by Dayna Quince
“Maybe it will pass quickly,” she said.
“No doubt it will,” Theo replied. He stood and brushed his hands. “Remove your cloak and get comfortable. We could be here for another hour. Are you cold?”
She shook her head and removed her cloak and gloves, hanging them on a peg beside the door. He removed his jacket, and then he filled a glass from a pitcher of water.
“Drink this.”
Nic focused on the single glass. This room was only meant for one occupant, and yet there were two. She looked up. Her racing heart felt like a little bird stuck in her chest. She accepted the glass and took a sip of cool clean water.
“Thank you,” she said.
“You appear frightened. I’m sorry, again I did not plan this.”
“I know you didn’t, it’s all right. I’m just nervous, that’s all. I’ve never done this before, and I think the ale’s worn off.”
“I think you might be right,” he said. “That’s good. I can’t have you riding back drunk or you’ll fall off the horse, and in the darkness, I won’t be able to see you.”
“That’s a silly thing to say,”
“But it’s better to sleep in here than sleep in the grass on a cold wet night,” he said.
“I am tired,” she replied. “I might be able to do it.” She yawned and lay on the bed.
He took the chair. “I’ll sit here. Close your eyes. I’ll wake you as soon as we can leave. I promise you’re safe.”
“I know I’m safe with you. I trust you, Theo, I do.”
“I’m not sure I’d advise that,” he said with a chuckle. “I brought you to an inn across the Scottish border, and now we are alone in a room with a bed.”
Was he nervous? Did he feel the tension of possibility? She took a deep breath. Isn’t this what she wanted? To be alone with him? To be with him no matter the cost? She moved to lie on the bed, leaning back on her elbows and spreading her fingers over the fine eyelet coverlet.
“I trust you. I know you would never hurt me. You helped me see things about myself and do things I thought I could never do, and for that I am grateful, but I do want more.”
He picked up the chair and moved it toward the fire.
He should rest.
“Rest with me,” she said. “You also had three drinks and will have to ride through the wet night.”
“I cannot lie on the bed with you,” he said. “Look what happened last time. Look what can happen again.”
She sat up and brushed her hand across the soft fabric. “We’re here alone and no one knows. Let’s be wild and reckless.”
He sat in the chair and ran a hand through his hair. “Nic, please stop. I’m trying to reform.”
“Reform tomorrow,” Nic pressed. She ached to be close to him.
He glanced at her, his eyes hot, reflecting the licking flames. “What do you want from me? Do you want me to be bad or good? I didn’t bring you here for this.”
I want you to be mine.
Holding the words back hurt her throat. “Come here, Theo.”
He stood. His expression hardened, as if it hurt him to obey her but he did. He came to the bed and joined her, lying on his side as he faced her.
“You said you wanted to believe in me. Do you believe that I want you?”
She nodded, feeling breathless.
“Do you believe I want to be a better man?”
She nodded again, her hands itching to reach for him.
“Then I can’t have you. I can’t do what I want to do to you. I can’t taste your lips, your skin, the very essence of you.” As he spoke, it was like an invisible hand touched each place…lips, her breasts, between her thighs. There was need in her blood, making her body hum with heat and desire. Making her push a man to the brink. She reached for him, but he caught her hand and set it down between them, covering her fingers with his.
“I can’t be wild and reckless with you anymore. I care about you, but I have to leave no matter how much I want to stay, Nic. I have to leave even if I weren’t escaping Judge Blackwood. I think I need to change, just like you needed this night to force yourself out of your shell. I need to leave England. I need to miss my home and appreciate everything I have.”
“But I need you, more than I needed to sing for those men, I need you.”
He closed his eyes and winced. “Don’t say that.”
“But it’s true,” Nic urged, scooting closer. “I know you’re leaving. I understand that you think you need to leave. I understand the pressure you’re feeling to make a change, and that’s good, Theo. It really is. I believe you can do it, but tonight, while the rain keeps us here locked together, kiss my lips, touch my skin, show me how much you want me, and I’ll show you how much I want you.”
She ran her hand up his chest to the collar of his shirt. He hadn’t bothered with a cravat tonight. She slid her hand under to the hot skin of his throat. She felt him swallow against her palm.
And because he still hadn’t opened his eyes, she closed the distance between them, rolling her body into his and sealing her lips to his.
His arms came around her, one hand sweeping down the length of her body and hooking her knee to drag it up to his hip. Nic shivered with relief. For one split second, she feared he’d reject her and she didn’t think her heart could take it. His tongue thrust inside her mouth, tangling with hers. Each breath she drew felt like she shared it with him. His scent filled her head, intoxicating her more than any ale, and she wanted to be free of all restraint or clothing, her fears, her expectations. She wanted them both to be stripped of everything until only they remained in their rawest forms.
He pulled up her skirts, his wicked hands diving underneath and stroking her cleft, his fingers dipping inside her core. She moved her hips against his hand, greedy, gluttonous, lust-crazed but it wasn’t enough. She needed more, she needed to feel him skin to skin. She reached for the placket of his breeches, slipping past his guard and curling her fingers around the silky fevered hardness.
He groaned into the kiss, and she pumped her hand the way she had moved over his body before in the barn, up and down, his flesh pulsing in her hand, his hips thrusting. They broke the kiss, panting together, using their hands to love each other’s bodies. But it was still not enough for Nic. Her dress scratched her skin, his shirt abraded her arms. She wrenched his shirt from his breeches and began to yank it off.
He sat up and yanked off his shirt and then returned to her, his hands going to the back of her dress. She grinned with wild abandon. He shook his head at her but he smiled. Nic wrenched her dress over her head. His hands immediately moved to her breasts, cupping, molding, his thumbs sliding over her nipples through her shift. She joined her arms around his neck, pressing her body to his.
What if this is it, she thought desperately. What if this is my only night with him?
She cast off the last of her restraint as she pulled away to remove her shift. He stilled, his gaze wandering over her naked form, his jaw flexing, his cheekbones standing out in relief. His eyes blazed with a new emotion, far stronger than she’d ever seen on him before.
“Nic…” he said, his voice strained.
“I’m in love with you,” she confessed before it was too late, before passion stole her voice, or he tried to slow them down. He had to understand how much this meant to her.
“There is no place I’d rather be than right here with you. There is nothing else I’d rather be doing. Nothing else exists outside this room. There is no one else for me but you.”
His eyes caught hers, ravaged with emotion.
“I will not regret being with you,” she continued, “but I will regret every moment not spent with you, every conversation not had. I love you, no matter what happens after this, I love you.”
His throat worked in a hard swallow, and he reached for her, his hands sliding reverently over her skin, over her back, and then her hips. He cupped her bottom as he brought her up against him, against the hard ridge of his arousa
l. Nic pushed his waistband low, shoving his breeches down his hips until his erection branded her belly. He slid off the bed and removed his boots, breaches, and stockings, and returned to her fully exposed. She ogled him freely, imprinting this image of him on her mind. She needed it to last forever. This could be the only night for her to know everything about him, and she wanted all night. Hours would never be enough. She wanted to learn every freckle, every hair that grew on his body.
A sparse patch of black hair covered his chest, narrowing to a fine trail leading to his groin and a nest of black curls from where his long thick erection jutted out between them. She took hold of him again. Nic was not afraid. He’d tell her what she didn’t know and show her what she needed to do. His hips flexed toward her with every pull of her hand, and his hands returned to her, gently sliding over her hips between the crevice of her body and probing the slick folds of her sex. She moaned as he stroked the sensitive peak, bucking her hips against his hand, rolling them, closing her eyes, gasping, and falling into him.
They were on their knees on the bed, and he laid them down, spreading her legs wide and licking his fingers before returning them to her core. He kissed her, dragging his lips and tongue over her neck and breasts, sucking her nipple into his mouth.
Nic cried out, begging him with her body. Her release coiled tightly inside her, but she wanted more. She wanted him to be wild, as crazed with need as she felt. He brought to life every sensation in her body, including the memory of his mouth on her most private of places, and she got an idea. She pushed him back, coming over him, but instead of straddling him, she moved lower, dropping kisses and licks to his chest. Nic teased his nipples with the swirl of her tongue.
He muttered something under his breath as his hardness strained in her hand. Clear liquid dripped from the tip. She squeezed him, and he groaned as she moved her hand up and down. She watched his face, emotions flickering across his features. He dragged his teeth across his lip, his eyes rolling up, and she’d never felt more womanly or powerful as she watched him experience pleasure at her hands.
She moved lower, peppering the muscles of his stomach with kisses, learning the contours of his body, until at last, she reached his heavy length. She wasted no time and gave him no chance to stop her. She kissed the rounded tip, and his hips bucked. She swirled her tongue around the top and then down the length of him.
“Christ, Nic,” he said. “You’re going to break me.”
She grinned against his skin, and then she took him into her mouth as deeply as she could, gripping the base with her fist and dragging her mouth up.
He shuddered beneath her ministrations, his hands fisting in her hair.
Chapter 25
Outside the winds and rain rattled the windows, lightning and thunder shaking the sky. Inside, Nicolette Marsden was shaking him to his very soul. He couldn’t handle this. He was ready to spill his seed into her mouth, but he could not do such a thing to her. He eased her away from his groin before she could protest—because he knew she’d protest—his little wanton minx. He flipped them over, pinning her to the bed with his hips and sealing his mouth over hers. Driving them both mad with fierce pleasure.
She rolled her hips against him, his cock sliding between the slick folds of her flesh, hungry to be inside her. But he fought with his own damaged, wildly spinning moral compass. His conscience bidding him to think this through. What was he going to do? Every fiber of his body wanted to sink inside her, to lay claim to her body like he knew she wanted him to. He could feel it in her kiss, in the way her hands clawed his back.
She wanted him.
She’d said she loved him.
He hadn’t said those words back, and he wished he had but he’d been too stunned. If she knew how he felt, how his love for her conflicted with everything in him that was trying to be better, it would only make things more difficult. He was going to break both their hearts, at least for a time. Until he could find a way to fix the issue and return to her. His head, his heart, and his prick screamed to take her. To let this one night be the beginning of a new tomorrow. He’d wake a new man with a woman’s love. He had a reason greater than any other to be better than he was before.
He dug his hand between them, massaging her sensitive peak, still not completely convinced that this was the right thing to do. But he was going to do it because sometimes the right things felt like the wrong things, and the wrong things felt like the right things. Such was life.
For perhaps the last time, he was going to be selfish and utterly satisfied with his selfishness, as long as it included hers.
She was ready, slick with need, scalding him with her body’s arousal. He fit himself to her entrance, easily sliding into her. Nic squirmed and begged him with her body. She held his head and kissed him wildly, her knees coming to his hips, and he sank into her welcoming heat, driving through the subtle tension and tightness of her untried flesh. She barely winced. Her hips kept moving in their mad rhythm, her moans of pleasure filling his head as he pumped slowly at first, testing the give of her body and ensuring she was not in pain before increasing the tempo and the strength of his thrusts.
Theo could feel his release on the horizon. This would not last long but damn it, it would be good because he loved this woman, and while he couldn’t save her from every pain, whether he was defiling her in a shabby seaside inn or leaving her behind on the shores of England, this would be good.
Nic sighed his name and held him tightly to her. She welcomed him with her body and her heart, and Theo had never felt so whole, so complete as he did right now, joined with her, driving into her for all the world as if he had the right. As if he was her husband and this would be the start of their beautiful family. For tonight he wanted to believe that. The regrets of tomorrow could wait. Theo reached under her and caught her bottom in his hands. Their breaths merging, heart pressed to heart, their bodies joined in the most primal way. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and her fingers dived into his hair.
Nic cried out his name, her body going rigid and then soft beneath him. Her inner muscles gripped him tightly, milking his release from him.
Theo shuttered and moaned, “Oh, Nic,” thrusting hard and then slow as he spilled his seed inside her, not letting a single thought enter his mind about the repercussions of what he was doing. He blocked them all out.
Together they reclaimed their senses, their pulses settling, their sweaty bodies cooling. He lifted the coverlet over them, and Nic tucked into his side, murmuring softly, her hand resting over his heart.
“It was wonderful,” she said, “lovely. I’ve never felt this blissfully tired before.”
She closed her eyes. He rubbed her back, letting the weight of her words fall over him as he stared up at the ceiling of the Seven Sins Inn. Those dreaded thoughts were hammering on his conscience with a battering ram.
Not yet. Let me enjoy this a little while longer.
He didn’t want to regret this moment or think anything close to remorse. It could come tomorrow. He willed himself to go to sleep at least for a little bit. If he was hearing correctly, the wind and rain had not let up, and they’d have to leave before dawn.
Chapter 26
Theo awoke before dawn, the night coming to him in a blazing memory of mixed emotions. He wanted to stretch, but Nic was still pressed to his side, gloriously naked, and his prick was very aware of that fact. His first instinct was to sink into her heavenly softness, but he knew he couldn’t.
The reckoning he’d been waiting for had come at last. He’d perhaps done the vilest thing he’d ever done. He’d deflowered an innocent woman without the benefit of marriage.
But he was prepared to pay any price. An idea had come to him last night while he was falling asleep. The fuzziness of slumber slowly drifted away, and the idea became more real and the more he thought about it, the better it felt. It was perhaps the most selfless thing he could ever do for her even though it wouldn’t completely erase her heartache.
After dressing, Theo gently shook Nic’s shoulder until she woke and stretched, the cover sliding down and revealing her perfect small breasts, rosy-tipped nipples begging for his kisses, but he resisted.
“What time is it?” Nic asked, her voice rough with sleep.
“Not yet dawn. We have to get moving.”
She sat up, holding the coverlet over her breasts. “Nearly dawn? We stayed all night?”
He looked outside the window. “It rained all night, but the storm finally passed. It will be a wet slow ride back to the castle after we marry.”
There was a beat of silence.
“I beg your pardon? What did you just say?”
Theo glanced over his shoulder at her. “We will be marrying this morning,” he stated.
Hope lit like her face better than any sunrise. A sight he’d never forget.
Nic wanted to marry him.
He didn’t know when or how that had come about, but he never wanted to forget that moment when pure joy had shown in her eyes at the mention of marriage.
He strolled to her side. “I’m going to marry you, Nic. After last night, it is the only sensible thing to do.”
The joy dimmed. Damn it, he’d said something wrong.
“Sensible?” she repeated.
“Perhaps it was the wrong word,” he said, “but it doesn’t make it any less true.”
She huffed angrily.
“We’re in Scotland. We may as well make the most of it.”
“You mean fix your mistake?” Her eyes narrowed. “You want to marry today before returning to the castle?”
He rubbed his face. “We have to be back before breakfast, so no one knows.”