Page 22 of The Earl and the Vixen
He kissed her forehead. “I’m not certain I will ever forgive him either, but I will support whatever you wish if you should change your mind one day,” he said. “You needn’t decide now. You are of age, and he can’t stop us from marrying. I don’t give a fig about your dowry if he withholds it.”
“Thank you, my love,” she said, releasing a small sigh of relief. There was nothing they could do to change the past, and it was time they focused on their future. They had lost far too much time together already.
“We will send for your things, and we’ll buy whatever you require so you don’t have to step foot inside your father’s home againif you don’t wish to.”
“Please don’t leave me tonight,” she pleaded, and if she had her way, she would never sleep apart from him again. “I don’t wish to be apart from you. I’m afraid I shall wake up in the middle of the night and find this has all been a dream.”
He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “There is nothing in this world that could get me to part from you. I have lost far too many nights of holding you while you sleep. Should you wake, you shall be safe in my arms.”
That was like music to her ears. She turned away from him, giving him her back. “Help me out of my dress,” she said. “I don’t want to ring for Dot.”
He worked her buttons. “Were you really going to kiss Irvine?” he asked, a pained edge to his voice. He lifted her gown over her head and dropped it to the floor.
“I don’t know,” she said, wanting to be honest. She turned to face him. “I imagined it was you who stood before me, so I’m not certain if I would have gone through with it. I hoped the attention of another might finally help me get over you.”
He pulled her close again. “If I had seen his lips on yours, I am not certain what I would have done.”
Eliza pulled back from him, pushing him away. “And what of you and Lady Preston? You seemed quite friendlywith the use of your given names. Was that an attempt to vex me, or did you find your way into her bed?”
He laughed and tried to pull her back to him, but she shoved him away from her. “My love,” he started, “Rosina was married to a friend of mine and Ockham’s before he died. Nothing more. I’m quite certain her bed won’t be empty at this house party, but it has never been me warming it.”
She relaxed her shoulders. As much as he would have been driven mad had she been with another man, she wasn’t sure what she might have done if she had witnessed him with a woman. They were quite the pair, and she knew their marriage would always be a passionate one. And she couldn’t wait to finally become his wife.
“Make love to me, Nick,” she whispered, tugging at his cravat. Once she got it loose, she dropped it to the floor.
“You mean I didn’t thoroughly satisfy you earlier? I am clearly out of practice,” he jested.
She laughed. “You know you did. But we were both hurt and taking what we could from each other then. We weren’t even undressed. I wish to be with you now only because of love.”
He released a low growl and worked to unlace her stays, then removed them from her body. She unbuttoned his coats and pushed them off his shoulders. He shrugged the rest of the way out of them and tossed them asidebefore pulling his shirt from his breeches. She unbuttoned a few of his shirt buttons, and he pulled it over his head. Clothes were flying, and their movements were hurried. The need to be in each other’s arms was beyond paramount.
She removed her stockings and chemise while he worked his way out of his boots and socks. He refocused his attention on her and began removing pins from her hair. She aided him in the effort and soon her long hair fell down around her shoulders in waves.
When they both stood naked before each other, the emotion of the moment set in and tears escaped her eyes, running down her cheeks.
“I’m so sorry, my love,” he said, doing his best to catch her tears with his thumbs. “I’m sorry we lost those years, but we will make the many more we have together the happiest of our lives.”
She threw herself into his arms, and he scooped her up, cradling her before he set her gently on the bed. He blew out the candle on the bedside table and crawled into bed next to her, pulling the covers up over them.
Eliza pulled him to settle on top of her. He took her lips in a series of long, deep kisses before he kissed her jaw. “I love you so very much,” he whispered against her cheek.
Wrapping her legs around him, she urged him to enter her. “The words ‘I love you’ don’t feel like enough todescribe what I feel for you, Nick,” she replied. “I fear I shall never leave your side.”
He reached his hand between their bodies, and her breath became ragged when he touched her between her legs.
“I fear I shall never allow you to leave our bed,” he said.
Nick removed his hand and supported himself with his hands on each side of her head. He entered her slowly, pushing himself all the way inside.
Eliza held him tighter with her legs, reveling in their joining and being as one again. He dipped his head down and took her lips, sweeping his tongue across her bottom lip until she opened for him. Their kiss was as slow and intense as the deep thrusts of his cock. She had missed him so much, missed the love and intimacy they had once shared, and it was as if they picked right back up where they had left off.
“Nick,” she moaned. Her fingernails dug into his back, and she pulled him down to rest his weight atop her as he continued to drive her closer to the brink of ecstasy. “Perhaps you don’t pull out this time,” she whispered in his ear.
“Are you certain?” he asked, his breath frantic.
“I have never been more certain. I wish to be yours in every way and feel the throb of your cock releasing inside of me.” He had never doneso before besides…in other places. It was the only intimate act they hadn’t experienced together.
He increased the intensity of his thrusts, and she could hold back no longer. When she cried out, he pressed his lips against hers to catch her moans. He pumped into her only a couple more times before he reached his climax and spilled his seed with small thrusts deep inside of her, whispering her name before kissing her again.
