Page 64 of The Villain
She snatched her hand away as if he’d burned her, uncertain why allowing him the liberty felt so wrong after all they’d shared together. It felt like betrayal of Adam.
“Ask me no more, I beg you,” she hissed. “You will only make matters worse.”
She tried to move past him, but she felt his presence near her constantly. He stood at her back during the rest of their walk through the cavern, then beside her once Adam had guided them to the moonlit shore.
After what felt like an eternity, Adam turned to lead their party back toward the tunnel. Turning to fall in line with the others, Daphne lifted her skirts and trudged over the sand. Just before the mouth of the cave could swallow her up, a hand closed around her arm, and she was brought up short.
Robert.
She stifled a sound of alarm as he pulled her into his arms and propelled her toward the outside edge of the cave. Pressing her against the hard rock, he covered her mouth with his hand and kept it there until the voices of the others had faded down the tunnel.
Then, removing his hand, he replaced it with his mouth. His kiss muffled her protest, his hands insistent as they swept over her shoulders, her neck, moving up into her hair. He kissed her hungrily, lapping at her with his tongue and cupping the back of her head the way he knew she liked.
The way she used to like.
Now, she could not help but compare his kiss to another’s and find it lacking. His body was too sinewy against hers, lacking the hardness of Adam’s. He held her too gently, as if she were some fragile thing he was afraid to break. She almost wished he would tighten his hold on her hair, thrust his hips at her, bite her lip … something to show her that he realized she was no longer the innocent maiden he had kissed and touched in hidden meadows six years ago.
When he finally pulled away, she sighed, the sound one of disappointment. He hardly seemed to notice, pressing his forehead against hers and stroking her cheek. He pressed little kisses against her nose, her cheeks, her neck.
After a while, she placed her hands against his chest and pushed. She did not know why she’d allowed it to go on this long. Perhaps she had sought some of that lost innocence. Maybe, her disappointment was not with him, but in her own self and the depths she had sunk to.
“Robert, we cannot do this,” she insisted. “Adam … he will not like it.”
“So, it isAdam, is it?” he scoffed.
The moonlight illuminated his face, showing his clear annoyance. She had never noticed how petulant he looked when angry.
“I’m sorry,” he said quickly, running a hand through his hair. “The rumors of your family’s desperate situation have reached Suffolk. I cannot blame you for whatever situation you’ve found yourself in, but … dash it all, Daff! Why did you not come to me?”
Indignation bristled her spine, annoyance heating her face. “You? The man who refused to offer for me after I came of age? The man who let me go off to London for my first Season and did not even possess the bollocks to come after me?”
He grasped her shoulders again, holding on tight, his eyes wide and wild as he drew her back to him. “I have so many regrets, Daphne … you have no idea. I was young, and thought perhaps there might be more for me to learn before I could marry you.”
She scoffed, rolling her eyes. “More like you thought there might be morecuntfor you to chase!”
He reared back as if she’d struck him, and she reveled in the satisfaction it caused her. He needed to understand she was not the girl he’d once known.
“You are right,” he replied, lowering his head. “I was a fool, and after I had finished chasing the things I came to realize were meaningless … there was only you. The woman I love. The woman I—”
“It is too late,” she interjected, knowing she could not bear to hear him confess to wanting to marry her.
“Of course it isn’t,” he declared, giving her a shake. “Do you not realize I’ve loved you since I was a boy? Nothing will change that.”
“I cannot be what you want me to be, Robert,” she argued, trying to dislodge herself from his hold and failing. “I am ruined.”
He grew stronger in his desperation, his fingers biting painfully into her arms. Finally, a display of strength from him … and she did not find it the least bit appealing.
“Do you think I care that he’s had you?” he demanded. “I don’t… not when I know he must have coerced you or forced you … God, Daphne, tell me he forced you, and I will call him out. The bastard … sitting there flaunting you like some bloody mistress! Baiting me with those sly remarks. Say the word, and I will give him what for.”
She stifled a laugh at the thought of Robert attempting to engage Adam in a duel. The man who had so effortlessly bent her to his will was no weakling. She could imagine him wrapping one massive hand around Robert’s throat the same way he had her … only this time, he would squeeze and squeeze until Robert ceased to draw breath.
“Things are different now,” she said. “Please … leave me be.”
She tried to brush him off, but he pursued her, grasping her wrist and attempting to pull her back against him. Despite knowing she had no need to fear him, she struggled in his hold.
“Robert … unhand me this instant … let … let go!”
“Just wait a moment … please!”
