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She shook her head and the moistness of her mouth dragged over his thumb. Something inside him broke. He didn’t want to know, but he asked the question all the same. “What did he do, Cyn?”
“He just…I made him angry. And he wanted me to be scared, I think, and I wasn’t, and that made it worse.”
Every word touched his skin and burned him. Yes, Richmond liked to inspire fear above all else.
“He was on top of me, and he…” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. But when I spat on him, he snapped. I thought…I thought he was kissing me too hard. I tried to shove him off and his teeth…they tore my lip. And I screamed that he was biting me. I screamed for help and Bram…he just stood there.”
“Bram was there?”
“He was always there, but…I don’t know. He was there, but he looked right through me, and I was bleeding everywhere and crying—”
“Oh, Cyn.”
“And my mother came in, thank God. I ran past her, and then I was free.”
“You ran here?”
One tear touched his knuckle, scalding hot before it cooled on his skin.
“I ran here,” she breathed.
“I’m so sorry,” he murmured, as her wide eyes drew him in. “I’m sorry he hurt you, and I’m so glad you came here.” She went still. So still, and Lancaster leaned closer, as slowly as he could bear, and brushed her lips with his own.
He’d meant never to touch her again, but he needed to kiss this pain away. He couldn’t resist her and didn’t want to.
Cynthia didn’t seem interested in resisting either. She parted her lips and rubbed her tongue into his mouth. Her hands fisted in his shirt, and he was relieved he wouldn’t have to hold her wrists and disappointed he’d miss the chance.
Whatever hesitance he might have retained disappeared when she pulled him closer. Lancaster went gladly. He pressed her into the wall and kissed her too hard, just the way he wanted. Long seconds passed as he plunged into her mouth the way he wished he could plunge between her thighs. But when Cyn groaned, his conscience flared to life.
He tried to pull away, but her hands wound tighter into his coat.
“I’m sorry,” he moaned, but Cynthia shook her head.
“No, don’t. I want this. I want it. Please.”
Oh, God, why was she saying that? Please, she’d begged him in his fantasies the night before. Please. His cock swelled to sudden, painful need. “I can’t,” he groaned, but she surged up on her tiptoes and kissed him again.
His mind tumbled over itself until he was dizzy. Wrapping his fingers around her arms, he clung to the taste of her mouth and the slick slide of her tongue on his. Her hands pulled at his coat as if they were struggling. And she was so hot inside. So hot. He wanted deeper and more.
When he dragged his mouth over to her jaw, she moaned. When he sucked at the softest spot on her neck, her pulse beat against his tongue.
“Please, Nick,” she groaned and everything inside him swelled to an ache.
Sometimes a man simply couldn’t walk away from what he wanted. Sometimes he had to stay and face it.
This was wrong.
It was wrong for so many reasons, and Cynthia didn’t care. There was no future for them, and it didn’t matter. There was now.
All night she’d thought about Nick. About his unhappiness and her own. How had they both come to such disastrous paths? How had they both lost their hope for joy along the way?
But now, as his mouth tasted her neck, all her worries fell away. This was joy, and they could have it for a moment.
As long as they weren’t interrupted.
“Here,” she muttered. “Come.” Reaching blindly to her right, she pulled open the panel in the wall and revealed the narrow passage within. Nick didn’t seem to notice, but he followed where she led. She shut the door, and they were plunged into darkness.
He looked up for a moment as if startled, but she put her mouth on his and brought him back to her.
