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“You shouldn’t be apologizing to me,” Elizabeth whispered, trying to quell her pounding heart. Fear dissipating, all it left behind was the thickening yearning spreading throughout her. Suddenly, Elizabeth realized that she was once again in her nightgown—and that they were alone in his bedchamber. Heat rushed through her, enflaming her cheeks and filling her mind with the memory of their kiss.
“No,” William said, shaking his head. “I must apologize for my actions and my words these past few days. I know I have done nothing but confuse you, but it was only because I was confused myself.”
A hand snaked up to cradle the back of her head, somehow pulling her closer to his body. She could feel his breath on her neck, each puff sending shivers through her. Her thighs throbbed with need and she discreetly tried to push them together as if that would quell the feeling.
Elizabeth tried to remember how to speak, to forget the fact that her pebbling nipples were undoubtedly protruding through her nightgown, to keep from wondering if he could feel it. “Surely, you will not tell me to go home again? Not after you’ve provided all those gowns for me?”
“I won’t,” he told her. His lips brushed her shoulder through the fabric of her nightgown. “Actually, I want you to stay. I don’t want to ever lose you again.”
A shudder went through her. His finger stroked the curve of her back, his slow movement sending shivers up and down her spine. He kissed her gently on her shoulder again, then said, “I’ve been fighting this urge for so long but I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.”
He didn’t have to say it, because she could feel it herself. She felt him trying to hold himself back, to keep from kissing her. And the happiness that he couldn’t fight it was too much to ignore. Elizabeth let out a panting breath when his lips tenderly brushed the side of her neck.
“I want you, too,” Elizabeth rasped, not caring to hold the words back any longer. She’d bared her heart to him so many times, that telling him that her body wanted him just as badly was easy.
For a moment, she could have sworn she felt his smile against her skin. And then, his lips inched their way up to the bare skin on her neck, nuzzling her gently. Elizabeth wanted to tell him that she was happy, that she’d never been so happy in her life, but her mind went blank when she felt his tongue against her heated skin.
She went limp in his arms, but he held her up, keeping her tightly against him as his tongue continued its slow exploration up her neck and towards her ear. He licked her there, once, and she shuddered. She could almost feel him smile.
“I take it, you have no objections?” he asked her, continuing his gentle kisses.
Elizabeth opened her lips, a sigh slipping out. “I should,” she managed to say. “But I cannot think straight right now. I shall voice my complaints tomorrow.”
William chuckled deeply. “That’s fair.”
Suddenly, she felt his hand. It crept up her other side, a lone finger tracing the outline of her breast before he palmed it completely. He was pushing her backwards, just as his lips captured hers.
Passion exploded between them the moment their lips touched. His hand was rough, desperate, as if it longed to slip beneath the fabric of her nightgown to feel the flesh underneath. And his lips were fervent, eager, moving against hers with untampered lust, driven by a force that transcended them both. Elizabeth lost all her senses in that moment. The bruises on his face, the pain he was in, the guilt she felt knowing that she’d been the cause of it...all faded into nothing but smoldering yearning.
William broke the kiss suddenly, lowering her down to the bed behind her. As soon as she was on her back, he found her lips again, their tongues tangling with desperation. His hand was on her thigh this time, creeping underneath the hem of her gown until he found her hip. She trembled, thinking he would touch her between her thighs, but he only glanced over the spot before palming her bosom once more.
“I’d like to see you without the nightgown,” he murmured against her lips. “May I?”
“Of course,” Elizabeth murmured without thinking.
It wasn’t until he began to pull the nightgown over her body that she realized what that meant.
Elizabeth jerked away from him, scrambling over to the other side of the bed. She quickly checked to make sure her nightgown was covering all the places that it should, not looking at him.
“Beth?”
“I...” She didn’t know what to say. She wouldn’t run again; she refused to. But no explanation came to her mind, none that sounded decent.
