Page 100 of An Affair with a Notorious Heiress
“Madly in love with you.”
“But my reputation. I’m notorious—”
“I don’t give a fig. I love you, with my heart and my soul and my body. I will go wherever you will have me, wherever you will be happy.”
The tears rolled onto her cheeks. “I love you so much. I’m afraid to love you this much.”
“Don’t be. For however much you love me, I shall love you more. I shall never be unfaithful. I shall go to bed each night deciding what I can do the next day to make you even happier.”
She saw the truth, his devotion, his belief in the rightness of their future mirrored in his eyes. “I shall go to bed each night doing the same. Never in my life have I wanted anything more than I want to be your wife. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
He rose to his feet, cradled her face, and kissed her tenderly. Then he swung around, took her hand, and lifted it.
“She has agreed to become my wife!” he announced, then brought her fingers to his lips. “A more fortunate man there has never been.”
Nor, she thought, had there ever been a more fortunate lady.
Tillie was surprised by all the congratulations and well wishes. She’d expected them from Rex’s family and her own, but there were a few people she’d not spoken to in years who offered her their best. She didn’t know if it was because her sins were forgiven or they didn’t want to risk falling out of favor with such an influential family. It didn’t matter. None of it mattered.
It was an odd thing to realize how much she’d allowed her past choices to influence her actions, to cause her to view herself through the lens Society held when in truth all that mattered was how she viewed herself. She’d never been ashamed of what she’d done but she’d retreated. No more.
Rex held her in his arms and swept her over the dance floor, his gaze never leaving hers.
“I don’t know that I’ve seen you look so happy or smile so much,” he said now.
“Love does that, doesn’t it? Makes all right with the world?”
“I think that discovery calls for a private celebration. Care to be scandalous and slip away with me?”
“What notorious woman worth her reputation wouldn’t accept such an enticing proposal?”
Although she arrived in her own carriage, she left in his. As soon as the coach door closed on them, he drew her onto his lap and kissed her enthusiastically. She had missed this so much: his nearness, his passion, his devotion. How had she ever thought she would be happy without him in her life?
“Dear God, but I’ve nearly gone mad with missing you,” he rasped, trailing his mouth over her neck to her shoulder and back up again.
“You’ve missed the sex.”
“I did, but it was more than that. It’s always been different with you—more intense, more frightening, more demanding.”
She leaned back. “Frightening?”
He began removing the pins from her hair, scattering them about the vehicle. “I always worried when you left me that you might not come back, that I may have failed in communicating exactly how precious you are to me. Justifiable concern based on the past few days and nights.”
Her hair tumbled around her, and he gathered a good portion of it up in one large hand. How she had longed to have those hands skimming over her again. She cradled his face. “Let’s focus on moving forward from this moment and not thinking on the past.”
“From this moment on.” Then he again took her mouth, his taste rich and decadent. His tongue slid deliciously over hers and she knew very soon it would be sliding elsewhere, creating wondrous sensations as it was wont to do.
The coach slowed, turned onto a drive, came to a halt outside his residence.
“It would be ungentlemanly of me not to give my mistress a proper farewell,” he said wickedly before disembarking from the vehicle and handing her down.
“She would be disappointed indeed not to have time with you before you marry,” she teased as he swept her into his arms and carried her up the steps, into the manor, and up the stairs.
Once in his bedchamber, he set her feet on the carpet and took her mouth with fervent passion, his hands skimming over her.
“Ah, this room has missed you,” he rasped when he finally drew back.
“I missed it. You spoiled me. Nights without you were the loneliest of my life.”
