Page 61 of One Wicked Secret
Daniel glanced at the ominous clouds gathering in the night sky. Theirs was not a journey filled with shooting stars and rainbows. Hopefully, happiness lay beyond the storm.
“You didn’t marry Denby. You married me.”
The heavens opened then, as if urging them to share the kiss they’d been denied for years. A few plump raindrops fell before the sky surrendered and unleashed a torrential downpour.
Daniel grabbed her hand but didn’t haul her back to the house. They ran to the bottom of the garden to shelter beneath the oak tree, laughing together for the first time in years.
Thunder rumbled overhead, but he didn’t care. He was on her in a heartbeat, wiping rain from her cheeks and pressingher back against the solid trunk. “Do you know why I bought this house and not the others I viewed?”
“Because it’s close to Bloomsbury’s intellectual circle?”
“I’m hardly an intellectual.” His thumb traced her bottom lip, his eyes so dark with desire he might devour her at any moment. “I was a fool for leaving you.”
“Because it’s a fashionable residential area?”
“Since when did I care about such things?” He set his hand on her hip, the sensation making her shudder. “I bought the house for this oak tree. Nowhere is home without memories of you.” He brushed his mouth against the shell of her ear. “And do you know what I’m going to do now, Elsa?”
Her pulse soared. “Kiss me like you should have done years ago?”
“Not quite.”
She failed to hide her disappointment. “What then?”
“With your permission, I’ll do what I’ve dreamed of every night I’ve spent alone in bed. I’m going to taste you, savour you, starting with your lips. I’m going to suck your pert nipples and the sweet little nub between your legs, and you’re going to come hard when I do.”
All the air left her lungs. “Here?”
“It has to be here.”
“It does?”
“Imagine we’re at Edenberry, about to kiss. Perhaps we wouldn’t be fighting for our lives if we’d indulged our desires that night.”
What would they have done? Made love beneath the open sky, reckless and uncaring? Ignored the contract, abandoned their homes and duties, and fled to Scotland? It was a fantasy—one that would have left ruin and heartbreak in its wake.
“That time has passed,” she said, threading her armsaround his neck, relishing the closeness of his body. “I want to live in this moment. Fate brought us here, to a place where we can have everything without hurting those we love.”
To relive the past was to correct their mistakes. What if they weren’t mistakes but necessary steps on a longer journey?
“I want my husband’s mouth on mine.” She brushed her lips softly across his. “Here. Now. Under an oak tree in Bedford Square. It’s time to make new memories.” In the hope their passion was not a fantasy, but something lasting and true. “Not revise the old ones.”
The rain hammered against the gravel path, but she didn’t hear it. She only heard the rush of her own pulse, the frantic beat of it in her chest when his smile turned sinful and he claimed her lips.
Their last kiss had been a revelation—a wild, frantic assault on her senses. This one was slow, deep, and intense, as if the past didn’t exist or their problems weren’t insurmountable. A husband kissing the wife he cherished.
Rain dripped from the tree’s branches, soft droplets landing on her hair and skin, but she barely noticed. Not when he loved her like this. Like she belonged to him and nothing could tear them apart.
His hands cupped her neck, his thumb brushing the sensitive skin there, and all she could think about was how badly she needed his hands on her breasts, her body, between her legs.
The tempo shifted.
The pulse between them quickened.
The damp fabric of her nightgown clung to her as if the storm outside mirrored the one raging inside her, and before she could catch her breath, everything changed.
Shedeepened the kiss, need clawing at her insides. His taste, his scent—she craved them with a hunger that bordered on madness. The world could crumble around them and she wouldn’t care.
“I need more,” he growled, his lips searing a path along her jaw and down her neck as he pushed her wrapper from her shoulders. “I need you, Elsa. I need you so badly.”
