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She froze, facing the door.
“Why did you leave?”
Her hands rested on the door at her shoulders’ level. Her head fell; her forehead touched the wood. The question she had feared to hear for the last twenty-four months. The answer too painful to be uttered aloud.
She exhaled lengthy. “I had to move on.” She whispered in a weak voice. “Ours an impossible situation.” Not a lie, not the entire truth either. Not the most important part of it.
“True enough.” He had come closer.
She turned abruptly and saw him just a couple of feet away. Their eyes met in the faint moonlight.
“You wanted to seek a more…advantageous opportunities, I gather.” His smooth tone tasted like poison.
She could not blame him for judging her a gold digger. It hurt sharp that he would judge her.
“You can think whatever you want.”
He paced nearer. “Indeed.” He envied and despised her for being able to receive another man in her bed. He felt his guts twist with jealousy at the thought that another man touched her. When he thought of her and another together, his impulse to demolish everything at his hands’ reach.
“Has it been worth it?” He neared, coming inches from her. She could smell his sandal wood soap. She would not forget how he smelled in a million years.
She extended her arm to open the door and leave, he moved quicker. He shut it back and palmed on it. Both his hands were siding her head. Her heart jumped uncontrolled and she breathed uneven through parted lips.
Hugh looked at her. Temptation. Fire. Agony.
In a way it had been worth it, she thought about his question. Now she had the means to help other women who were in the same situation she had been before. “Yes.” She whispered.
Anger, jealousy and desire dominated him. Worth getting married to another man, worth sleeping with another man, worth leaving him! He lost hold of himself. He leaned all his body on hers and bent his head to plunder her mouth.
The world disappeared. Again. For them both. Desire surpassed anger or jealousy, as Hugh laced her corseted waist firmly with one arm. The other hand circled the nape of her neck to keep her in place and he deepened the kiss. Their tongues entwined thirsty.
Aflame, he plundered her without any resistance, her body melting. She still held the doorknob behind her in a vain attempt to fight the impulse to rake her fingers in his sleek jet-black hair.
His body wanted hers. This very second. All he thought of, locking that damned door, carrying her to the couch and sate the hunger that had never stopped growing.
Their bodies recognized each other in such an instinctive level. Hands still on the knob, Sarah arched her body to feel more of him. His arms held her tighter in response. Almost impossible to breath, her skirts smashed against the door. Even with all the layers of clothes she had on, she could feel the intensity of his want. She felt no better; all sensation smelted in her middle.
It had always been like this. Their bodies represented the expression of their feelings. Their encounters were more than just sex. They were pure emotion, sensation, quenching. That kiss only reinforced this.
“Sarah…” He nibbled her ear with a sigh. “I’m going to your house tonight. Have me!”
His hoarse, grave voice heated her even more. The nature of his suggestion though got her out of her haze. Wrong. She would not do the wrong thing ever again. The pain too excruciating, she still bore the scars.
She broke the heavenly contact of their bodies, heaving. Her wide brown eyes looked at his. “No, you’re not.” Before he reacted out of his surprise, she opened the door and freed herself into the corridor, banging it shut again.
She went out of the ball as fast as etiquette allowed and sought refuge in her carriage. Emotionally exhausted, her head fell back on the seat and she closed her eyes, still breathless.
Her lady’s maid came to help Sarah, as soon as she entered her chambers. She could not stand a corset. She wore them only in formal occasions. When working or at home, she did not like to arrest herself in those things. The reflexion on the mirror showed a flushed, restless woman. Her body had gone back to the previous shape after childbirth, but her breasts remained fuller and her hips rounder.
She wondered what Hugh would think of it. Well, she would not find out. Not if she’d learned with her mistakes and had become a sensible woman. But there had been no possible common sense when he came around. Therefore, the solution would to stay away from him.
Her head touched the pillow, all wired, sleep elusive. She solely lay there re-viewing the evening’s events. Over and over. Dancing with him felt like she fluctuated. She wished he had never found her. She fell in a restless sleep.
Hugh went mad. At himself. At her. At everything. Damn it! His body had just awoken from two years’ burial, but he had to face frustration tonight. He raked his fingers through his hair and paced the dark room, where she had just been. He left the room and went back to the ballroom. He knew she would have left. Duncan intercepted him on his way.
“Oh, Duncan.” His hands on his pockets, he tried to look casual.
“Hugh! There you are.” He smiled. His blond looks used to attract the opposite sex. “I am looking for Lady Wilkins.” He looked around. “Have you seen her?”
