“What is he asking for in return?”
“I’ll be working for him for the foreseeable future. Cooper, too. In London.Lucrative, if Mr. Sanderson is right. We signed a contract tonight.” His eyes shifted to hers. “It’s complicated, but know that it’ll be enough. You won’t have to worry about money, you won’t have to worry aboutanything. Not anymore.”
With her fingertips, Cassandra traced his hairline. “You don’t want to work for Lord Bolderwood, or live in London. What about the country? Seth, look at what this place has done to you, whathehas done to you,why…” Her heart broke with the knowledge of what it must have cost him. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I want to marry you,” he whispered.
Over her nightgown, Seth placed his hand over Cassandra’s heart. “Your heart is safe with me, Cassandra,” he vowed. “I would go through hell and back to give you everything you need.Beeverythingyou need. I would place your happiness above my own, your life above my own. If you refuse me now, I’ll love you in agony for the rest of my days. I would step aside, it would kill me, but I would do it if I knew that you would be happier with another man. A better man.” Keeping his eyes trained on hers, he promised, “But I can be that man. Let me be the man to kiss you each morning, to hold you in a garden under moonlight. Who makes you laugh, frustrates you,worshipsyou… who loves you with every breath.”
Taking a step from her, he lowered himself onto one knee. Candlelight flickered in his eyes, steady with the same intensity from that night, months ago. The look of a man that glimpsed heaven and now begged at its gate. “Cassandra Cooper, will you marry me?”
Love blossomed in her heart for this beautiful, wild soul. There was no doubt in Cassandra’s mind that Seth would make her happy, keep her comfortable, keep her safe, andloveher. Her standards, lists, and rules flew to the wind as she stepped toward him.
“Yes, Seth. I will marry you.”
His smile lit the room when the words left her mouth. Rising to his feet, he pressed his lips to hers, and she deepened their kiss, wanting to breathe him into her body and hold him in the space between her lungs, to intertwine with him so completely that nothing could tear them from each other. This would be the last night they would have alone together for some time. Life would come at them fast, but here, in the eye of their storm, she wanted to experience everything with him. To join with him, to meld her soul with his. She didn’t want to wait another minute.
“Make love to me,” she whispered, loosening the buttons of her nightgown. Shame and regret fell from her with the cloth, down her arms and hips, leaving her bare before him. Her hair fell over her shoulders and breasts in waves, and thehungerin his eyes fed her desire.
“You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“Then show me.” She removed his suit jacket, letting it fall to the floor behind him. Using her hold on his shirt, she brought his mouth down to hers.
“Sweetheart, I’ll hurt you,” he said, even as his hands ran along her ribs, thumbs brushing over the round curve of her breasts, inching them closer to the bed with every torturously slow kiss.
“I trust you.” She arched her body into his. Lips close to his ear, she whispered, “Seth, Iwantyou.”
The rest of his resolve shattered, and he lifted her onto the bed, crawling over her to fit his mouth over hers once more. Between them, Cassandra worked at Seth’s clothing, tugging at the buttons of his shirt with sure fingers, but before it could fall open, he caught her wrist and gently placed a kiss in the center of her palm.
“Wait.”
Seth left the bed and extinguished the oil lamps, leaving the room lit only by blue moonlight drifting in from the window. There was athudas one of his boots hit the floor, and then the other. He undressed, silent except for a rustle of fabric as each garment fell to the floor. When he finished, he pulled the strings of the canopy, sheltering them in total darkness.
Her fingers trailed through the air, following the dip in the bed. “I can’t see you.”
“It’s all right.” Laying down, he rolled her onto her side and kissed her tenderly. “Feel. Touch me, Cassandra.”
Tentatively, her fingertips grazed over his firm muscles, the coarse dusting of hair on his chest, and the raised and dimpled skin of his scars. Her heart broke for him as she followed them across his back and down his arms. With her touch, she tried to show him he was safe with her, that he could bevulnerablewith her.
Pressing her onto her back, Seth nipped at her throat. He blazed atrail of open-mouthed kisses to the valley between her breasts, circled her navel, and dipped his tongue into the hollow of her hip. Using the back of her knee, he hiked her leg over his shoulder. She relaxed into the now familiar feel of his fingertip parting her. A hum of approval came from him when she lifted and, without warning, his mouth closed over her sex, his tongue moving over that same sensitive peak.
“What are you—oh—doing?”
“Something wrong, apparently.” He pressed two fingers into her and she moaned. “Better.” He lowered his mouth once more, tongue gliding as he stroked inside. Heat rose within her with every deliberate slide of his tongue, so exquisite she covered her mouth to stifle her cries. Deeper, insistent, he drove her. The slick scent of his rosemary pomade saturated her fingers as they slid through his hair, fingernails scraping against his scalp, and he groaned—a low vibration she could feel in herspine—and all she wanted was, “More.”
He gripped her and gave no quarter, setting an unrelenting pace. Euphoria spread like fire in her veins, and as she climaxed, it was his name on her breath. But he didn’t stop, and Cassandra forgot how to breathe entirely. It was toomuch.As she tried to shrink from him, he held her still and ruthlessly pushed her through another orgasm with expert strokes of his tongue. Gasping breaths left her as he rose and shifted his knees between hers. Wrapping one arm around the small of her back, he lifted her to align the tip of his erection with the entrance of her body.
“I’ll be gentle with you,” he whispered, and pushed in. “So unbelievably gentle.”
Easing into her with shallow thrusts, he allowed her body to accept his, inch by inch. Uncomfortably stretched, she tried to relax, but it was difficult, and ithurt. Sucking a breath in through his teeth, Seth laced his fingers with hers. He kissed her brow, her cheeks, and told her how well she was doing, how much she pleased him, how helovedher. And she was glad it was him. His patient heart caring for her,givingmore than taking, as was his nature.
And she lovedhim.The words choked behind gasps and cries and broken sighs. At a point where he could go no further, Seth paused. Sensing his hesitation, his unwillingness to hurt her, Cassandra lifted, surrendering herself. And it was her turn to encourage him, whispering that she trusted him, she wantedhim, onlyeverhim,and with steady thrusts and a flash of pain, he was fully inside of her.
Sweat dripped from his brow as he waited, tense with restraint. Equally vulnerable with each other, Cassandra understood why it was calledmaking love. Their bond rooted deeper within them as they joined. As he moved, she whispered, “You’re mine.”
“Yes…yes,love.” Rolling his hips, he kissed her with bruising force. His thumb circled the peak of her sex and he pushed forward. Soreness replaced the pain as her body adjusted to him. She hooked her leg over his hip, pulling him closer and—
“There.” She gasped as he moved again. “Yes,there.” She lifted as he came down, swept away. She couldn’t getcloseenough,feelenough, andhaveenough of him.
