Page 45 of Charity

Suddenly he stopped. Agatha opened her eyes and stared up at him. His face held a foolish grin and she smiled back, content to share this small moment of perfection with him. He glanced down to where they joined and then back at her face.

“Marry me, precious.” He smiled again. “I’d like to do this with you for the rest of my life.”

“Marriage?”

“Yes. Marriage.” He slid his finger over her cheek, wiping away her happy tears. “I should have done the honorable thing from the start. Forgive me.”

He began to move again, and Agatha’s heart soared. Marriage. But how? Oscar widened her legs, glancing between her face and where he invaded her body. She shuddered at his fierce expression.

“Touch yourself, Aggie, love. Let me see you do it.”

Agatha ran her hand over her belly and into her folds. The hard nub tingled at the increased attention and she curled up to see them make love. Although her fingers strummed over her nub with increasing speed, she watched Oscar’s thick length enter and leave her body. Knowing Oscar was watching too, his head pressed hard to hers, added to her pleasure, and the precipice approached too swiftly. She removed her hand.

“No, don’t stop, precious. I’m waiting for you. Waiting.”

She met his gaze as her hand returned, then wailed as her body clenched around Oscar and he groaned in tandem. He pumped his hips hard, again and again. They collapsed in a sprawling heap, limbs sticky with the sweat of their exertions. Yet he wouldn’t let them rest like that. He scooped her up against him and flipped a quilt over her cooling skin.

“One of these days, precious, you’re going to break me with that control of yours.”

Agatha nudged him to gain a little space. She kissed his cheek. “Nonsense. It’s you who breaks me every time.”

He grinned foolishly. “So we are equals. I like that.”

Agatha frowned. “Do you really?”

“Oh, yes.” He stood suddenly, whipped the covers back properly and settled them both into his bed. “You keep me in line very well. I am a better man when I’m with you.”

He drew her back against his chest, his grip loose but comforting just the same. Constant.

“You are a good man even without me, Oscar.” She clutched his hands. “I know what you did for Lilly, my love.”

Oscar stilled, and she wondered if she shouldn’t have brought it up. But secrets were bad between them. He needed to know she knew everything. Otherwise he might never find peace.

“He haunts me,” he said.

She rubbed her hands over his briskly. “You wouldn’t be a good man if you did not question your actions, Oscar. He was dangerous and you had a clear shot, I’m told. If someone else had had a better idea, they would have acted long before you did.”

Oscar remained silent behind her.

“Lilly lives and is happy. Daventry worships her and is content. Don’t torture yourself with what ifs and deny yourself a chance for a happy life. Live for now and never look back.”

“It is just…” His breath rushed out. “I don’t sleep anymore. I find it impossible to relax. I have terrible nightmares.”

Agatha frowned. That did not sound good at all. “No sleep at all?”

“Not enough.”

Agatha squeezed his hands where they’d curled over her breasts. “Then think about what you do have instead of what you don’t. Close your eyes, my love, and sleep. I’ll keep your demons at bay.”

Oscar snuggled closer. “I never do think of him around you. Don’t leave before I wake. Please.”

Such a sweet, confused man. The perfect lover, but so very unsure of himself because of the past. She looked over her shoulder. “Don’t hog the blankets tonight like last time.”

But he’d already fallen asleep and didn’t stir till early morning.

He stretched. “You’re awake?”

Agatha smoothed his hair from his eyes as he blinked sleep from his eyes. “I haven’t slept. I was watching over you.”