The words cast ripples throughout Nora’s sense of self and the situation. Thomas had purchasedthema house so she and Beth could live independently. And he made it clear that he would continue to do so for her so she needn’t give up her freedom and be at the mercy of her family once again—not that they were terrible people, of course, but she would be expected to behave a certain way, attend certain functions, perhaps even be encouraged to marry despite her advanced age. She didn’t think she could live like that, especially not after so many years of freedom.
“I wanted you safe,” Thomas continued; “at any cost. And I will continue to do so until my dying breath.” She watched his eyes track down to her lips and stay. His fingers twitched against her cheek and she knew.
He wanted her.
Hestillwanted her.
And Nora still wanted him—had never stopped wanting him. Being this close to him once more was overwhelming. The knowledge that he’d maintained his desire for her despite the passage of time and regardless of all the things she’d said to him was heady.
Her lips parted and Thomas’s head began to incline ever so slowly. His heat reached her first, tickling her lips like the petals of a sun-warmed dandelion. They were one sigh away from kissing and the potential was so tempting. She was drawn to him, reeled in despite her thrashing, and she was exhausted.
Her mind danced between imagining how good it would feel to have his mouth upon hers once more after all these years, and the echoing memories of the way he’d always made not just her body, but her soul, feel. Thomas had always known how to coax laughter from her when she felt like crying and joy when she’d been morose. And this…this was too much. She felt like she would be consumed by his nearness and lose herself.
Nora hopped to her feet and Thomas had been so caught off guard that he hadn’t had a chance to stop her. Wrapping her arms around her chilled body, she strode over to the bookcase mounted upon the far wall and stared unseeingly at the earth-tone covers. Browns, greens, and tans swam before her vision as it blurred with unshed tears.
She’d spent so long parsing out her sense of self into “Beth’s friend” and “Thomas’s lover” that her mind struggled to reconcile the two. How could her conscience survive if she simply jumped into Thomas’s arms the very month of Beth’s death? Would she be turning her back on her friend if she allowed this draw between the two of them to happen—if she quit fighting the latent attraction and simply gave herself permission to be? The war in her heart was nearly overwhelming in its intensity, she felt her gut roil with it, her head throbbed with it.
The soft thud of Thomas’s boots on the rug approached her until they stopped and slowed just behind her. Nora closed her eyes, inhaled deeply through her nose, and turned to face him.
“I didn’t wait around for Beth to die so I could simply shift my attentions back to you. The mere thought of it makes me ill,and I will not have you believing it, nor will I sully the memories of my friendship with her by allowing anyone else to think it. This would be the cruelest stain upon the past and I doubt not that it would also bleed into the future.”
“Nora, I assure you that I never thought that, nor would I ever.” Thomas’s hands wrapped around her upper arms and he held her firmly until she met his eyes. “As far as what anyone else thinks, they can go to the Devil for all I care. All that matters is what is in our hearts. We know the truth, and I’ll not allow you to say a disparaging word about yourself.”
“Thomas,” she said, a sob lodging in her throat and preventing all other words from squeezing past. She pressed a hand to her mouth to stave off the tears that threatened. She refused to allow herself to fall apart right there in his library, but it was so bloody hard when he looked at her like that—as if she were his world.
“Princess.” The old endearment tumbled from his lips like an invocation, halting Nora’s pulse.
And then, his lips were on hers.
Chapter Five
Thomas’s fingers speared into her hair, tugging her toward him and he slanted his parted lips over hers in a bruising, claiming kiss. Nora was so tired of fighting this—of fighting herself and of missing him. She melted into Thomas with a sigh, parting her lips to allow his tongue long, sensuous tastes of her mouth. There was nothing tender about the way their bodies warred for supremacy, how he wrapped his fist in her hair and held her at his mercy, how she curled her arms beneath his and raked her nails down his back.
Nora arched against him, pressing her nipples into the hard wall of his chest, aching for contact there nearly as much as she was the swelling, dampening place between her trembling thighs. His strong arm hooked beneath her leg and hiked it up over his hip.
Yes.
There.
Slotting his hips between hers, wedging her against the bookcase provided her with a taste of the pressure she craved. Unable to speak, she bit down on his lower lip, earning a groan of approval from Thomas. He tugged her head back to expose her neck, which he then peppered with open-mouthed kisses and nips of his own. He lavished sinful attention on her pounding pulse and then the heaving swells of her breasts.
She gasped when he hooked his fingers into the neckline of her bodice and, with one swift tug, he rented it straight down the center. Another jerk and her stays followed suit, her breasts bobbing free of the fabric. The hard, raspberry-pink nipples immediately drew Thomas’s ravenous gaze. Hiking her high into his arms so she had to wrap her legs around his waist, he bent his head to catch a nipple between his teeth, mercilessly flicking it with his tongue, holding it just tightly enough that she couldn’t escape. He kept her at his mercy, gripping her bottom in his wide palms, making her at once boneless and clenching with need. She felt empty and desperate for fulfillment. She wanted him, body, mind, and soul with such desperation that it was proof she’d never stopped loving him even when she’d spent years trying to convince herself otherwise. Her body dripped with need, pulsed in desperate pleas for him to slide home and make them one once again.
It had been too long—too long without Thomas, too long without his love, his body, his smile, his laughter, his kindness… For so long, Nora had told herself she’d felt fulfilled. Of course, she’d loved—did love—Beth for every moment since they’d first met, but a part of her had lain dormant and alone all these years without the warmth and heat of Thomas’s love.
Knowing that he’d felt the same was humbling.
And empowering.
“God,Nora,” his voice rumbled low in his chest when her lower body undulated against him. Her world and mind bothspun as he pivoted them away from the wall and, in a few long strides, settled her on the sofa and dropped to his knees on the floor between her legs. “I need to taste you,” he growled. “I shall die if I don’t.” He flipped up her skirts, tore at the slit in her drawers, and pressed her legs as wide as he could; Nora watched him pause and gape at her exposed pink flesh glistening with need. She should have felt shy and vulnerable, but this wasThomas. And the worshipful gleam in his eyes told her he was nothing short of desirous. “I’ve dreamed of this,” he murmured, running a knuckle along the petals of her sex and sending another tremor of all-consuming need through her. “You don’t know how many nights I lay awake drenched in sweat, my hand on my hard cock, and wishing you were there with me.”
Nora whimpered at the image he’d painted for her, her breath coming in quick pants as he gradually increased the pressure of his fingers. “I, as well…” She sighed and felt lighter than she had in years now that she’d admitted to the depth and longevity of her feelings for this man.
He flashed her a wicked smile that melted her like wax held to a flame before dipping his head and kissing, licking, sucking, nipping his way from the crease of her thigh to the thatch of burnished curls protecting her sex. With a deep moan of appreciation, he nuzzled her, inhaled her scent like the finest perfume, parted her with his fingers and licked her in one long stroke.
Her head fell back and her hands flew to Thomas’s head, holding him there while he feasted. His palms pressed her wide and his thumbs spread her folds so there was no hiding from the erotic onslaught as he toyed with her sensitive flesh, lapping up every drop of her desire, swirling around the sensitive bud residing at the crux of her sex, plunging deep inside of her. She gasped and writhed against him, her hips bucking as he suckedher and caught that bud with his teeth…and then his fingers joined.
A deep moan was ripped from Nora’s chest as he coated one and then two fingers in her wetness and then plunged them deeply inside of her tight sheath. Rotating and curling them inside of her, all the while continuing to tease her with his mouth, was causing the pressure and tension to build inside of her with alarming speed.
