“Thank God you weren’t hurt.” His voice was a low, deep rumble. Beloved. “I could hold you forever and it wouldn’t be long enough.”
She listened for a moment to the steady, reassuring thud of his heart beneath her ear before speaking. “I’m so sorry, Julian.”
“It is I who should be apologizing to you, for bringing you into this mess. What can you be sorry for, darling?” He withdrew a bit to look down at her, his vibrant eyes probing.
Clara hesitated, her mind grappling with what she had done. “Your brother. I’m so sorry…I didn’t want to do what I did.”
“Jesus, Clara.” He cupped her face. “You saved my bloody life. You saved our lives. Edward was unhinged. He tried to kill each of us on two separate occasions, and tonight he would have succeeded if it weren’t for your bravery. Never be sorry for that. Christ knows I won’t.”
She searched his expression, feeling the guilt that had been festering inside her in the hours since she’d shot Edward begin to dissipate. “But he was your brother. And I…I killed a man, Julian.”
“You were fearless,” he said gently, rubbing his thumb over the fullness of her bottom lip. “My own plucky Virginia girl. You mustn’t let this weigh on your heart. If I’d had a pistol, I would have shot him myself. He was mad, and was bent on murder. You did the only thing you could have done.”
She believed him, and the last of the guilt lifted from her. “I couldn’t bear for anything to happen to you. I would do it again.”
“Ah, my love.” He crushed her mouth beneath his on a groan, his lips taking hers in a fierce, claiming kiss. “I don’t deserve your goodness or your daring. I don’t deserve a single, goddamn thing about you. I don’t deserve you, little dove.”
“Don’t say that.” Reverently, she traced the contours of his face. The slash of his jaw, the hollows of his cheeks, the high, proud bones above it. She absorbed the prickle of his whiskers, the comforting heat of him, the sensual curve of his lips. “Don’t ever say such nonsense again. I’ll not hear of it.”
“It must be said.” His voice was harsh, steeped in self-deprecation. “Everything I told you about myself was true, Clara. Everything you’ve heard about me, I’ve no doubt, is true and then some. I’m not a good man. I’ve done things in my life that I deeply regret. As my wife, scandal will always follow you. Some doors will never be opened to you because of me. My past will always dog me.”
“Hush,” she cried out, her heart hurting for him, for the complete vulnerability he revealed to her. “I don’t care about your past.”
“But you should, Clara.” Her tone was passionless, relentless. “I’m giving you this chance now to leave me. I damn well should have given it to you before, but I wanted you too much. From the moment you stepped into my study in that godforsaken hat, I knew I’d do anything to have you. You were beautiful and innocent, so much the opposite of every woman I’d ever known, and I couldn’t bear the thought of any other man having you. I told your father I’d ruined you. I bargained for your dowry. I never intended for you to leave for Virginia.”
“Julian,” she tried to interrupt, wanting to tell him that none of it mattered. That she loved him. That she too would do anything to have him.
But he wasn’t finished. “No, you need to hear this. You need to listen and make your own choice. I tried to take your choice from you once, and I won’t do it again. I love and respect you far too much for that. If I’d been the kind of man who is worthy of you, I’d have sent you on your way that day in my study without touching you. I wouldn’t have dragged you into my sordid world, wouldn’t have put you in danger. But I did, and now we’re both paying for it. So for Christ’s sake, Clara, listen to me when I tell you again that I am no good for you. You should leave me. I won’t keep you from Virginia. I won’t keep your dowry. Say the words now, and I’ll let you walk out that door and on to the life you long for.”
She swallowed against the emotion brimming within her, framing his beloved face in her hands. “This is the life I long for, with you. I love you. I love you more than I ever imagined possible. You are the only man for me.”
“Clara, think this through. I’ll not stand in your way. I’m offering you what you’ve always wanted, the very objective that led you to my study that first night.” He paused, his countenance equal parts harsh and forbidding. “You can return to Virginia, free and unencumbered, with all your dowry at your disposal. I’ll not keep a ha’penny.”
“I’ve already thought it through, Julian.” She beamed up at him, happiness swelling within her like a hot air balloon, displacing all the tumult of the night. He loved her so much that he would set her free. Her strong, sensual, beautiful man. So many people had wronged him. She would not be yet another. “As I already told you, my home is with you. My place is at your side. Do you love me?”
“Hell yes I love you,” he all but growled. “Never doubt that. I love you so much that I can barely think straight.”
“Then that is all the answer you need.” She kissed him then, taking his mouth with hers for a change, sliding her tongue inside to invade and claim the same way he’d done to her. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Jesus.” He kissed her again, his eyes traveling over her face, her body, her lips. Almost as if he didn’t quite trust himself. As if he didn’t believe she was real. “I love you so bloody much. Do you mean it, little dove? Will you stay with me?”
She didn’t need to think. “Forever if you’ll have me.”
A low sound tore from him. “Of course I’ll have you. You’re the only woman I want. My only love. Now and forever. Last chance to run, darling.”
Not a chance, the silly man. How she loved him. She shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere. Now kiss me, if you please.”
“With pleasure.” His mouth descended, claiming and hungry. An almost frantic need took over them both. His tongue slid inside to duel with hers.
She wanted his bare, heated flesh, his body atop hers. A hollow ache pulsed between her thighs, wetness flooding there as he plundered. She raked her seeking fingers over his broad back, his strong shoulders. Her nails sank into his tight buttocks, and then she traveled over his lean waist to the knot on his robe, her fingers making short work of it.
He gripped her dressing gown in both hands and tore it apart, heedless of the belt as he ravished her mouth. The silken robe fell to the floor, leaving her bare for him. His hands were everywhere. Kneading her breasts, thumbs working over her hard nipples, branding her curves.
“Mine,” he whispered reverently, dragging his mouth down her throat, nipping and licking and kissing as he went.
“Yes.” Her complete surrender was torn from her, so easy, so right. There was nothing else she wanted in the world than to be in her husband’s arms now in this moment, reveling in their love. “Take me, Julian. Make me yours forever.”
Julian’s fingers dipped into the folds of her sex, finding the pearl that made her mindless with want. “You’re so wet for me.” He sucked a nipple into his mouth, raked his teeth over the sensitive nub, gave her a gentle bite that had her crying out and her knees going weak. He caught her to him when she would have turned into an aspic, puddling to the floor. “Tell me what you want, my love.” He kissed the curve of her breast.
Desire surged through her, coiling in the center of her being, the very core of her where she longed for him most. “You, my love. Take me. Please.” She tore his robe off him at last, mindless in her need for him.
He took her in his arms, carrying her to his bed before depositing her gently in the center. In the next moment, he was atop her, his powerful body between her thighs, spreading them wide. He rained kisses over her skin, from breasts to thigh to the inside of her knee. Lower, to her calf. Higher to the jut of her hip bone. And then, when she thought she’d melt with desire, his dark head settled between her thighs.
“Mine,” he said again, the word a delicious brand against her most sensitive flesh. “Come for me, litt
le dove.” And then he licked her, plumping the bud of her sex before tracing wetly over her seam. His tongue sank inside her in long, hot thrusts before he replaced it with his fingers. When he nipped at her pearl and worked it in slow slashes, he sank inside her so deep that she couldn’t contain herself. She cried out, finding her release, her body twisting and jerking into his.
“Yes, my love, just like that.” Lovingly, he ran his tongue over her, lapping up the wetness of her spend, savoring her in a way that made a fresh onslaught of desire make her weak.
And then he was over her, above her, his thighs between hers, spreading her wide. “Tell me what you want,” he commanded, his voice strained.
The hard tip of him nudged her folds. She reached between their bodies, grasping his velvety length and stroking. “You,” she said. “I want you, my darling husband.”
“Put me inside you.”
Clara guided him to the hungriest part of her, tipping her hips to welcome him at the same moment he pushed inside. The breath hissed from his lungs as he thrust into her, hard and sure. They rode the wave of pleasure as one, bodies slamming together, eager, desperate, longing. She reached her climax at the same moment he found his. He pulsed inside her, his seed a warm, delicious flood inside her sated body.
Slowly, they both descended back to earth together. He kissed her throat, took her lips, grazed her jaw. “I love you, Clara. I love you so bloody much it hurts.”
She held him to her, kissed him back with all the love in her heart. “And I love you,” she whispered. “I love you so.”
He stared into her eyes, beautiful and fierce and beloved. “Do you promise, little dove? You’ll not change your mind and long to go back to Virginia without me one day? I made you choose between the place you loved and me once, and I’ll not do it again.”
She kissed him lingeringly. “I promise. And if I ever do go back to Virginia, it will only be with you by my side.”
Julian pressed his forehead to hers and closed his eyes. “Thank you, my love. I’ll do my damnedest to see that you never regret choosing me.”
Clara smiled, heart bursting with love. “I have no fears on that account, my darling man. You’re quite stuck with this Virginia hoyden.”
He grinned. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
And then he kissed her again.
Epilogue
Clara rested her hands on the scrolled wooden railing of the balcony off her bedchamber, tilted her head back to feel sun warming her skin, and leaned into the solid presence of the man she loved at her back. Birds chirped, the air was redolent with freshly mown grass and the pink roses blooming in the gardens below.
She inhaled deeply, eyes closed. “Is there anything sweeter than a Virginia summer?” she asked Julian on a pleased sigh.
He pressed his wicked mouth to her throat just below her ear and gently nibbled at her skin. “You are sweeter than a Virginia summer, my love. Far sweeter.” He nipped her ear lobe and then traced his tongue over the shell.
An answering heat slid straight to the pulsing ache at her core. They’d just made love not an hour ago, and even though she’d restored her gown and hair to a semblance of order, she was already contemplating luring him back to bed. It was their honeymoon, after all.
A sigh of approval hummed from her as she inclined her head to grant him better access. “Perhaps you ought to keep tasting me to see where I’m sweetest,” she suggested with cheeky intent.
“With pleasure, Clara mine.” He kissed her jaw, her cheek, nuzzled into her throat, his tongue playing over her with delicious, insistent little strokes. “Tell me where I shall taste you. Here?” He found the sensitive dip where her neck and shoulder met, tasting it as well. “Or perhaps here?”
Anticipation sparked through her, making her nipples tighten into hard points against her corset. How she loved their easy familiarity with each other. Julian had proven himself a tender and attentive husband as well as lover. He listened to her, was patient and kind even to her bear of a father, he made her laugh with his wit, and simply put, he made her melt. Everywhere.
She found the small buttons hidden on the front of her bodice and slipped the first few from their moorings. “I had somewhere else in mind. Somewhere…lower.”
“Ah, I know just the spot.” His low drawl sounded simultaneously proper and debauched.
A thrill went down her spine. The moment he came into a room, looked at her, touched her, existed, she wanted him. She couldn’t touch him, smell his divine masculine scent, or look upon him without feeling an ache deep inside her. A need to be filled and claimed. And it seemed that the feelings only grew stronger with each passing day. Each day she loved and wanted him more than the last. She’d never imagined it possible, but it was true.
“What spot is that?” she asked, feeling like a wanton and not knowing even a trace of shame for it.
She expected to feel her skirts rising. Instead, he took her hand in his and brought it to his lips. Her head swiveled to the side to drink in the sight of him, bronzed and dark and beautiful. Virginia agreed with him. She was so very happy that she’d allowed him to persuade her to spend a month here for a belated honeymoon. He’d rented a grand old home in the countryside that was only half a day’s drive from Richmond. His sisters were thriving in London under the clever tutelage of Lady Bella in preparation for Alexandra’s comeout. It was nothing but the two of them and a handful of staff, and Clara reveled in the chance to be unfettered and free and simply enjoy married life.
After their honeymoon was at an end, they would travel by train to New York, where they’d meet with Levi Storm and his wife Lady Helen Storm. Julian had been keen on creating his own source of wealth so that his estates would never again fall into ruin. He was partnering with Levi in a company that would manufacture steam turbines, set up with the help of Clara’s father. It seemed that everything—all the pieces of their puzzle—had fallen together.
Staring at her now in that rakish way he had that never failed to undo her, Julian ran his tongue over one of her knuckles. “Here.” He licked again.
Moisture pooled between her thighs. Her husband could make even the most innocent part of her body into a seduction. And she loved him all the more for it. “That wasn’t the spot either.”
He sucked the tip of her finger into his mouth before releasing it. His gaze was like electricity sparking straight through her. “Here?”
“Anywhere,” she confessed. “Surely you know by now. I’m helpless to resist you.”
He pressed a passionate kiss to the top of her hand. “That’s what I like to hear, little dove.”
With her free hand, she tunneled her fingers through his thick, dark hair. How she loved this man. “You already knew that, my lord.”
He kissed her inner wrist, his grasp curling lightly over her. His touch sent a fresh wave of longing through her. “You could tell me every hour of every bloody day and I’d never grow tired of it.”
She smiled, realizing in that moment that she was the happiest she’d ever been, at ease on a summer day with her husband in her arms and the sun shining down upon them. All was right in the world. “What if I told you every minute? Perhaps you’d grow weary of it then,” she teased.
With a growl, he spun her to face him, trapping her between the balcony’s railing and his body. He cupped her cheek and fitted his mouth over hers, taking her lips in a possessive kiss. He tasted of tea and sin and of their earlier lovemaking.
When he tore his mouth from hers, they were both breathless. “You could tell me every minute, love. I still wouldn’t mind as long as you’re mine and as long as you love me.”
Her gaze traveled over his handsome, beloved face. “You know the answer to both.”
“Tell me,” he commanded.
Her smile softened. “I love you, and I’m helpless to resist you.”
He gave her a roguish grin. “You didn’t seem helpless to resist me earlier when I found you at your correspondence. Tell me,
what letter had you frowning so ferociously until I eventually convinced you to join me in bed? You never did say.”
“Nor did you ask.” She swatted his chest playfully. “You were far too busy tempting me away from my letters. But if you must know, the letter was from my dear friend Bo.”
Julian groaned. “Not the troublesome one.”
“She’s not troublesome,” Clara defended her best friend. “She has a good heart. We’ll always be bonded by terrorizing our enemies at finishing school. She’s an original. True, sometimes she gets herself into scrapes, but it isn’t as if I couldn’t say the same for myself. Bo is bold and unique and…”
“Troublesome,” her husband finished for her. “I’ll be forever in her debt for sending you to me, but my gratitude aside, I can see her for the hoyden that she is.”
“She isn’t a hoyden.” Clara frowned at him. “She wrote me with news of the inroads she’s been making on behalf of our Lady’s Suffrage Society.”
Clara and Bo had decided to create a group of ladies who could advocate for women receiving their rightful vote. It went against the grain of the ton elite, but Clara didn’t give a damn and neither did Bo. They both believed firmly that women should be treated as man’s equal, in law and deed, and they meant to do something about it.
Thus far, they hadn’t accomplished much. Their membership was thin at best. But when Clara returned to London, they would begin recruiting. If enough women banded together, they could accomplish something. She just knew it.
“Inroads?” Julian arched a brow, his interest piqued. He had encouraged her to take action about her beliefs. Creating a group with influence that could potentially sway parliament had been his idea.
“Yes,” she said on a satisfied sigh as he kissed her neck again and his fingers found the buttons she’d already undone on her bodice. “An MP is sweet on her, and she hopes to influence him. He’s the younger brother of the Duke of Bainbridge.”
Heart’s Temptation Series Books 4-6 Page 53