a crash it had most certainly been. Whether they had collided with another vehicle or not, the precarious tilt of the Carlyne carriage proclaimed that the vehicle had somehow either been damaged or had lost a wheel and was now lurched dangerously to one side.
    The door above them on the other side of the