Page 44 of The Scoundrel of Drury Lane
Suzannah flinched. Hearing her father’s death so casually dismissed hurt as much as if she’d been struck. Kit didn’t miss her reaction.
“I’m sorry. These last seven years have made me cold. We both lost our fathers, and I keep forgetting that.”
“We did,” she agreed. “And our mothers too.” Even though those deaths were so long ago, it still left an emptiness inside them both.
Kit cupped her face. “We are orphans together.”
She blinked away a sudden rush of tears at his words.
“Don’t you dare cry. That might be the one thing you could do that would break me.” Despite his playful tone, his eyes reflected the pain she herself was feeling.
“I spent so many years afraid of you, of this cruel, frightening man returning to London and what you might do when you learned who I was.”
He closed his eyes as though to hide himself from her penetrating gaze. “And now?”
“Now I am thankful to have been so wrong.”
“You don’t believe I am guilty of the crime I was sent away for?” Kit held her gaze, but fear of what she’d say glinted bittersweetly in his eyes.
“I don’t,” she replied without hesitation. She trusted him and trusted what she had learned about him. “I trust you,” she said with her whole heart. She did trust this man now, after everything they’d been through.
“Then marry me.” He shifted slightly toward her, the faintest angling of his body in her direction, and she felt shielded from the world as he trailed his fingertips down her neck before tracing patterns on her exposed collarbone.
She hadn’t expected him to ask that question again so soon, but she’d been thinking about her answer ever since the ride in the park.
“Kit, I want to marry for love,” she confessed in a soft whisper.
He smiled at her with a crooked grin. “Then love me.” She’d never seen him smile like that before and wondered if this was how he’d looked at all of the young women before he’d been sent away.
“Love you? Just because you command?” she asked with a soft laugh when he arched a brow at her.
“Just because Iask,” he replied before he leaned in toward her.
He nuzzled her nose with his, almost kissing her until she gave a desperate sigh. Only then did he press his lips to hers. She was always startled by how soft his mouth was. So much of him was hard as stone, and his skin was a deep gold from years in the sun, but his mouth was exquisitely soft and warm. She opened her lips, letting his tongue dance with hers. How could something that felt so heavenly be considered so wicked?
She scooted up his body, needing to get closer to him, and he pulled her farther onto his lap. He leaned back against the headboard and parted her knees as she straddled his waist. The shirt she wore rose up her thighs, and she shivered as she felt his hard cock beneath her. Kit groaned, his large, beautiful hand settling on her bottom, cupping and squeezing each buttock lightly. Pleasure zinged through her as sharply and as wonderfully as the strings of a violin being played by a master.
“Be mywife, Suzannah,” Kit whispered between kisses.
His mouth was dangerous and made it hard to think past how much she adored it when he kissed her.
“I need to be loved in return,” she said, surprised at the firmness in her voice. “When I marry someone, I want both of us to love each other.”
He tipped her chin up, their gazes locking. “It’s been a very long time since I felt anything like love, and I don’t know if I’d recognize it if I did. But whatyoumake me feel... I cannot imagine feeling that for anyone else.” He smiled wryly. “I know that’s not a romantic thing to say. Lord knows I’m far from romantic. But like most creatures on this earth, I need sunlight to survive, and you... you are sunlight to me. Perhaps that is love—I cannot think of what else love would be other than finding sunlight in the soul of another person.” He brushed his fingers through the messy waves of her hair that fell about her shoulders.
“What if you tire of me or become ashamed? I am not a gentleborn woman. Society will expect you to marry someone more worthy of your title.”
“Society can hang itself, as it wanted to hang me. If my punishment has taught me anything, it is that this so-calledsocietyis full of injustice, and a society that would deny people from marrying who they choose is not one worth defending. As for tiring of you, I believe I could spend decades trying to find the bottom of your mysteries and still discover more. Does that reassure you?”
Having this conversation after the ordeal she’d gone through was likely not the most intelligent thing to do, but a voice whispered to her not to turn her back on this man.
“I...” Suzannah delved deep into her heart, thinking it over before she finally acknowledged the hope she saw burning in his eyes, wanting to give it more light. “Yes.”
“Yes?” he echoed hopefully, his voice rough with emotion.
“Yes,” she said with more confidence. Saying yes to marrying this man meant more than just being his wife. Infinitely more. Kit had suffered much, but he had not been broken. The man she was with now had become stronger through his ordeal, and more considerate. He might think he’d forgotten what love was, but deep down she did not believe that about him. He deserved to be happy, and she was happy with him. And Suzannah was already tumbling down that dangerous slope toward love with him.
His hands on her bottom tightened as she lowered her head down to his for another, deeper kiss. She moaned and rocked against him, seeking something she didn’t quite understand. She only knew that it felt natural to rub herself against him. There was a quickening beneath her skin that excited her in all manner of ways.
