Page 27 of An Earl's Scandalous Return
Edward cleared his throat, and while he’d been looking away, he turned to face her again. “I know it is rather overdue, but I’m sorry for your loss, Arabella. I know what it is like to lose a parent, but it has been some time since I’ve lost my mother. And I know you and your father were … close.”
Arabella wanted to cry. They had certainly been close, so close in fact that she had chosen him and his opinions over finding love and happiness with Edward. While he had liked Edward very well, there was only the matter of his connection to his father, her father’s former friend but then enemy.
Their feud was bitter enough to cause a rift. Arabella still wondered if she had made the right choice. Years ago, it had seemed the right thing, but now, staring at Edward, it felt like she had been living in a dream before and had finally woken up.
“Yes, we had been close. But now, I feel as though he is a stranger, with all these odd secrets coming to light.”
Edward breathed out, his shoulders sinking as he leaned back in the seat. “They may not be true; remember that. There is always someone who is eager to find their revenge against a ‘toff’ as you call it. Get money by causing scandal or some such.”
She nodded, grateful for his words, as they returned to the inn. “I will order us a meal,” Edward said, and she slowly walked up the steps to their room to refresh herself.
Chapter 29
Once she had washed the day’s grime from her face, she went to sit at the window. She was so tired and angry, thinking both of the failed search for Gregory and Edward’s kind words in the carriage. But she had to put them aside for the moment, for they had a job to do, and they were currently not succeeding. So many questions filled her mind that she could not find an answer to.
Why was someone trying to hurt her brother? Why had her father been accused of this? And there was the fear that her father had actually impregnated the housekeeper. She was certain he had not had her killed, but still, the fact that he was even accused of it worried her.
It was his fault, even from the grave, that she was now in this mess, making yet another mess of the relationship she had given up four years ago. And forhim.
Now that he was gone, she wondered if he had ever realised the pain he’d caused by forcing her to choose him over Edward. Tears came before she realised they were there.
They slid down her cheeks rapidly, and she dabbed a handkerchief over them, but it felt good to cry. She was so angry at her father that she could barely see straight. On top of all the grief she and Alvin had experienced, there was now this.
But then, Edward knocked and entered the room, and she looked up a little shakily to see him standing in the doorway, staring at her.
“Arabella, what is it?” he asked with concern, shutting the door quickly and coming to kneel in front of her as she sat on the windowsill.
“I—” but the words did not come right away.
His hands on the sill bracketed her hips, and he was looking up at her with those beautiful eyes that she loved so much. The man she loved so much, with his kind heart and gentle ways, who always came to her aid, was there. He reached out to brush a tear from her cheek.
“I came to tell you the food was ready, but I can have it brought here if you’d rather.”
“No.” She shook her head and wiped another tear away. “I am only frustrated, that is all. My father is the cause of all this, whether the entire story is true or not. And what if we cannot find this Gregory? Then Alvin will lose his true love, and I cannot let that happen; I cannot!”
She opened her mouth to continue when Edward rose a little higher on his knees and said, “You won’t,” before he kissed her, gently placing his hands on her cheeks.
She trembled a little, the salt from her tears mixing with their kiss, but she grabbed his shoulders and held him close. His kiss was gentle but only for a moment before it rose in heat, his mouth sliding over hers hotly, his tongue tasting all that it could as she slid forward on the sill to press her body against his. More tears came.
This was what she wanted: him. Her hands pulled him closer as he slowly ground against the centre of her thighs, showing her his desire, that he wanted her as well.
Her one thigh climbed to his waist, keeping him tight against her, and he groaned softly into her mouth as he pressed ever closer, one hand sliding up her calf, slowly lifting her gown. Arabella’s body craved him, wanting him like nothing she had wanted before.
His mouth moved down her neck, and she leaned her head back, loving the feel of his mouth on her skin. It was like they were back in that garden four years ago, the memory of that touch never far from her mind.
“You are perfect, Arabella,” he whispered against her skin, his mouth moving ever lower, nudging the edge of her bodice.
His fingers were there on her shoulder, and when he glanced up at her in question, she nodded, wanting his mouth there, too. He pulled at the bodice of her gown, pulling it down until her breasts were freed. He kissed her quickly before he glanced down at them, his eyes full of awe.
His hands slid up her waist until he grasped each of them, making her gasp at the warm jolt of pleasure that went straight from her middle down, down, to the place between her thighs. And then he lowered his head and took one pert nipple into his mouth. Arabella’s head fell back as a moan escaped her.
Her hands moved to his head, fingers threading through his soft brown hair as his tongue lavered her and his mouth suckled. She could hear his groan of desire against her breast as he moved to the other, doing the same until she felt limp with want of him.
She loved him so desperately, was glad to finally have him in her arms again, his mouth all over her. But as he rose, pressing his hips between her thighs once more, his lips finding hers, she felt a pang of sadness. She wanted Edward with everything she had but knew she did not want it like this.
She did not wish to be tupped in an inn in the middle of Kent when there were no words of love or forgiveness between them, when she could feel his anger just as much as his desire. No, this was not right. There were still too many things to be said, and she pulled back, her leg sliding down, her lips parting from his. Hurriedly, she pulled up her bodice and put it back in place.
“We can’t,” she said breathlessly, her hands moving to his broad shoulders to keep him back. Her eyes stared into his confused ones. “Not now.”
