Jennifer Ashley - The Many Sins of Lord Cameron

“Don’t look so shocked, my husband. It was inevitable, the way we carry on. I am only surprised it didn’t happen sooner, but there’s no predicting these things.”

“Our child.” Cameron’s voice became an awed whisper. His dark world whirled around him one last time then dissolved into sunshine. “Our child.”

“Certainly.” Ainsley’s smile faded, but the love in her eyes did not. “I am ecstatically happy, and honored, to carry her—or him.”

Cameron read worry in her face, fear that hadn’t quite faded from the death of her first baby. He cupped her face in his hands.

“I’ll take care of you,” he said. “You can be certain of that. You’ll not have to fear.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Damn you, Ainsley, I love you so much I hurt with it. I fell in love with you the night I first caught you in my bedchamber, my little thief. I was so drunk, and you were so lovely, and I wanted you like I’d never wanted a woman before in my life. How the hell did I live so long without you?”

“About as well as I lived without you.” Ainsley touched his face. “Let’s never live without each other again, all right?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to say.” Cameron straightened from her. “Bed. Now.”

Her brows rose. “My, aren’t you commanding?”

“I am about this. March.” He slapped his hand to her backside and half shoved, half walked her to the bed, Ainsley laughing all the way.

While he laid her down, he growled those naughty things that she loved to hear. Ainsley kissed him, and Cameron slid into her, completing their joining, completing himself.

He loved her until they were panting, sweating, shouting their joy. Cameron held her hard through it all, and still held her as they wound down to exhaustion.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you, Cam.” Ainsley’s voice was soft, tender. He believed her.

Cameron snuggled down beside her, pulling the covers over their nakedness, knowing that he could drift to sleep in complete safety and solace. He knew that he’d wake again in the peace she’d taught him, no more blackness, no more grief.

“Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for giving me back my life.”

“There will be much more of that, my Cam.” Ainsley touched his cheek, breathed her cinnamon-scented breath on him. “Years upon years of it.”

He intended there to be.

Cameron started to whisper that tender thought when he jumped, feeling a very determined hand close around his still-hard cock.

“Devil,” he growled.

Ainsley laughed, her mirth ringing to the ceiling as Cameron rolled her into the featherbed and loved her all over again.

ASCOT, JUNE 1883

Hooves pounded on the track, mud flying, jockeys bent over brown and black and gray backs.

Ainsley whooped and flung her fists in the air as Night- Blooming Jasmine pulled ahead in the last furlong and romped home well ahead of the pack.

The Mackenzie box went insane. Daniel stood on top of the rail and screamed; Beth, Isabella, and Mac cheered at the tops of their voices.

The well-bred crowd in other boxes looked at them askance, and Ainsley hoped that Lord Pierson was among them. His own fault. The man did not understand horses.

Hart added his voice to the cheer. “Eat that, Pierson.”

Mac laughed at him. “You must not need his vote.”

“Shut it, Mac,” Hart said.

Ian didn’t join in with the cheering, but he pressed his fists into the rail in front of him and watched as Jasmine pranced about, proud of her victory. Beth planted a happy kiss on Ian’s cheek, and Ian smiled down at her, far more interested in Beth than the horses.

Only Cameron had not said a word or done a thing. He simply watched, unsurprised, as the horse he’d lavished attention on all spring performed exactly as he expected.

Daniel jumped down from the rail. “I’ve just won a bundle. That will teach the bookmakers to do odds against on Dad’s horses.”

“They knew about Jasmine’s past,” Ainsley said. “They must not have believed Cameron could turn her around. More fool they.”

Cameron held out his arm to Ainsley. “Time to go down.”

“Before you do,” Hart said, “I have something to say.”

Cameron paused, not really interested, but Mac seemed to catch something in Hart’s tone. “What?” he asked sharply.

“Nothing disastrous,” Hart said. “But now that I have you lot married off, I’m contemplating taking a wife.”

The silence was instant, stunned, and heavy. Ian looked at Hart and kept looking at him, straight into Hart’s eyes.

And then everyone started talking at once. “Do you mean Eleanor?” Ainsley asked over the clamor.

Hart broke his gaze from Ian’s and flicked it to Ainsley. “I’ve not said I’ve chosen a possibility.”

“Yes, he has,” Daniel shouted. “He just don’t want to say, in case she turns him down again.”

“Cameron,” Hart said. “Cuff your son.”

“Why?” Cameron shrugged. “Danny’s right. Sort it out yourself, Hart, my horse is waiting. Come on, Daniel. This is your victory too.”

Daniel took Ainsley’s arm on her the other side, and sandwiched between father and son, Ainsley exited the box.

“What do you think, Step-mama?” Daniel asked. “A tanner on Lady Eleanor? For or against? I say she gives him the boot.”

“No, indeed, Danny, my boy,” Ainsley said. “Twenty says she accepts.”

“Done. Dad?”

Cameron shook his head. “I never bet on Mackenzies. Way too risky, and Hart can be underhanded.”

“Still, I think Eleanor will win, no matter what,” Ainsley said. “Now, let’s go see Jasmine.”

Daniel dropped Ainsley’s arm and ran ahead, bounding down the stairs. Behind them, the remaining Mackenzies continued their noise, also flinging about wagers on Hart’s intended. Ian’s voice rose above them all. “Thirty on Eleanor,” he said. “She’ll say yes.”

Ainsley laughed. “Poor Hart.”

“His own fault. He dropped the news on purpose when everyone was excited about Jasmine. He meant for us to treat it in fun, not something deadly serious. But Hart’s deadly serious.”

Ainsley knew he was. “I’m tempted to warn Eleanor,” she said. “But no, they need to work it out for themselves.”

“As we have.”

“Hmm.” Ainsley looked at her broad-shouldered, handsome husband, in black coat and Mackenzie kilt, and craved him with a bright suddenness.

“Cam,” she said. “They’ll wait for us in the paddock, won’t they?”

“Probably. Unless Danny grabs the trophy.”

“Good.” Ainsley side-stepped and tugged Cameron with her under the shadow of the grandstand.

“What is it, vixen?” Cameron asked as they ducked out of sight. “Do you want to tell me a secret?”

“Ask you a question, rather.” Ainsley touched the top button of her placket. “How many buttons can you open, my lord, before we have to go and rescue the trophy?”

His eyes darkened. “Little devil.”

Ainsley laughed as Cameron swept her against him, mouth hard on hers, while his agile fingers began to unbutton her dress.

It was said that he knew every pleasure a woman desired and exactly how to give it to her. Hart wouldn’t ask what the lady wanted, and she might not even know herself, but she would understand once he’d finished. And she’d want it again.

He had power, wealth, skill, intelligence, and the ability to play upon his fellow man to make them do what he wanted and believe it their own idea.

Eleanor Ramsay knew, firsthand, that all of this was true.

She lurked among a flock of journalists in St. James’s Street who waited for the Scottish duke to emerge from his club. In her unfashionable gown and old hat, she looked like a lady scribbler as hungry for a story as the rest of them.

The men came to life when they spied the tall duke on the threshold, distinctive with his close-cropped, red- highlighted hair and ever-present Mackenzie kilt. Hart always wore a kilt while in London, to remind everyone who set eyes on him that he was Scottish first.

“Your Grace!” the men shouted. “Your Grace!”

They surged forward, a sea of black backs, male strength shutting out Eleanor. A lady was a lady, but not when it came to newspaper stories about the elusive Duke of Kilmorgan.

Eleanor used her folded parasol to push her way through, earning herself curses and glares. “Oh, I do beg your pardon,” she said as her bustle shoved aside a man who’d tried to elbow her in the ribs.

Hart barely glanced at them with his sharp golden eyes as he waited for his carriage to approach. He’d cut his hair shorter, Eleanor noticed, which made his face appear squarer and harder than ever. She knew she was the only one among this crowd that had ever seen that face soften in sleep.

The duke looked neither left nor right as he pulled on his hat and prepared to walk the three steps between the club and the open door of his carriage.

“Your Grace,” one journalist shouted above the rest. “If you love Scotland so much, why are you here in London?”

Hart didn’t answer. He was a master of letting what he didn’t want to acknowledge flow past him.

Eleanor cupped her hands around her mouth. “Your Grace!”

Her voice rose above the masculine cries, and Hart turned. His gaze met hers and locked.

When they’d been in love, years ago, Hart and Eleanor at times had been able to communicate without words. Eleanor never knew how they did it, but somehow they’d been able to exchange a glance and understand what the other wanted. At this moment, Hart wanted Eleanor in his carriage, and Eleanor wanted that too.