CHAPTER NINTEEN
Several days later Thomas and Emma left Stony Cross Manor. The first leg of the trip back to London had Emma tense and quiet. With Thomas sitting opposite her, their knees brushing now and again caused her muscles to seize and cramp.
He informed her they would stop and spend the night at an inn. Earlier, she’d been told they could make the trip to London within a day if they traveled seven hours straight and had good weather. Apparently the duke wished to travel at a leisurely pace. Giles and Rosie followed them in a separate coach so they would provide no distraction. There was no escaping Wentworth’s intense stare. Not a word came out of his grim mouth, however, except the mention of the inn.
Thomas’s dark blue eyes seemed cold and unnatural as he stared at Emma. She shivered under the lap blanket. Thomas’s intense concentration disturbed her more than she wanted to believe.
She refused to speak to him first, and they rode for hours in silence. If it were his intention to drive her crazy, it wouldn’t work. Emma could play his game. She glared her most venomous look right back at him. See how he liked that.
Barely another half-hour went by before Emma could not stand the silence any longer.
Thomas had never felt the wrath of her tongue, maybe it was time he did. Emma had spent many days down at the docks with her father, and her vocabulary could be colorful indeed––if she chose.
“I thought you planned to tell me things you’ve kept secret since before we met. Well? Have you nothing to say to plead your case?” Emma goaded. “Because if you think for one minute that I will spend two days in your company while you sit on your high and mighty arse and glare at me, you are sorely mistaken.”
A slight tic appeared at Thomas’s temple. She felt vindicated.
“And I know what your devious mind has planned for our lodgings this evening.” Emma paused and swept her hand around the carriage like she didn’t have a care in the world. “You can forget it. I would rather bed down in the barn with flea-ridden animals than with you, Your Grace.”
Then she smiled sweetly.
***
Now if Thomas were a man easily goaded into sparring words with a more than worthy opponent, he’d jump into the fray. Indeed, normally if any gentleman or lady spoke to him thus, he would give them a tongue lashing that had them quaking in their boots––half-boots, in Emma’s case. But with Emma, a tongue lashing would not help his cause any. What he wanted instead was his tongue tangling with hers in a deep, sensual kiss.
Thomas settled his body more deeply into the cushioned seat, spread his legs out as far as they could go, folded his arms across his chest, and lowered his lids in an unaffected manner. The urge to smile tugged at his lips. The vision of Emma, her stormy blue eyes on him, her lovely voice spewing out harsh words to taunt him, had only spiked his lust.
Damn, if anyone could bring a eunuch to lust, it was Emma. Her little drama to inflict pain did nothing but churn his blood to boil and cause his cock to harden dangerously. This Emma, clenching her fists opposite him in the carriage, reminded him of the spirited chit who had written to him long ago before he traveled to America with Myles. That feisty, outspoken, blatantly demanding Miss Hamilton had questioned his authority, as her guardian––and as her father’s heir.
Thomas cracked his eyes open just a smidgen and scanned Emma from the tip of her pretty green bonnet to the small, brown leather half-boots poking out from beneath her traveling costume. As far as he could see, every delicate muscle of hers was taut with tension. She was not unaffected. Before Thomas could stop himself his lips curled up into a smile.
When Thomas closed his eyes, images of Emma naked in his bed, her skin flushed, soft and silky to the touch, played out in his mind. He caressed, licked, kissed, and feasted on every inch, curve, and dip of her succulent body. And her body vibrated, her muscles contracting as he took her over the edge, again and again, until the time came for him to sink between her creamy thighs and thrust home his rock-hard cock.
If she could read his mind she would blush and slap his face.
“Hell and damnation,” he blurted out and shifted in his seat to relieve the painful throbbing between his legs. Next time Thomas fantasized about Emma and her naked body beneath his, it would be better in the privacy of his own rooms. Now, he dreaded the long miles of road to be traveled before they reached the Saddle Back Inn.
***
How could he? Emma huffed again. How could Thomas just sit there with his eyes closed, his body spread out and relaxed? She was tied in knots. Why did he not take her to task for saying those dreadful things to him? Damn him for ignoring her. She stomped her foot loudly on the floor of the coach and smirked when he started.