“Enough to kiss me?” she asked with a blush. “I know it is not appropriate, but I have missed you holding me. I feel safer when you are near.”
“I am prepared to follow your order, my lady,” he said with a warm smile. Orson leaned in and pressed a brief chaste kiss against her lips. “Will such suffice, Lady Emma?”
Instead of words, she caught his lapels and pulled him into her. “Do I appear satisfied, my lord?” she challenged.
Her fingers traced his chin line and the curve of his lips, while his hand spread heat along the curve of her back. “You are too tempting, my lady,” he whispered.
“Am I to speak my regrets, my lord?” she murmured against his neck.
“I have missed you terribly, Lady Emma,” he admitted, as his fingers traced her chin line and buried themselves into her hair.
“Even if I am constantly falling apart?” she asked, as she studied his countenance.
“You are one of the strongest women I have ever encountered. I cannot imagine any I know within thehaut ton, or elsewhere, for that matter, who would still be fighting to know justice. Most would declare themselves to be a victim.”
“I have moments when I do feel the victim,” she admitted, “but not regarding the attack. Rather how I have permitted myself to be a single in a world meant for people to travel two-by-two.”
Emma did not know how much she wished to view something resembling affection or even desire upon Lord Orson’s features until it was there. “If you do not wish me to kiss you again, my lady, say so now, though, please know, I do not intend for my next kiss to be a simple expression of my concern for your injuries.”
When she did not respond, again Lord Orson leaned in, but it was not the passion she had expected and was afraid not to know. Instead, his lordship placed another gentle kiss upon her lips. They remained as such as her hands rose to cup his face.
When he released her mouth, she knew the disappointment of having to settle for the potential of something grand, but not the reality. She was beginning to wonder if he preferred a flirtation or if he truly was not interested in her as all had assumed. They both expelled a heavy sigh. Emma attempted once more to tempt him, while realizing Lady Theodora might have misinterpreted his lordship’s interest in a relationship with Emma. “You shan’t bring more harm upon me, my lord.”
He studied her for several elongated seconds before a groan of what Emma assumed was desire escaped: His left hand cupped the nape of her neck to hold her in place, and his right tugged her into his chest. Then his mouth closed over hers. Licking. Sucking. Tilting to the side to devour her lips. Request.Demand. Retreat. Emma’s heart raced and her pulse tapped out a rhythm in her ears. She had never thought a kiss could be so powerful. She held no doubt that this was the first real moment of her life.
She pressed herself against him, wishing to crawl inside him and become one person. A moan of desire could be heard between them, whether it came from Orson or her, Emma could not say with confidence. She was plastered along the hardness of the door at her back, and his body, quite literally, holding her in place. His thighs aligned with hers.
The kiss had mesmerized her, wiping away every fear and any doubts she held. Only this man and this moment mattered. If, in the future, she should again know danger, she would hold a sweet memory all her own, for no one could ever steal away this moment. She could feel his hardness pressing against her, and, though she did not believe she personally knew anything regarding this phenomenon, her breasts assuredly did, for they tightened in response to Lord Orson’s all-consuming kiss.
When his lordship purposely eased his hips away from hers, Emma was thankful he did not also release her, for she thought her legs would no longer support her upright. Slowly, Lord Orson’s mouth moved from hers, and, although she could now breathe on her own, Emma preferred their shared breaths instead. Her eyes opened widely, as did her heart, which found a love she never knew could exist between two individuals.
He leaned in nose-to-nose for the briefest of seconds before raising his head again to look solemnly upon her. “In your eyes,” he murmured, “I see the memories I have yet to make.” With a deep sigh and not waiting for her response, as if he thought he had said too much, when, in reality, Emma thought his words pure perfection, he said, “Please tell me I did not bring more harm upon your head.” His ragged breaths warmed her lips. He had braced his hands on either side of her head, physicallyholding himself away from her, though only several inches removed.
“In truth, I cannot say with confidence; however, I do not believe I have ever felt so alive as I do at this moment,” she reassured him, though her breath still had not fully recovered from perfection.
His lips turned upward in a smile. “It is more than evident we fit well together.”
Emma caught his arms and tugged them down to wrap around her again. “Just hold me for a moment,” she whispered. “I know there is still much to do, but I require you here with me, before we begin again.”
When they joinedhis friends for supper, Beaufort announced that he and Graham would return to London in the morning.
“So soon?” Lady Emma asked, and Richard wondered if she feared to remain alone with him. He had, in truth, come close to tossing her into her bed and following her down.
“You will reach your majority tomorrow,” Lord Graham explained. “No one may force you into a marriage not of your choice. Such was our purpose for bringing you to the lodge—to foil Lord Davidson’s plans.”
Lady Emma glanced at him for confirmation, and Richard nodded his agreement. “Mr. Hartley secured a copy of your birth registration. You were less than a year of age when your parents first traveled to the Continent at the beginning of the war with France. After tonight, you may choose who you wish to marry.” Richard studied her carefully, wondering if she was also considering what had passed between them only an hour prior.
“I appreciate all that each of you have executed in my name,” she told Graham and Beaufort, while reaching a hand to him,which Richard cupped with his palm. “I pray my achieving my majority settles the matter with Lord Davidson, though I am not convinced his lordship is the one who beat me so severely.”
“Neither am I,” Richard stated. “I believe Davidson approached Lord Donoghue, taking advantage of the fact Lady Emma’s father was absent from England. Davidson likely told Lord Donoghue of Lady Emma’s escapades, and Lord Donoghue may have initially considered Davidson as an appropriate choice to rein in Lady Emma’s more vocal choices. Davidson comes from an esteemed family, better than any of us sitting at this table.” Richard shrugged, knowing his own family’s history had been the fodder for the gossips for more than a decade. “As Lord Davidson told Mrs. Dove-Lyon when he attempted to employ...”
“Wait, Mrs. Dove-Lyon is involved?” Beaufort asked.
“Yes, when Thompson, Hartley, and I called in upon the woman regarding Duncan’s shooting, she informed me of Lord Davidson’s hopes of arranging a marriage with Lady Emma,” Richard explained. “That was on Wednesday. According to Mrs. Dove-Lyon, Lord Davidson approached her and wanted the Widow to arrange a match with you. The woman despises Davidson and refused, but she privately informed me to pass on word of the situation to you. The lady did not think Lord Davidson would give up so easily.”
“But you never told me of this warning,” Lady Emma said.
“As I said,” Richard said lamely, “it was Wednesday, and we already knew something of Lord Davidson’s urgency in convincing you to marry him. I just assumed such was a confirmation of our concern. It was not new business in that sense.”
