Page 40 of Wicked Designs
Godric jerked her towards the small door that led to his room. Emily dug her heels into the floor and tried in vain to stop him.
“Go ahead and fight me! I’ll take your rage and turn it into passion!” Godric cast her to the floor and locked the small door, sealing her inside his chamber.
Would he really force himself? She didn’t expect cruelty, but Godric had changed. This wasn’t the man who read to her this afternoon.
The duke gripped her upper arms and yanked her to her feet. She looked at him, cold and unflinching even as she shook in his arms.
“Go ahead, Godric. What are you waiting for? Prove to me what sort of man you are. Prove to me that you are just the same as Blankenship.” His fingers dug into her arms.
“I am nothing like that old cretin, you hear me?”
“Taking me by force would make you the same as him in the eyes of the law and God.”
Godric’s eyes changed. “Take you by force? Emily…you may be shaking right now and confused, but that’s desire, not fear. Blankenship could never stir those feelings you have at this moment.”
She knew it was the truth.
“The man I want is the man who readThe Odysseyto me this afternoon.” She softened her tone. “Find that man again and I’ll reconsider.”
His eyes were like the leaves of English rosebushes. “There’s a darkness in me that I can’t always fight.” His voice was barely above a whisper, as if he didn’t fully understand it himself.
Emily saw that understanding was within reach. “I’m not asking for a saint, Godric. I’m asking for time… Time for us both to understand what we are to each other and what we want.”
His grip on her arms loosened and he finally let go. “How is it that you are so young but so wise?”
“I was raised by two loving parents who educated me well.”
“So you are correcting more of your lies then?”
“Yes, I am very, very well educated. I speak fluent Greek and Latin. You didn’t know about the Latin, so I am telling you now, out of good faith. I’ve ridden horses all my life and am an excellent swimmer.”
At that Godric started. “About that… I may have faked my drowning at the lake.” He waited for her to explode into a rage, but she didn’t. “You knew?”
“Your eagerness upon your recovery had raised my suspicions. The recently drowned are not usually so lively.” She sighed and eased back, to sit on the edge of his bed.
He came over and sat down, then casually slid hishand over hers, lacing their fingers together. He raised their joined hands and held them against his chest. This was not an attempt at seduction. Somehow, in the midst of these confessions, they had reached a kind of understanding.
“Sleep with me tonight?” he asked. Emily started to shake her head but he added, “No. Just sleep, that is all. Just let me have you near. I want to hear you breathing, feel your warmth. Please…”
The word ‘please’ shuddered on his lips and Emily nodded in agreement, even though she hadn’t meant to. How could he always do that?
He cupped her shoulders in his palms and gently guided her back to the edge of the bed. Pinning her with his hips, he claimed her surprised mouth in a kiss, a long, exploring one that bore no resemblance to earlier.
Ashton’s words replayed in Emily’s mind, and she let the emotion she’d held back flood through her, into him once more. His arms wound around her lower back, pressing her tightly to him before he stopped.
“It’s going to take me some time to get used to that way of kissing…” he murmured against her lips.
Emily almost smiled. “Maybe if you adjust to me, I can adjust to you.” She thought of his rough caress with dark fire behind it, and she realized she wanted it no matter how overwhelming.
“It seems we will both learn.”
Godric swept her up into his arms, and settled her on the far side of the bed.
Emily felt a brief flare of concern, but Godric merely shut his eyes. “Goodnight, my little vixen.”
She lay still for a long while before she rolled on her side for comfort. Feeling strangely protected, she drifted asleep.
Well past midnight,Godric woke to Emily talking in her sleep. She shifted restlessly, her murmurings soft and pitiful.
