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“I heard you,” she replied. Leticia closed her eyes and moved away from the window. She settled back into her seat and pounded her fist on the roof of the carriage. “Drive on!” The carriage began moving at once, but she kept her eyes closed, unwilling to gaze at Richard.
“Just what do you think you heard?” Richard inquired, and at his words, her eyes sprung open.
“You were talking to Harry…in the drawing room. I heard you tell him—”
“You were eavesdropping again, Leticia? Have you not learned anything after the last time?”
Tears sprung to her eyes then, but she refused to let them fall.
He shall not see me cry over him.
“You told Harry everything. He knew all about our fake courtship. You even told him about the night we spent together,” she muttered.
“I did not!” Richard defended himself at once. “I admit I told him about the sham of a courtship, but I did not share with him the intimate details of our relationship.”
“Oh,” Leticia cried. “None of that matters! I heard you say that you would never marry someone like me. I’m not proper enough, and I don’t drink enough tea or host enough teas or…oh! Something like that.”
“Leticia,” Richard fell to his knees right there in the carriage. There was very little distance between them, but he crawled forward so that he could lay his hands on her knees. “Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; Butneverdoubt I love.”
A single tear escaped her then and began to roll down her cheek. Richard reached forward and gently brushed it away with the pad of his thumb. “We are errant knaves all. Believe none of us,” she finished the quotation fromHamletand leaned toward him. She sniffled. “What are you trying to tell me?”
His hand moved toward the nape of her neck and carefully he pulled her toward him. They became so close that his next words brushed against her lips. “I love you, Leticia.” He kissed her sweetly, just barely floating his lips overtop her own.
“But what about the things I heard you say to Harry?” she murmured.
Richard shook his head. “I said what Harry wanted to hear.”
She stiffened as that uneasy feeling returned to her stomach. “And how do I know that you’re not just telling me what I want to hear now?”
He took hold of her hand and placed it over his heart. “You said you loved me, Leticia.” She felt the thudding in his chest as it beat on steadily. “And if you love me the way that I love you, please trust that I will never have the need to lie to you.”
“But—” she began, and then, she realized there was nothing else to say, so she did the only thing that felt right…natural. With her hand over Richard’s heart, she flexed her fingers so that she might grip his shirt, and she pulled him toward her. When their lips connected this time, a rush of pleasure coursed through her core. It was as though they had been apart for far too long, but now that they were reunited, all of her senses came to life and sparked.
She could taste honey, and she scented the river water. Some might have shied away from such a combination, but for Leticia, it reminded her of Richard and the time they spent together at Pearl House. She tugged him forward, deepening their kiss, and she felt his long fingers as they began to creep up her skirts. He pushed her knees apart and slid his body into the vacuum of space.
“Leticia,” he murmured as his hand moved onto her inner thigh. “Is this okay?”
“Please,” she breathed, “don’t stop.”
He began kissing her neck. His long locks of hair tickled her chin, but she wasn’t so focused on that as his fingers crept spiderlike over her thighs, making them quiver with desire. She leaned her head back, arching as much as she could in the confined space, willing him to explore her further. His lips dragged across her neck, and his tongue darted out as he traced a line down her throat. She felt his top lip skim across the fabric of her dark-blue dress, and she rocked forward, urging him to continue.
His fingers then found her center and unlike the time before when he’d touched her, and she’d been wearing her nightgown, there was no fabric blocking him.
“Oh!” she gasped as the moment his fingers found her womanhood and began massaging, she felt a spike of pleasure. “That is not at all what I expected.”
“Do you want me to stop?” Richard asked as he peered up at her.
“I need you to keep going,” Leticia answered honestly. He had momentarily taken his hand off her, and her body ached for him to return to his ministrations. He smiled wickedly.
“With pleasure.”
When his fingers skimmed over her womanhood now, they lingered near her core, and gently he slid one inside her. She jolted in response.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes…” she whispered, “I just did not expect you to do that.” He began to slowly extract his finger, and as he did, Leticia felt another powerful surge course through her. “No,” she moaned. “Just because I didn’t know what you were going to do doesn’t mean I want you to stop doing it.”
She kissed him then, and this time it was she who opened her mouth and began swirling her tongue around. She tasted the sweet honey of his kisses and slid forward on the seat. As she did, his fingers began moving once more. It took all her concentration not to buck at his touch. It was all so new…so enlightening. Her body felt as if it had been galvanized and was just now experiencing what it truly meant to be alive and in love with another person.
