She had her pride. And he respected it. But he didn’t want her to feel alone. Sure, he bickered with Nora. Sometimes they both got too busy with their own lives and didn’t talk much, but both of them knew they could count on the other if the going got rough.
“Well, he seems great.” Tuck’s deadpan observation earned a rueful giggle.
“That’s Henry for you.”
“What was all the chicken stuff? He couldn’t deal with that.”
Her smile was small but victorious. “My entire life Henry has enjoyed pointing out my every deficit and shortcoming. His favorite hobby is to remind me that I’m nothing but a burden. It’s gotten worse over time. And I have very little recourse except he hates when I call him Hen. I couldn’t say Henry when I was very small. I would use that nickname and he loathes being equated to a chicken. No sense of humor at all, really.”
“His confidence isn’t great.”
“No. I imagine not.” She poked at her plate. “I believe he has always been scared. Of what? I’m not sure. Perhaps the whole world. And how he chooses to mask it is by being terrible. I’d pity him if I were a better person.”
“Youarethe better person. The best person.” He gestured at her lunch. “It looks as if you are finished. I’d ask if you’d like a walk, but the rain is really coming down out there.”
She glanced at the window with a longing expression. “Honestly? A walk in the rain sounds lovely. Impractical but lovely.”
“I’m not going to melt, Pocket Rocket. If you want to go out and sing in the rain, I’ll keep you company,” Tuck said.
“Sing in the rain?” Lizzy made a face. “You are a strange one.”
She’d put her hand back on the table. This time he didn’t hesitate to take it and give a gentle squeeze. “Takes one to know one. So before we go and disappoint your entire family, want to have a little fun?”
His fingertips traced her skin. Lizzy’s eyes widened at the unexpected touch, but they quickly melted into a playful glint. “Very well, let’s embark on some more bad decisions.”
Chapter Eighteen
The rain showed no signs of relenting, but Lizzy refused to yield to the elements. She pressed onward, her arms swinging with purpose as rivulets of water streamed down the back of her neck and into her dress. At her side, Tuck’s long strides easily kept the pace, his measured steps falling in time with her hurried ones. She didn’t have the faintest notion of where she was going—she simply needed to move, to escape the weight of expectations that pressed down around her. Soon they were off any path and making their way through one of the many sheep paddocks on the outskirts of town.
“Henry had no business going to the Woodlands to spy on me,” she seethed, half to Tuck and half to herself. “He may spin a tale about urgently needing to attend to business in Portsmouth, but in reality, his true motive was to discover me in some compromised position. He hopes to use this as another wedge to ingratiate himself to our stepfather and leave me on the edge. It’s not fair and it’s not right, but Hen has done this my entire life. He always schemes to position himself in a favorable manner that places me at a disadvantage. When we were children, my brother would constantly remind me how difficult it was for him to study subjects like numbers, history, divinity, Latin, andso forth. He’d say it was a good thing that I wasn’t a boy, because I could never do it and be successful. Mother and Papa, and then our stepfather, highly valued his education even if he didn’t demonstrate more than average aptitude. They expected me to defer to him as some type of genius.
“Of course, I don’t want to give the impression that I was not afforded any opportunity. Their expectation for me was to be accomplished. This means my value was connected to how I could embroider, converse in French, play the pianoforte, paint with watercolors, and exude whatever spell bewitches a man. Unfortunately, I would have probably done better at school. Instead, I limped along a failure.”
“That’s not true.”
Lizzy looked up at Tuck, her hand on her forehead as if it could shield her from the deluge. Maybe he hadn’t heard her correctly, as the rain was making a great sound on the field stones. “I don’t indulge in false modesty, sir. If I say I’m not skilled in an area, I am not skilled in it—”
Before she could protest, he swept her off her feet and began walking. As her back met the trunk of a weeping willow, she gasped out, “What are you doing?” The dipping, downturned branches formed a small shelter around them, like an enchanted fairy ring.
Tuck braced her against the tree and stood between her legs, his big hands gripping her bottom as he looked down at her, a muscle feathering in the place where his jaw met his temple.
“You’re so smart, Lizzy,” he growled. “But sometimes you’re so smart that it also makes you a little stupid.” She shivered as he dipped his head, his breath warm against her throat. “Trust me, you have no problem bewitching a man.”
Her hands, which had been pushing against his shoulders,did a sudden reversal, even without conscious thought; she was now gripping him, driving him closer.
“All I can think about is doing this to you,” he rasped, skimming his tongue along the curve of her neck before drawing the skin between his teeth for a soft nip. “This and nothing else.”
His low grunt sent a shock of pleasure coursing between her thighs in hot prickling dots.
He gripped her more thoroughly and jutted into her again with a slow rock, rolling his hips with enough pressure to make her insides warm.
“Want you.” He rocked again. “I fucking love that you don’t have anything on under this dress. Just you.” His hips canted. More pressure against that small aching spot she’d recently discovered in the inn. Then, her attention to it had been gentle, curious, and grew into a frenzy. This methodical grind scoured away her inhibitions and exposed something new, vulnerable, and intoxicating.
“All I do is want you. I’m your husband, Lizzy. And I’m at your mercy. So don’t tell me what you can’t do. Tell me what you want, right now, because I’ll give it to you.”
“Release.” Where did that half sob tear from? “Don’t let me think anymore.”
He hiked her skirts to her waist, nudged her legs apart.
