It was hard to concentrate. The pleasure that attacked her body was impossible. It built slowly at first, then quickly. It rose higher and higher, toward her heart, her throat, then out her mouth so that she wanted to scream.
“There is one thing…” He pulled back and looked at her.
She forced her eyes open, even as her body rebelled because his fingers worked her with such expertise that she knew what was about to happen, even if she could not say why.
It came on her. It engulfed her. It opened her, then wrapped her, then suffocated her so that she felt as if her chest was being crushed. And then, with a final expert stroke, one that ran thefull length of her walls, it hit her right in the heart and the stomach and everywhere…
“Oh… God… Edward…” She shut her eyes.
“Look at me,” he commanded her as she exploded.
She snapped her eyes open. Her mouth was wide, soft moans held back but barely. Her entire body writhed from the pleasure, and she thought her heart might literally give out.
“Marry me,” he said as he looked at her, his fingers still inside of her, still owning her.
“Wh… what?” she breathed.
“Marry me,” he said again with a growl. “Marry me to save yourself. Marry me so that nobody else can. Marry me because…” Gently, he pulled his fingers from her. She gasped, lurched forward, and then fell back against the door as her body spasmed. “Marry because it is what you want.”
She almost said no, just because she thought that she should. Her body still ran hot, her breathing was heavy, but it started to calm. Her thoughts returned in pieces, the realization of what she had just done and with whom.
Say no… this is wrong…
Then Edward brought his fingers to his mouth, licked them slowly as he made intense eye contact. He tasted her, proving to her once and for all that he wanted her as she did him.
“Yes,” she said, caught in the moment, not sure if it was right but knowing that she was not strong enough to say no. “I will marry you.”
Chapter Fifteen
“There you are…” Ariadne’s voice drifted across the room. “I was wondering where you were hiding.”
Celestine sat by the window, looking across the back garden, utterly lost in her own thoughts such that it took her a moment to recognize who had spoken. In her lap, she held baby Emmet, rocking the sleeping baby back and forth with such gentleness and care that she worried if she moved from her place that it might wake him suddenly.
There was great comfort found in holding the baby, a sense of familiarity that Celestine did not fully understand, nor did she want to admit to feeling.
“I’m not hiding.” She smiled at her sister before turning back toward the window. “I was just getting to know my nephew a little better.”
“And I will never stop such a thing,” her sister laughed gently. “Truly, it is nice to know that he is so loved, as well as knowing that when the time comes for peace and quiet, I will have you to take him from me.” She laughed further. “I do not think I have slept more than an hour straight since he was born.”
Celestine chuckled again but did not respond. She looked down at the sleeping baby, and her chest tightened with what felt like sadness but she knew to be something else. Fear, she suspected, worry about what she was doing.
I cannot escape the feeling that I have made a terrible mistake.
“Mother is looking for you.” Ariadne pulled a chair across the room and sat herself beside Celestine. “Do not worry,” she said quickly when she saw the grimace cross Celestine’s face. “I told her that you were busy with preparations.”
“I assume that only made her want to find me more.”
“True,” her sister laughed. “It is somewhat chaotic here. And I do not think I have ever seen Mother so excited. Two dukes in the family. Two daughters who are duchesses.” She laughed again. “Truly, I feel sorry for her friends, as they will have to live with her bragging for some time.”
“I am just happy that she is happy,” Celestine said because it felt like the right thing to say.
“Marigold has certainly come into herself,” Ariadne continued gently. “She has taken command of the wedding preparations like I did not know she was capable. Even Isolde is doing her part.”
“I should be helping…”
“Oh, they are capable enough,” her sister assured her. “I think they assume that you are so love struck that you will be little real use to them anyway. Let them take the brunt. You have earned the rest.”
Celestine forced a smile, but only because she thought that was what her sister wanted of her. It had been that way for three days, ever since Celestine had announced to her family that she and Edward were to be wed.
