Page 81 of Lady Gambit
“I agree. Mr Powell must have helped her abscond.” Neither of them believed Nora had escaped of her own volition.
They moved to follow everyone upstairs.
Dorian stopped to grab his shirt off the bench. He winced as he dragged the garment over his head. “Your brother delivered a punishing blow to my ribs. The man is as swift as a bolting steed.”
Keen to touch him, she helped pull the fine lawn down over his torso.
Their eyes met.
Desire coiled low in her belly.
Just like it had hours earlier when he moved deep inside her.
But something else held her enthralled. A feeling too strong to contain.
“I love you.” She slipped her fingers under his shirt to touch his bare skin. “I’m so in love with you, Dorian. I don’t care tohear what Nora has to say. I’m yours. I’ll leave with you tonight. We could run away somewhere. A place no one would find us.”
He cradled her throat and kissed her, his tongue skimming her open lips before plunging deep into her mouth. The hunger, the sheer dominance of the action, made her want to tear off his shirt and rain kisses over his magnificent body.
“I love you,” he growled, tearing his mouth from hers. “I’m so in love with you, I’d travel to the ends of the earth to please you.”
She sensed his hesitation. “But?”
He grasped her cheeks and kissed her again as if unable to stop. “I’ve spent my whole life relegated to the shadows. A nobody. One of the misbegotten. A person whose feelings don’t matter.”
“They matter to me.”
Her reply earned her another kiss.
“From the moment we met, I’ve been unable to refuse you anything. Don’t ask me to hide away like I should be ashamed. I want the world to know what we mean to each other.”
By world, he meant his father.
The man who could ruin everything.
Fear crept into her heart.
Run, run, my darling!
What if her life was meant to be marred by tragedy? What if happiness was never part of the plan? Now that she understood the power of love, did fate have other cruel lessons in store?
“We could go far from here where the truth cannot hurt us,” she said. “Leave the demons of the past behind.”
He entwined his fingers with hers as if nothing could tear them apart. “We must face the truth together. I shall be beside you every step of the way. I’ll help you cope with every harrowing detail. Even if it takes a lifetime.”
They might have kissed again, but Aaron appeared, poking his head around the door jamb. “Delphine! I need you upstairs. You’ll not leave me alone with that mad woman.”
“We don’t know Nora is mad.”
“I’m not talking about Nora. Miss Lovelace hasn’t stopped staring at me since I gave her a piece of string and told her to tie back her hair.”
Though Aaron had thrown on his crumpled shirt, it was open to the navel, revealing the toned physique that had made the lady’s mouth water.
“Miss Lovelace is her own mistress,” she said, moving towards the stairs. “She’s not used to a man telling her what to do. She will be annoyed you gave her no choice.”
Aaron frowned. “And some devil could be parked on the street waiting to pounce. I need to question the loon, not worry about Miss Lovelace.”
He was worried about Miss Lovelace?
