be wed. To you. But I promise you Eleanor, I swear on every scrap of honor I ever possessed, that nothing I said to Ashdown can have given him the idea that we did anything more that night than exchange a kiss. I told him I would call the next morning to offer for your hand because I was in love with you.”
“You said that?”
“My dearest Eleanor. I fell in love with you that week and that night I thought you felt the same.” Joy seized his heart. Eleanor and he had been victims of a misunderstanding. Now they could be happy.
She hadn’t quite reached the same state of bliss. She was looking for answers. “Ashdown said he forced you to propose to me. That you were reluctant, but after much persuasion you agreed that you owed me marriage.”
“Good God! No wonder you sent me away. Why would Ashdown play such a trick?”
“Because he is a horrible man and wanted to revenge himself on me. Poor Sylvia, his wife, has six children and still he would not leave her alone. I advised her to stand up to him, to refuse to let him into her bed for at least a few months. I knew he was angry with me for helping my cousin find a backbone, but I had no notion he could be so vicious. Where are we going?”
The last question was a response to Max’s dragging her by the hand toward the shelter of a convenient shrubbery. “I’m not waiting another minute to kiss you.”
She was not, thank heaven, reluctant. As soon as they were safely out of sight, she fell into his arms. They devoured each other with the same hunger they’d shared five years ago, almost to the hour. Yet it meant so much more this time, because he’d lost her and had found her again. The way her body strained into his was a gift that humbled him, the taste of her kiss a priceless treasure. Five years deprived of Eleanor made every fraction of a second in her presence infinitely precious.
His darling was a woman of powerful appetites beneath a serene exterior. There was nothing tentative or restrained about her embrace, not a trace of maidenly reluctance. She demanded, sucking his tongue into her mouth while emitting an animal purr from the depths of her throat. No puny ladylike creature she, with strong arms that snaked beneath his coats to caress his back, her fingers delicious fiery brands through the linen of his shirt. Why did women have to wear so many layers? his brain hazily wondered, as his own hands sought the ecstasy and comfort of skin and flesh and found only the sturdy cloth and bones of her stays. Finally, in desperation, he relinquished her mouth so that he could taste the long column of her neck, the expanse of chest, and the smooth firm breasts thrust upward for his delectation by the same corset that frustrated him elsewhere. Her head fell back to give him access and at the same time her hands grasped his satin-breeched buttocks and pulled his swelling cock against her center, grinding into him in time with her speeding breaths.
What a marriage they would have! What days and nights of delight!
He stopped trying to burrow beneath the lace edge of her gown to find her nipples. “Eleanor,” he whispered. “Enough.”
An incoherent moan of displeasure accompanied an attempt to find his lips again.
He put a few inches of air between them so his thoughts would no longer be scrambled by her touch. “Let us not repeat our mistakes. Before we go any further, let us set a wedding date.”
She blinked in a flattering state of bedazzlement, shook her head a couple of times with resultant danger to the state of her coiffure, and then opened her mouth a couple of times as she formulated a speech that he hoped would run along the lines of next week .
“Are we betrothed?” she said.
He laughed. “I should know better than to take you for granted, my darling. Do you want me to propose on one knee?”
She waved aside the question, as though it was an irrelevance. “I’m not sure I wish to be married.”
“What?” Max was outraged. “You
“You said that?”
“My dearest Eleanor. I fell in love with you that week and that night I thought you felt the same.” Joy seized his heart. Eleanor and he had been victims of a misunderstanding. Now they could be happy.
She hadn’t quite reached the same state of bliss. She was looking for answers. “Ashdown said he forced you to propose to me. That you were reluctant, but after much persuasion you agreed that you owed me marriage.”
“Good God! No wonder you sent me away. Why would Ashdown play such a trick?”
“Because he is a horrible man and wanted to revenge himself on me. Poor Sylvia, his wife, has six children and still he would not leave her alone. I advised her to stand up to him, to refuse to let him into her bed for at least a few months. I knew he was angry with me for helping my cousin find a backbone, but I had no notion he could be so vicious. Where are we going?”
The last question was a response to Max’s dragging her by the hand toward the shelter of a convenient shrubbery. “I’m not waiting another minute to kiss you.”
She was not, thank heaven, reluctant. As soon as they were safely out of sight, she fell into his arms. They devoured each other with the same hunger they’d shared five years ago, almost to the hour. Yet it meant so much more this time, because he’d lost her and had found her again. The way her body strained into his was a gift that humbled him, the taste of her kiss a priceless treasure. Five years deprived of Eleanor made every fraction of a second in her presence infinitely precious.
His darling was a woman of powerful appetites beneath a serene exterior. There was nothing tentative or restrained about her embrace, not a trace of maidenly reluctance. She demanded, sucking his tongue into her mouth while emitting an animal purr from the depths of her throat. No puny ladylike creature she, with strong arms that snaked beneath his coats to caress his back, her fingers delicious fiery brands through the linen of his shirt. Why did women have to wear so many layers? his brain hazily wondered, as his own hands sought the ecstasy and comfort of skin and flesh and found only the sturdy cloth and bones of her stays. Finally, in desperation, he relinquished her mouth so that he could taste the long column of her neck, the expanse of chest, and the smooth firm breasts thrust upward for his delectation by the same corset that frustrated him elsewhere. Her head fell back to give him access and at the same time her hands grasped his satin-breeched buttocks and pulled his swelling cock against her center, grinding into him in time with her speeding breaths.
What a marriage they would have! What days and nights of delight!
He stopped trying to burrow beneath the lace edge of her gown to find her nipples. “Eleanor,” he whispered. “Enough.”
An incoherent moan of displeasure accompanied an attempt to find his lips again.
He put a few inches of air between them so his thoughts would no longer be scrambled by her touch. “Let us not repeat our mistakes. Before we go any further, let us set a wedding date.”
She blinked in a flattering state of bedazzlement, shook her head a couple of times with resultant danger to the state of her coiffure, and then opened her mouth a couple of times as she formulated a speech that he hoped would run along the lines of next week .
“Are we betrothed?” she said.
He laughed. “I should know better than to take you for granted, my darling. Do you want me to propose on one knee?”
She waved aside the question, as though it was an irrelevance. “I’m not sure I wish to be married.”
“What?” Max was outraged. “You
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