The boy paled, and his countess gasped.
She touched his arms fleetingly, a frown on her face. “Tobias, he is just a boy.”
“This boy had a pistol pointed at you a few minutes ago and threatened to shoot you.”
“I dinna mean it, mon,” he said, staring at Tobias with wide eyes. “Surely I dinna mean it. She is a countess, I dinna want to be hanged, so I bluffed.”
“See,” Olivia said eagerly. “He meant me—us—no harm. He was bluffing, weren’t you?” she said with a pointed glare.
The boy nodded vigorously, clutching his arm.
Tobias pushed him away and the boy stumbled. “Get out of here.”
He turned and started scampering toward a small dappled horse.
“Wait,” Olivia called out.
“What in God’s name should he wait for?” Tobias snapped.
She turned to him. “Will you still give him the coins? I am sure he would not have attempted a robbery if he was not in need.”
After a gape of apparent disbelief, the boy nodded his agreement most ardently.
Surely she was jesting. “He should be grateful I did not thrash him.”
Disappointment flashed across her face. Tobias tipped his head to the sky and pinched the bridge of his nose. It confounded him that he wanted to please her when she had so disgruntled him with her willful ways. Stifling a sigh, he threw the small bag of gold he had to robber. The boy darted and grabbed it with speed. When he felt its weight, his eyes widened. “Thank ye, I willna forget yer kindness,” he muttered, then ran to his horse and rode away.
Pleasure gleamed in his wife’s gaze. “Thank you, Tobias.”
The sky chose that moment to open with biting cold rain. He whistled for the horses. “This way,” he yelled, grabbing his countess’s arm and running in the direction of the cottage. She ran beside him, surprisingly keeping pace. A few minutes later they broke through the thicket and the cottage came into view. As they scrambled up the step, Olivia slipped. With a grunt, he tried to prevent her fall, but failed miserably. He twisted, tumbling with her so that she landed on him with a soft oof against the forest floor.
They scrambled to their feet and instead of dashing up the step and into the cottage, they stood in the rain, staring at each other. A wide grin stretched her beguiling mouth and it was a brilliant, dazzling smile. He was utterly perplexed what to do about the sensations winding through his heart. The damn organ jerked and a weak feeling suffused his pores. He was desperate to taste her again, to feel her wet, tight heat clamped on his cock. Damnation. That was an unfamiliar experience.
Her grin stretched even wider and then a full-throated laugh escaped her. Tobias stared in bemusement, wondering why in this moment she looked so damned beautiful, so perfect. His wife. Her hair spilled in waves about her shoulders, and she had a few twigs perched atop her glorious mess.
“Come on,” he muttered, grabbing her hand, “for if you fall ill and die, I’ll simply lay you to rest here in these woods.”
They scrambled up the steps with care, her giggling the entire way and him thinking he was very glad indeed he had brought her with him.
…
Livvie was somewhat warm, startlingly aroused, and most contented. Heavy rain whipped against the grimy window. The cottage was very tiny, but so cozy and delightful. She was in her chemise only, as most of their clothes hung on the small grate by the fire drying.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live somewhere like this?”
“
No.”
She threw her husband a withering glare. “You are still being churlish because I tried to rescue you?”
“What I should have done the minute we reached the cottage was turn you over my knees and tan your backside. It is evident you were in sore need of discipline growing up.”
Instead, she was sitting in his lap because everywhere else was too dusty and they had dragged the one great chair close to the fireplace. She was most comfortably situated atop his very obvious reaction to her nearness. Her earl desired her. Livvie grinned and wiggled in his lap, and he cursed.
“You little minx, you did that deliberately.”
“I believe I did.”