Lady Alexandra's Lover (Sex and the Season #3) - Helen Hardt Page 0,80
certainly not alone in the world. I just don’t understand how it could have come to all of this.”
“I don’t understand either, Sophie, but we will figure it out, I promise you.”
“No.” Sophie shook her head. “I just want to forget this ever happened. Mother and the earl need know nothing about it. I couldn’t bear the thought of you getting in trouble.”
“I’m not concerned about me.”
“I am. After all those years of you protecting me, please, let me protect you just this once.”
Ally smiled and squeezed her sister’s hand. “As I said, I’m not concerned about me. But I am concerned about Evan. So if you are willing, I agree. Let’s not tell anyone. If the constables come to call, asking questions, we will just explain that we would rather forget the whole thing. But I’m not asking you to do this for me. I’m asking for Evan.”
Sophie’s lips trembled. “I agree, but I do have one condition.”
Ally arched her eyebrows. “And what would that be?”
“Tell me, dear sister, how you came to fall in love with Evan.”
Ally warmed as she relived their love affair through words to her sister. “I never expected it,” she said. “It sneaked up on me, you know? I’ve always found him attractive, but we are so different. There’s this fire between us, this passion. At first I thought it was only lust, but I was wrong, Sophie, so very wrong. It is love of the highest degree. Lily and Rose were right. When you fall in love, you will know it with all your heart. I can no longer imagine my life without him. When I thought he might be…” She closed her eyes, and a tear slid down her cheek.
Sophie squeezed her hand. “He will recover. The doctor said so himself. You will be with your love.”
“Yes, I will be.” Ally smiled as she said the words.
Marrying for money seemed foreign to her now. She didn’t care if Evan was a second son with no inheritance. She didn’t care if he was a pauper. She loved him, and she would be his wife.
She had lived without before. She could do it again.
She would do anything to be with her love.
* * *
Evan was still asleep several hours later, lying in his own bed in his own bedchamber in the townhome. Ally sat next to the bed, his hand clasped between both of hers. She had not left his side since they got home, and she would not. Dr. Stanton had said that Evan would awaken eventually this evening, and Ally was determined to be here to see it. She wanted her face to be the first thing Evan saw and for her “I love you” to be the first words he heard.
When Evan’s eyelids fluttered open, Ally smiled.
“I love you. Welcome back, my love. You had us all very worried.”
“Alexandra?” Evan’s voice was hoarse and raspy.
“Yes, Evan, I am here. And I love you.”
His face taut, he said nothing.
“I’m so sorry for everything that has happened. But I love you, Evan, and I want to marry you.”
His face showed no reaction to her words. “What happened? Why am I here in bed?”
“You were shot, my love. In the thigh, last night.” Ally squeezed her eyes shut, trying to stop the tears, to no avail. “But you’re going to be all right. The doctor got the bullet out, and you will be good as new in no time at all. Then we can be married, as you asked. I love you so much, Evan. I was wrong to refuse you. I was wrong about so many things. If you’ll have me, I promise to love you until the day I die and to devote my life to you and the children we will have.”
Evan wrinkled his forehead, a slight frown marring his beautiful face.
“I’m sorry, Alexandra, but it is over between us.”
Confessions of Lady Prudence
by Madame O
Christophe and Lars laid Hattie on my bed.
“Grasp the posts on the headboard, Hattie,” Lars commanded.
Hattie obeyed, her body trembling.
Lars fastened one silk scarf around Hattie’s right wrist while Christophe secured the left. My whole body throbbed as images of what they might do to her swirled through my mind. My nipples tightened, Amelia, and I’m not sure I could’ve been more excited if I’d been the one lying supine on the bed.
Christophe pushed Hattie’s thighs forward and swiped his tongue along the crease of her arse. I quivered as Hattie did. Meanwhile, Lars went to work