Page 78 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman
Then he was above her, looking down, his legs between hers and his body poised. ‘Caro,’ he said, his voice loaded with emotions. ‘I have wanted you constantly since you came to town.’
Her fingers brushed his fringe from his brow. ‘You have me now.’
He pressed into her.
It was paradise.
He watched her body, her breasts rocking with his movements. It was their first time unclothed in the light.
‘I love you,’ she said.
His lips twisted in a wry smile when he looked up, and then, his fingers curving into the mattress beside her shoulders, he moved more vigorously.
She lifted her legs, wrapping her thighs about his waist. She raised her arms and held the iron struts in his bedhead, so she could hold firm against his thrusts, biting her lower lip to prevent the sounds that longed to escape.
He looked down at where they joined, biting his upper lip, and she knew from his expression, his concentration, he was fighting to avoid his release for as long as possible.
Rob was not Albert – like everything in Albert’s life, what they had done in a bed had been for his benefit. He would not have held back from his conclusion to enhance her pleasure.
‘Oh.’ New sensations caught inside her, as he struck a sensitive spot. ‘Continue like that,’ she urged, as her body arched to find the same contact. ‘Ah!’ she cried out when she fell to the little death again and the release rushed through her veins.
He looked at her with a smile and moved more aggressively, seeking his own completion. When it came, he withdrew from her body and let his seed pulse onto her stomach. A muscle flickered in his jaw as he looked at her. He looked so young at times.
He rolled away, tumbling on to the bed beside her. ‘My conscience knows I should not have let this begun. I have no life to offer you yet, but I cannot regret it.’
‘You need not,’ she said in return, her body satisfied and her heart full. ‘Tell me about your hopes in politics.’
‘My hopes…’ He laughed.
‘Yes. You said you had a plan. Tell me about it. Why do you want to sit in the House of Commons?’
‘I wish to make a difference in the world. I want to speak out for the working class. For those who need a voice most but have no power to speak in Parliament. Most people have no right to vote. They need a voice.’
It was such a Rob-like statement. She rolled towards him and kissed his lips, then fell back smiling.
He turned to his side and lifted up on one elbow. His fingers ran across her cheek and he tucked some loose strands of her hair behind her ear. ‘Numerous women who live in poverty are forced to do things they do not wish to do. I will free them from that life if I can. And I wish to free men from being controlled by their employers’ greed; I shall argue for a fair wage. The current systems favour the wealthy at every turn. It is not right.’
Caro’s admiration for this honourable man grew.
Rob lay on his back.
She shuffled across the mattress to rest her head on his chest. He lay his arm around her shoulders.
‘I am glad you will give them a voice. It will be a good voice. You are a compassionate man, a man people need to speak for them.’
Albert sat in the House of Lords. She had heard him practise speeches – he’d only ever spoken for the bills that made the rich richer and the landowners more secure.
‘My family would call it idealism, not compassion.’ He laughed as his other arm lifted and his hand tucked behind his head, so his head rested on his palm. ‘But perhaps it is naivety. I had not realised how much money I need to achieve this plan to speak for the poor. Which in its turn makes this bizarre.’
‘Your brother cou?—’
‘Do not say it.’ His hand slipped from beneath his head and covered her mouth. ‘How may I speak for the working class if my brother has paid for my seat? And before you say this too, I know a dozen others do it, but I am not them.’
‘No.’ Caro turned onto her stomach, to look at him, her hand resting on his chest. ‘You are not like them, you are passionate and compassionate, and I love you.’
The clock in the sitting room chimed four times.
‘Rob.’ Caro brushed a hand across Rob’s shoulder to wake him.
