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After removing his jacket, hesat and tugged his Hessians off, thenslumped into his armchair beside a window. The radiant moon was high in the sky, and he gazed at it. Lovesick—he had said lovesick. Was that word even the right one? He knew he was sickened by his cowardly actions, and that he was more than infatuated with Louisa.
Sighing, he rubbed his eyes. Would she believe his apology after all this time? Sitting up, he went to remove his shirt when his gaze fell on the bag from the perfume shop—he had forgotten to give them to Louisa. Taking one of the flasks up heprayed she would accept both—the gift and his apology.
***
Louisa had entered the library,but she lingered at the door warily—and Isaac hated how he had forced her to be untrustful of him. He stood from the wingback and came to her instead. Reaching out, he held her cold hand and grimaced at that too.
“I am sorry. I should not have left things as they were that night, or the days after. It was not fair to you, and it was not right of me. The truth is—” Isaac paused. “Hear my soul speak. The very instant that I saw you, did my heart fly to your service; there resides,to make me slave to it.”
The verse fromThe Tempestwas the closest he could come to admittinghis love for Louisa. Her eyes widened in confusion. Before she could ask a question,with a soft groan from him,their tongues sensuously twined and twisted with the other. It was the gentlest kiss he had ever given her. From the look in her eye, she thought so as well.
He kissed her ear.“Hear my soul speak.”
Louisalaced her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest. “I thought that I had displeased you somehow or that you wanted little to do with me.”
“No,” Isaac walked them back to the couch. “God no. I would never do that to you. I stayed away because my emotions terrified me, and I had to find a way to sort them out. It was not you, dear; it could never be you, sweet. I am a broken man after all.”
“No, you are not,” Louisa stopped him. “Things did come to break you, but you fought through it. You are not a broken; bruised and scarred yes, but not broken.”
He brushed his cheek over her hair. “That is what I admire about you, Louisa. No matter what it is, you seem to find a way to smile about it. I wish I could feel things like you do.”
“It comes from appreciating the simple things, Isaac,” Louisa said quietly. “I have a roof over my head and food to eat. A life to live and somehow, find my happiness along the way.”
“I’ll try to remember that,” Isaac vowed. “Please know, that I will not do anything to deliberately hurt you.”
“I know,” she said with a soft sigh. “And neither will I.”
The air had a strange turn to it; despite the physical closeness, Isaac felt that Louisa’s attention was far off. He did not understand it, but still held her close to his body and dropped a kiss on her head.
“Do you forgive me?” he asked.
Her head twisted until her eyes met his, and her gaze was intense but clouded. “I will always forgive you, Isaac.”
Louisa's words were assuring, but somehow, they missed something—and it frustrated him that he did not know what it was. Maybe she was still internalizing his apology and banishing her dour thoughts about why he had been away for so long. She had forgiven him—but Isaac knew he had hurt her. But what more could he say?
Isaac wanted to kiss her—but it felt unnecessary. Perhaps all they needed was to hold each otherand find comfort in the quiet.That was until Louisa broke it, “Isaac, I’m scared.”
He nearly jolted from his place. “Scared, why? Are you thinking aboutme needing the companionship of a lady instead of the company you give me?”
“No,” she said. “The depths of the feelings I have for you scare me at times. I feel like I’m sinking into something that has no bottom. Is that normal? Is that how love is supposed to feel?”
The concern that had heightened itself inside Isaac petered away. “I wish I could tell you yes or no. Why I had fallen in love with her—or what I had assumed was love anyway—I was blind to anything and everything that was not her.”
“I suppose love is different for each person,” Louisa murmured.
“I assume so,” Isaac replied, as he gently laid them down on the couch. “Everyone has their idea of what love is.”
The warm firelight caressed her soft skin at some spots and rendered her angles in sharp definition at others. He meant to kiss her, and she knew it, but, in the soft prelude, he would only look and savor the moment; Louisa studied him just as intently.
Then he slipped a hand around her nape and kissed her with an intensity greater than heever had before. The feeling of her lips on his and her warmth burned every aspect of the moment into his brain, and the soft sounds that were coming from her aroused him to a smoldering burningpitch.
Isaac pulled away, and after lifting her a little, did away with the tie that kept her hair in one and freed the thick tresses. “That’smuch better.”
She lay back on the seat, her hair in waves of fire around her. He kissed her neckand suckled softly on the skin between her collarbone and the joint of her neck. Her hand slid into his hair and gripped just so—enough to get the heat in his body spiking and made his need for her that much more apparent.
He lifted the ends of her dress to slide his knee between her legs as their mouths explored the other, and their legs were intertwined. Louisa clung to his kiss, and their movement grew even more powerful and temptingly demanding. He felt her shiver when his tongue swept against the sensitive roof of her mouth.
Her body was undulating under his,and he had a feeling of what she wanted. Isaac’ slid his hand between her legs and found her wet. His touch made her gasp, and though he could use his fingers to take her to completion again, he had another idea.
