“I have felt remorseful that I chose to go out that night to carouse with my friends. If I had been there, perhaps I could have stood as his alibi instead.”
“So Lily does not want to be married to Filminster?”
A grimace was the only reply for several seconds. He appeared to be debating his answer. “Lily and Filminster are deeply in love. She assured me she has no regrets just this afternoon.”
Gwen smiled. “Oh, I am glad to hear that. I was not sure what to think. Is it why you insisted on marrying me?”
Aidan blinked, astonishment chasing across his features before he shook his head. “No! You and I have naught to do with Lily and Filminster. You are my Venus. My very own Cynthia. The fetters upon my neck are sweet, Gwen Abbott.”
Gwen held her breath in wonder. The words were too melodious to process. It was almost as if he were saying … that perhaps he loved her?
She wanted to ask, but it was too forthright, and she had suffered too many disappointments in her past. The words were stuck on her tongue, and she had not the confidence to voice them. Instead, she clung to the sentiments he had stated and assured herself that was what he would say if he were to speak plainly.
Do not push him.
Gwen remembered how she had declared her feelings in a moment of drowsy weakness, only to regret it this morning. She did not want to ruin their developing affinity with neediness, as she had suspected she had done earlier, so instead … she smiled. “Thank you.”
Aidan raised his eyebrows, his expression hopeful. “Now to bed?”
She nodded, standing up.
They left the library to run up the stairs, hand in hand, and Gwen felt the bittersweet love for Aidan cascading from her heart into every inch of her body. Would he still be here when she awoke tomorrow and not vanish into his thoughts as he had done that morning?
Tonight, he seemed almost carefree.
When they reached her room, she fumbled with the door and they stumbled into the room with their lips fused together.
“Uh …”
Gwen yanked her head away. “Octavia!”
The lady’s maid was standing by the wardrobe, her eyes averted to the floor as she fiddled with her skirts. She dropped into a curtsy, her face ruddy. “I shall … just …” She pointed awkwardly at the closed door behind Gwen and Aidan.
Gwen felt her ears warming in embarrassment. She resolutely stared at the wall beyond the other woman’s shoulder. “Could you arrange a dinner tray?”
Octavia nodded, sidling closer as she tried to reach the door. Aidan relinquished his hold on Gwen, stepping aside with a bow of his head. Octavia leapt for the door, hurriedly pulling it open to depart the room.
The decisive shutting of the door was all the cue needed for Aidan and Gwen to burst into nervous laughter.
When Aidan had recovered his composure, he swept around the room, closing the curtains. Gwen blinked as the room fell into deep shadows. What strange turn of events was this? Was Aidan shy?
He returned to her side, placing his hands on her hips to tug her forward against him. She could barely make him out in the dark, but he was staring down at her and he was breathing hard.
Gwen reached up to curl her arms around his neck, reveling in the sensation of her breasts pressed to his chest.
“I have been thinking about last night.” He had leaned forward so his lips brushed against her temple, tickling her skin with the delicious promise of more to come. “How you felt beneath me … around me.”
Gwen exhaled, desire slowly flickering to life in her lower belly as she pressed ever closer. “I … have thought about it, too.”
His hands were caressing up and down her waist. At her confession, he groaned, reaching lower to cup her buttocks and tug her against his groin. Feeling his rigid length in hisfalls caused her intimate muscles to tighten in instinctual response. Evidence of his arousal was … so arousing.
Aidan lowered his face to capture her lips, and their mouths came together as if they were one. Her passion flamed up as he explored her with hungry abandon, his tongue and hands moving in tandem to ratchet up the blaze in her belly until she was certain that there must be actual smoke enveloping their entwined bodies.
She gyrated her hips against him, attempting to alleviate the building tension between her legs, and moaned in relief as his fingers found the buttons of her bodice and began to release her from the constriction of her gown.
It was strange making love in almost complete darkness, with no lamps to light the room, but she had no time to worry about it. Her hands swept down to dig into his shoulders and upper arms with clawing passion.
Aidan flinched, gasping as if he were in pain, which Gwen could only commiserate with. The sensations he raised in her body were a sweet agony, building up and up at the feeling of his lips and his hard body against hers.
