He would tolerate no distance though because, after a momentary hesitation, he followed her. She found her lips captured once more. This time with a tender possession that gave her little choice but to cling to his broad shoulders. He was so tall against her that she had to tip her head back so she didn’t fall over. She clung to his shirt with trembling fingers when she began to quiver but she still couldn’t stop him.
As if he understood, his arms slid around her and he drew her gently toward him. It felt terribly wanton to be pressed so intimately against him but she made no attempt to stop him. She could feel his very heartbeat; taste his every breath. A low moan escaped her when his head tipped to one side and the kiss deepened until it became outright possession. One large palm cupped the back of her head and held her still while his lips scalded her.
After a momentary pause, she began to copy his movements. The low moan her tentative actions elicited from him eased her fears about whether she was doing the right thing or not. She had never felt this close to anyone before. Hugs with her sister aside, nobody had ever held her this intimately, and with this much possession. She felt scorched; branded; yet incredibly precious.
A small voice of reason warned her that she should not read too much into his actions. After all, men like him probably kissed women every chance they got. To her though, this was special. This was one of those exquisite moments in life that not only changed her, but changed the way she looked at the world, and the people in it.
“God, Eloisa,” he growled when his body responded to her proximity with a need that was difficult to control. His lips slid down the gentle curve of her neck. He placed on hot kiss against her shoulder then crept back up to nibble at her ear. He lifted his head and looked into her eyes for a moment to gauge her reaction, but didn’t speak.
He must have seen what he was looking for because his lips returned to hers with a ferocity that left her clinging to his shirt with a yearning that almost overwhelmed her. She wanted this. She wanted more. She wanted him.
Passion flared to life between them. Simeon was painfully aware that the bed was only a few steps away. He warned himself that they were not going to use it. It was foolish to even consider indulging himself, especially with someone like Eloisa. She deserved better. She deserved to be courted properly and be allowed to save herself for her wedding night.
The sudden thought of her in another man’s arms brought a fierce scowl to his face, and anger to his heart. Desperate to retain some semblance of control, he dragged his lips away from hers. It was a physical wrench to leave the moist recesses of her mouth but he had to do it before matters went beyond his tentative control completely. The urge to recapture her lips and plunder was so strong that he released her and lifted his hands as he back-stepped away from her.
“God, I am sorry, Eloisa.” Her whimper of dismay horrified him and added to the guilt that weighed heavily on his shoulders. “I should not have done that,” he gritted out through clenched teeth.
He stalked toward the window before she could slap his face. Once there, he braced his hands on the window frame and stared blankly out into the storm outside. The trees dipped and swayed beneath the force of the winds that continued to pummel everything and echoed the tumultuous emotions that battered him.
To say that he was shaken was an understatement. She was, by far, the most beguiling woman he had ever met. In all of his adult life he had never been drawn to a woman like Eloisa before and kissed her with a need that drove all sanity aside. The lust that burned deep within him was something he rather suspected would rage there forever more, but not for any woman - just Eloisa. He closed his eyes on a bitter curse and knew he had just made the tension within the house considerably worse. Unfortunately, he was helpless to find a way to apologise for it.
“I promise that it won’t happen again,” he growled when she remained still and silent behind him.
At least she wasn’t running out of the front door screaming, he thought ruefully to himself, although couldn’t quite decide if that scenario was worse or better.
Eloisa swiped the tears away from the corner of her eyes when she heard the bitter regret in his voice. She didn’t need to see his face again to know that he wished the kiss hadn’t happened. She had caught sight of the revulsion on his handsome features before he had turned away and was suddenly ashamed of her behaviour. In that moment, she felt cheap and sordid, and wished the ground would open up and swallow her.
“I think it is time I left,” she said firmly. She didn’t hear his swift intake of breath because she was already out of the door by the time he turned around.
“Eloisa!” he shouted, but she ignored him, and raced down the stairs without slowing her pace. “Eloisa, come back!”
But she couldn’t. Tears trickled down her face as she raced through the house. She couldn’t breathe. She felt cheap; used; and heartbroken. She had been enthralled by what had happened; he had been horrified by it. Embarrassed colour flooded her cheeks as she swept across the hallway toward the front door. Her gaze remained locked on the front door. It was the embodiment of freedom; an escape from everything; from the house; from him; from the fear and worry; from the emotion that battered her tender heart.
When she reached the door, she slid the bolt back and yanked the door open.
“Eloisa, don’t go out there,” Simeon shouted as he tore down the stairs after her.
“I am going. I am sorry I embarrassed you so much,” she gasped from the doorway. She saw him race down the stairs but didn’t wait for him and yanked the door open with a ferocity that matched the winds outside.
Once in the open air, she slammed the door behind her and lifted her skirts off the ground before she ran for the driveway.
CHAPTER NINE
“What the hell are you doing?” He shouted as he slammed out of the house after her. For someone so small, she was fast on her feet. His chest was heaving by the time he caught up with her. When he did finally catch her, he yanked her around to face him with such force that she was slammed against his chest.
The anger he was about to unleash on her suddenly evaporated at the sight of the tears on her cheeks. He realised then just how unfair he had been by taking the liberty of kissing her when there was so much fear and confusion around them.
“Look, I am sorry for kissing you. I should have kept my hands to myself,” he growled.
“I know that I am not of your ilk, and I am sorry for burdening you with my presence,” she replied shakily. She flicked her now sodden hair away from her face and ignored her tears as she looked proudly back at him. “Thank you for your hospitality but, now that it is daylight and I can see where I am going, there is no reason for me to remain under your roof any longer.”
“Eloisa, you are not going into the village,” Simeon challenged. “Let’s go back inside before we both drown. I promise I won’t force myself upon you again.”
Eloisa stared at him in shock. “You did no such thing. I know that I am not of your kind, but I made a mistake back there as well. It was my fault as much as yours.”
“What do you mean, ‘you are not of my ilk’?” Simeon demanded.
“You are an aristocrat. I am not,” Eloisa replied flatly. “It was very kind of you to offer me a roof for the night. I should really be in the servants’ quarters, shouldn’t I?”
“Wait a minute,” Simeon demanded. “What has my kissing you got to do with me being an aristocrat?” His eyes narrowed as he stared at her, and for once he couldn’t understand the female mind.
“You think that I dallied with you because I am the lord of the manor?” He wasn’t sure whether to be furiously angry; thoroughly insulted or appalled. He was all three, he supposed. If he spent some time thinking about it – like the next millennia – he might find it terribly funny. Right now, he wasn’t sure whether to shake her, shout at her, or just kiss her some more to prove her wrong.
“I didn’t mean that,” Eloisa sighed. She refused to spell it out
to him. She couldn’t humiliate herself any further. After all, she was hardly likely to see him again after today.
“Let’s to back inside,” Simeon suggested. He didn’t wait to see if she was going to comply. He kept a firm grip on her arm and began to drag her unceremoniously back toward the house.
“I am not going back in there,” Eloisa protested.
“You are not going to put your life at risk by walking all the way back to the village in this weather,” Simeon snapped.
“It’s nothing to do with you.”
“You will do as you are told, damn it,” he snapped.
“You are not in a position to tell me what to do,” Eloisa argued. “You are not my husband, my father, or any relation to me.”
“I am not your relation, no. However, given that you are on my land, you are very much my responsibility. Until I can deposit you safely on your own doorstep, I will have a say in what you do and where you go. Right now, you and I are both going back into that castle. We are going to get warm, dry, and have something to eat.” He saw the defiance in her eyes, in spite of the rainwater that mingled with her tears, and leaned toward her until their noses practically touched. “I mean it,” he growled. “Walk or I will carry you.”
Eloisa sucked in a breath. The cold hard determination in his steady gaze warned her that he would do just that if she defied him. She wanted ignore him and walk down the driveway anyway, but she just couldn’t bring herself to part from him. She wasn’t ready for that. Not yet. If she was completely honest, she wanted more of his kisses, but felt thoroughly humiliated that he didn’t want her just as badly.
He must think me a complete harlot, she thought morosely. She watched the rainwater trickle slowly down his tanned cheeks and felt something between them shift.
“Sod it,” he suddenly snapped and hauled her toward him.
Before Eloisa could open her mouth to speak she was hauled against the solid wall of his chest again. This time, his lips slammed onto hers with a ferocity that matched the raging storm around them. She couldn’t help it. Her arms swept around his shoulders and she clung to his strength while she copied his movements just as forcefully.
His arms stole around her waist and drew her flush against him. The rainwater mingled with the taste of Eloisa on his lips and fanned the flames of desire. When he did find the strength to draw away, he lifted his head and looked at her with eyes that were as dazed as hers. It seemed to take a moment before she realised he had stopped kissing her. When her eyelids lifted to reveal her lambent gaze, he groaned, and began to drop tiny kisses across her cheek.
He placed a tender kiss on her lips. “What is this?” he gasped. “How can you do this to me so soon?”
“Do what?” she whispered, unsure what he was asking. She couldn’t find the words to put together that would make any sense. All she could do was savour the wonderful sensation of being wrapped in his arms once more.
“I don’t regret kissing you,” Simeon assured her. He rested his head against hers while he willed his raging desire to ease enough for him to get them both inside. “How could anyone regret this?”
“I saw your face.” In spite of her poor attempt at bravado, she felt her chin quiver. “You regretted it. It was on your face.”
“No, I regret that I don’t have a better acquaintance with you. We have to be careful, darling, or we are going to take matters further than they ought to go right now. I don’t want you coming to me because you are scared, or just want me to protect you,” he murmured.
He saw the lingering hurt in her gaze and cursed himself for being such a fool with her.
“I am not,” she assured him. She stared at him in shock. “I wouldn’t.”
“I just think we need to consider the situation we are in a bit more. This isn’t the time or the place to deal with this attraction we have.”
She didn’t want to say that he was right but he was.
“One thing I do know for definite is that you are not going anywhere while this storm rages as it does,” Simeon told her. He held her possessively and savoured the feel of her against him for several moments.
When a particularly strong gust of wind pummelled them, he felt the shiver that swept through her and realised just how cold she had become while they had been talking.
“Come on,” he urged her tenderly. “Let’s go and get warm.” He slid an arm around her waist and walked beside her back toward the house. He heaved a sigh of relief that she wasn’t protesting any more. He would haul her over his shoulder if he had to, but he didn’t want that level of discord between them. Shockingly, she had come to mean too much to him for them to be ill-tempered with each other. He would promise her the world if it got her to smile at him again.
Oblivious to his thoughts, Eloisa ducked her head and walked beside him toward the house. A low rumbling noise suddenly joined the haunting wail of the winds. They both turned to look at each other with a frown.
“What’s that?”
“Watch out!” Simeon yelled and yanked her around in a wide circle.
Eloisa screamed when her feet left the floor and she was suddenly flying through the air. The ground rushed up to meet her and, for the second time in two days, she landed on the floor with a resounding thud. Seconds later, Simeon landed protectively over her. Her breath escaped her. She couldn’t move. Not only because she didn’t have the strength to, but Simeon’s weight was pushing her down onto the saturated grass.
“Are you alright? Eloisa, talk to me. Are you alright?” He demanded when she didn’t immediately move or try to get up.
The worry in his eyes snapped her out of her stunned disbelief and made her blink. She looked up at him blankly.
“Say something,” he urged when she still didn’t speak to him. “Did it hurt you?”
She frowned. “Did what hurt me?” she gasped, and turned her head around to peer at the spot they had been standing on.
Simeon helped her to sit up and checked her for injuries.
“Did it hit you?” he demanded.
Eloisa caught his questing hands and looked at him. It was then that her attention was caught by a pile of rubble that now blocked their path to the door.
“What’s that?” she asked. She tipped her head but couldn’t make out what it was.
“It’s a gargoyle,” Simeon replied darkly.
“A gargoyle?” she asked in amazement. She studied the chunks of masonry that were still visible, and knew that it had indeed been a gargoyle. There, directly above the front door, was an empty space where one of the horrible looking stones had once sat. “It was him.” It wasn’t a question. “He tried to hit us with one of the gargoyles.”
Simeon sighed. There was no point trying to assure her it was probably nothing. Those gargoyles had been sitting on the roof for hundreds of years. Someone had pushed it off the stone wall that ran round the edge of the roof, most probably with the intention of hitting one, if not both, of them.
“We have to get back inside,” he urged, not for the first time. He didn’t relish the thought of going back into the house either, but they were sitting targets outside.
“I am sorry I brought you here,” he muttered. “You don’t deserve to get dragged into my problems.”
“I am alright. It is just worrying that he can move about without us seeing him,” she replied firmly. “It’s like sharing a house with a ghost.”
“I know. We are at a distinct disadvantage because he can move about without being visible or heard.”
She looked up at the roof again. “It does prove that he knows where we are at any given moment.”
Simeon frowned at her. “He also knows the house like the back of his hand.”
“Do you think it is a disgruntled employee?” She asked as she studied the pile of debris. “Who else would know the house well enough to even be aware the passages are there?”
“I think we are safe to talk given that there is nobody who can overhear us,” he declared rueful
ly as he glanced at the empty driveway they were standing in. “I think this must be our first private conversation.” He glanced pointedly back at the house. “Although he may be watching, he can’t hear what we are saying.”
Simeon suspected that whoever had been watching them had also seen them kissing and believed that their relationship was intimate. Unfortunately, that now put Eloisa in as much danger as he was in.
“I am sorry, Eloisa,” he whispered. “I have got you into a real mess, haven’t I?”
She looked at him with a smile. “It’s not your fault. How were you to know this would happen? I am just glad you stumbled across me when you did.”
Simeon had to acknowledge that she was right, and nodded.
She glanced at the house. “It has got to be someone from your family, hasn’t it?”
“It is looking more and more likely, yes,” Simeon growled.
“Your uncle is dead,” Eloisa stated. She counted the points on her fingers. “How many children did he have?”
“One, but he is dead too. He was killed in the war.”
“His wife?”
“Whose wife?” Simeon asked with a frown.
“George’s wife. Where is she?”
“She is dead. She died of influenza several years ago.”
“Did either your aunt or uncle have any brothers or sisters?”
Simeon shook his head. “My aunt didn’t have any other brothers and sisters who were still alive at the time of her demise. My father was Uncle George’s brother, but they didn’t speak.”
“It can’t be your father,” Eloisa declared. She couldn’t think of any parent who would want to kill their child in such a way.
“No. He has passed away now too.”
“I am sorry,” she whispered.
“It’s alright, sweetheart. It was a couple of years ago now,” Simeon assured her.
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