“Sarah, Sarah, don’t.” He wrapped his arms round her, pulling her back against his chest. “Don’t cry.” He squeezed her tight and kissed her hair, getting a lungful of orange blossom scent. Her hair was so soft and lush. He closed his eyes. He felt like something had stabbed him in the heart.Is this what it is like to love someone? It is nothing like I had thought it would be. Or is it just hurt pride? Jealousy?
He was so confused he didn’t know what to think, except that having her cry was tearing him apart. He had to do something to make her stop. “Sarah, please, don’t cry. Don’t cry over him, he’s not worth it. He doesn’t deserve your tears.” He kissed her hair again and murmured, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, my dear. If I could make it right, I would.”
The notion that she could shed tears over Lannister was eating a hole through his stomach. If he had disliked the man before, he loathed him now. What he was apologizing for he had no clear idea of, only that he wanted her to stop hurting.
She turned within his arms, her face resting against his chest, which he rather liked the feel of. She sniffed and said, “That’s the first nice thing you’ve said to me.”
“Is it?” he asked, appalled.
She nodded, pulling away from him and searching in her reticule for a handkerchief. She blew her nose and wiped her eyes.
“Am I so abominable?”
“Yes,” she said, putting her handkerchief away. “You don’t mean to be. I’ve grown somewhat accustomed to your barbedcomments and your complete lack of consideration of others’ feelings.”
Her words left him speechless.
“But I’ve seen you with your family and I admit you’re much nicer with them.”
“Oh God! You’re the third person in three weeks to tell me I’m an inconsiderate”—he stopped short of using the word on the tip of his tongue and instead said—“person.”
“I was infatuated with you once. But that was before I knew you. Before I understood that the only things you care about are appearances and money.”
He fell back a step, gut punched yet again. “That isn’t true, Sarah.”
“Isn’t it? Yet everything you say and do convinces me that it is.”
“Then I shall have to endeavor to convince you otherwise, though I’m at a loss to know how to do so at the moment,” he said stiffly. He felt bruised, battered, and confused. As if he had been picked up by a whirlwind, tossed about, and dropped carelessly on the sidewalk. She turned aside and he ruffled his hair again. “You seem determined to paint me as some kind of monster.”
“We are perhaps ill-suited, Your Grace.”
“No. I refuse to accept that. We have had moments of accord, have we not?”
“Yes,” she agreed somewhat reluctantly.
“Well then, that must give us a basis for something. Please, Sarah, I cannot face the prospect of being in a state of discord with you for the rest of my life. The thought is untenable.” When she didn’t respond, he said awkwardly, “Unless you find me so abhorrent that you cannot stomach me...”
She turned then and said, “No, you are right. We must make the best of it. There are others who are impacted byour decisions, who do not deserve to be punished for our—mistakes.”
“That is true. Both our families would suffer.”
“I would do anything to save them hurt.”
“As would I. We have something in common then,” he said with a hopeful smile. His chest still hurt. He wanted her back in his arms. Things seemed better when they touched. He stroked her arm. “Sarah?” He turned her gently to face him. Lifting her chin, he bent his head and kissed her, desperately trying to evoke something of what they had shared before.
She stiffened initially but didn’t pull away. He slid his arms round her, pulling her closer and deepening the kiss, that tingling delight he had experienced before overwhelming his senses. Her mouth moved under his, responding to his kisses in a way that gave him heart. They might struggle to communicate verbally, but this, this was something else.
He had bedded several women in his life, but none had inspired the level of longing and, he had to admit, outright lust as Sarah did. What it was about her, he didn’t know, but his thoughts had grown increasingly lewd where she was concerned. To have her back in his arms confirmed that it was where she belonged, and he wasn’t giving her up without an almighty fight. She may have developed a tendre for Lannister, but it was he she was going to marry. And damn it, he would win her elusive heart or die in the attempt.
He pressed her closer, his body hard and hot for her soft curves, his mouth greedy for her kisses. His lips wandered from her mouth to her jaw and her neck, his hands sliding over her back and only by sheer force of will avoiding wandering lower. He wanted to, but he also didn’t want to shock her.
He found her mouth again and was rewarded by her arms sliding up round his neck and her head titling to give him a better angle to kiss her. She leaned into his kiss and returned it,sending shocks of pleasure through his body that made his pulse race and robbed him of breath.
He pulled her closer, kissing her more deeply, unable to stifle the noise of longing in his throat she aroused in him.God, I want her.She was going to be his wife and he would find a way to win her heart, he would.
A noise made him look up and let go of Sarah abruptly. Ava stood in the doorway, her hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry!” she said, grinning widely. “I left my book in here.” She dove across the room to get it and fled. “Please carry on, don’t mind me!” she said, halfway down the hall.
Sarah was flushed, her eyes bright and her lips slightly swollen from his kisses. And his eyes couldn’t fail to pick up the slight protrusion through her bodice of her nipples, which told him all he needed to know of her reaction to his lovemaking. That at least was a comfort in the face of their previous conversation.
