Page 123 of The Marriage Method

He stroked her heated cheek. “How much do you know, sweetheart?”

“Everything,” she said with schoolmistress matter-of-factness. “I read books.”

Unlike most of fashionable society, Miss Corvus didn’t believe in keeping girls in ignorance. It was one of the tenets of the Academy. A necessary part of knowing oneself. Academy girls were taught all aspects of human biology.

Miles’s hand drifted to Nell’s waist. He pressed a lingering kiss to the curve of her throat, distracting her. “Outside of books.”

Her heartbeat quickened. “My body isn’t a mystery to me.” She inhaled sharply as he slipped his hand inside her chemise. “Oh.”

“You’re so soft,” he said gruffly. His hand slid over her frame in gentle passes, shaping itself to every dip and swell. “Let me—”

“Yes,” she answered. “Yes.”

She didn’t fully know what she was agreeing to, only that she wanted him closer. Needed him closer. Her own shyness didn’t matter. Until—

He murmured a husky question in her ear.

Nell closed her eyes against a swell of embarrassment. She gave an infinitesimal nod.

Miles didn’t prolong her discomfort. He rid her of her muslin drawers as efficiently as he’d rid her of everything else.

Nell was left in nothing but her chemise. It covered her to her hips, still preserving some of her modesty. But it wasn’t modesty that concerned her now. Burning with self-consciousness, she dropped a reluctant look at her exposed left thigh. The muscle had withered over time, making it markedly smaller than her right one.

And that wasn’t the worst of it.

Two thick, ugly scars crisscrossed her pale flesh—evidence of the brutal procedure she’d suffered through when an overzealous surgeon had attempted to repair the damage incurred from her fall.

A troubled frown darkened Miles’s gaze.

“I did warn you,” she said. “It’s ghastly.”

“Hush,” he replied. He lifted the hem of her chemise, exposing the full length of her old wounds. He touched them gently, sending a convulsive shiver through her. “How did you—?”

“I broke several bones when I fell. The village doctor brought in a local surgeon to try and repair them. He was rather ham-fisted.”

Miles muttered an oath.

Nell swallowed hard as his hand curved around her naked thigh. He didn’t appear at all disgusted by the sight and feel of her injury. It was tender concern that marred his brow, not revulsion.

“Does this hurt?” he asked. “When I touch you like this?”

“No,” she whispered.

“But it does hurt you sometimes?”

“It aches when the weather is cold. Or when I’ve been still too long. Or when I move too much.” She took a trembling breath. “It’s temperamental at the best of times. So are most injuries of this sort, I’m told.”

“I wish I could take the pain away for you,” he said.

Her heart turned over. “It’s nothing I can’t manage. Indeed, I rarely think of it except…” She winced. “I confess, I did fear it would put you off.”

He flashed her a scorching glance. “Do I look like I’m put off?”

Nell blushed to the roots of her hair. “Well…As to that…”

Miles silenced her virginal stammering with another kiss.

And she forgot about the past. About her pain, and her imagined imperfections. They all faded away. Only the present mattered, here, in the arms of the man she loved.