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“It’s him I don’t trust; that’s why I don’t bloody like you talking to him!”
Simon was finally seeing some emotion out of her. She held a glass firmly in her hands, throwing it to the ground in frustration. And without a word, she rushed out of the room.
“I’m leaving!” she called out from the end of the hallway.
He remained in the room for a few minutes longer, thoughts of Lord Laster and Maddie causing his anger to turn to rage and hatred. The carriage outside the window rustled to a start, no doubt with Maddie inside. Dark clouds loomed in the distance, the skies splitting apart with pouring hail, the likes of which he had never seen before. He could barely see a few yards past the haze.
He groaned in frustration, grabbing his waistcoat and sprinting outside. But it was too late. She was already gone, and according to the tracks, the carriage was headed towards an unsafe cliff-sided path up a hill. Adrenaline shot through his veins, followed by a suffocating feeling as the hail didn’t seem to slow or cease.
He ran to the stables, ignoring the words of his servants as he climbed on top of the closest stallion.
“Follow them!” he yelled out. The stallion sped up, but the hail only panicked the steed, causing it to slide amid its strides. He was too far away from the carriage, but he could still make out the wheel imprinted on the mudded ground.
“Go, Alex!” he yelled out once more. He could see the path and the carriage’s weight being pushed toward the edge of the cliff as the wind and the hail rushed down in a blurry haze.
It took one blink. One blink, and the carriage was sent crashing down the hill, tumbling over the rocks and ripping apart. The image was haunting. The driver’s body had hit the hard surface of a boulder, instantly dying from the shock, yet Maddie was nowhere to be seen.
“Maddie!” he screamed, but his words were only buried beneath the bellows of the blizzard.
“Please, please, be okay,” he whispered to himself, his breath grazing in his throat. He guided his horse backward and down a narrow road leading to the bottom of the hill, where hopefully, he would find Maddie safe and sound, unharmed.
He would apologize, he would tell her how sorry he was, and he would never, ever argue with her again. But as he neared the lowest point of the hill, his tears stained his cheeks, and he rasped, trying to control his panicked breathing.
The carriage was torn to pieces as he stepped over a puddle of blood.
“No!” he screamed. He ran. There was Maddie.
She was lying lifeless on the ground, her face unblemished, but her body bloody and broken from the fall.
“You’re all right, you’re all right,” he said as he pulled her closer to him. He placed a hand to her cheek, expecting her to smile or grimace as she usually did. “We’ll take you to a doctor a-and then you’ll be fine again. We’ll have the dinner, and we’ll—”
His voice broke, a sudden nausea and emptiness taking over.
Simon blinked, the scene blurring in front of him and revealing Ellie’s soft features once more. Her eyes shimmered in the dim light as her soft breathing broke intermittently into muffled sobs. She held his hand tighter. She was crying for him.
“Simon, I’m…” Her arms wrapped around his torso, her head buried in his chest.
“I’m fine,” he assured her, still composed somehow, “it doesn’t hurt as much anymore.” And he was telling the truth. It was the first time he had retold the story and not fallen into a pit of despair upon doing so.
“What happened after that?”
“I was devastated,” Simon confessed. “I didn’t speak for a few weeks, and I avoided any public outings and responsibilities. Soon, I began frequenting bars, boxing rings, and anything that would keep my mind occupied,” he paused. “And that’s how I became a rake. Drunken nights with company helped much more than any healthy habit could.”
Eloise wrapped her hands around him tighter. She didn’t know she felt so strongly about him, but after tonight, there was no way she could deny it any further.
“Do you still…love her?” she asked. It was a tricky question with a hidden meaning behind it. A part of her grew jealous, her throat drying up and her face falling sullen. And she hated herself for thinking or even feeling something like that in this moment.
His hand touched her cheek, and she leaned herself toward it. “Not the way you think,” he breathed out. “As a memory, perhaps. As a lover, not anymore. I think I have my eyes on…someone else.”
Wrapping a hand around her waist and legs, he carried her bridal style to the soft bed, placing her down like a fragile entity. He was being awfully cautious with her, his kisses sweet and soft, not rushed and hurried.
Her breasts touched against his bare chest, and that was all it took for Simon to spur into action. She wanted him. All it took was tonight for her to realize and finally admit it to herself; she finally allowed her emotions to run free.
His cold hand traced the skin under her dress, reaching for the place she had never been touched before. It was wrong, inappropriate. She should scream at him to stop and pull away, yet she arched her back and invited him closer to her, as close as they could be. There was no turning back anymore.
He groaned as he trailed kisses along her neckline, while slowly moving his hand between her thighs. His kisses soon grew wilder and wilder as they enraptured her body, and her hands grasped onto his hair in a passion-filled frenzy. Time seemed to slow, as his muffled groans turned heavier, matching Eloise’s own sounds of pleasure, beat by beat, a lustful thrill seeping through her. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this.”
Her skin shivered at his intimate whispers. His voice had changed to low and husky, animalistic almost, and it perfectly matched his scandalous intentions. Placing a hand behind her neck, he used the other to loosen her dress and then slowly pulled it over her and off, trailing kisses all the way down to her wetness.
