a girl, but it struck her as being far better. It had been so honest and true that she couldn’t help but think it the most romantic thing she’d ever heard.
“I don’t care about any of that. I just want you.”
“Then I’m yours,” he declared, leaning his forehead against hers and closing his eyes. “Christ, I cannot believe it. I never thought you would choose me over Lewes.”
“I’ve come to see that what I felt for him was infatuation, and I never really knew him. Besides, if someone is going to pursue me, I’d like to think he actually wants me, not my inheritance.”
He opened his eyes. “I’m sorry. I knew of his financial troubles, but …”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“If you were ever going to choose me, I didn’t want you to do it because of that. It didn’t seem right, winning you that way.”
Which was exactly why he had won. She couldn’t fathom how they had arrived here from that first disastrous meeting, but chose not to question it. There was still an unsettling anxiety, her lingering fears reminding her of all the reasons she had avoided romantic entanglements. But, as she stood and urged him to join her, she pushed them aside. Fear had held her back for too long, and she was weary of it. This felt far too good to run away from, and now she would choose to embrace it instead.
“Come with me.”
He frowned when she tugged his hand, stumbling along in her wake. “Where are we going?”
She turned and leaned into him, hands at his waist, head tipped back invitingly. “Why, Mr. Burke, I do believe I promised to let you seduce me. I think it would be better for us to find a bed this first time, don’t you?”
His hands clenched tight to her arms. The hold wasn’t painful, but she could feel the control he exercised as he searched her gaze, seeming to try to figure out if she was certain.
She began backing toward the doors leading back into the house. The moon was obscured by clouds, the night growing chilly, though she hardly registered the cold. The shivers that wracked her had nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with the precipice she stood upon.
“It’s as if I was dead before you touched me, and now I’m alive. Now that I know how it feels to surrender to it, and that I only feel this way with you … I need you, Dominick.”
He kissed her, long, slow, and deep, his arms a strong bolster saving her from collapse. She returned the kiss with an ardor that had previously frightened her. Submitting to such feelings had felt trivial before, wrong in some way. But she was kissing the only man she wanted to kiss for the rest of her life. Nothing could be wrong about that.
Tearing his lips from hers, Nick took her hand and set off at a near run. They entered through the library, creeping across the darkened room to find their way to the corridor. Fate seemed to smile on them, and the way was clear as they dashed upstairs as quietly as possible. There was a bit of fumbling as he paused on the landing to pull her back against him and kiss her neck, then a soft whimper when the rasp of his tongue stroked against her beating pulse.
They made their way to her bedchamber, hands grasping, lips meeting and parting between heated breaths. Ekta had followed her instruction not to wait up, so there was no one here to see them as Calliope shut the door and leaned against it, watching Dominick cross to the hearth to stoke the dying fire back to life.
Then, he was ripping off his coat, tossing it over the bench at the foot of her bed and turning to face her, chest heaving with labored breath. His hands clenched, then relaxed at his sides as he stared at her, tongue swiping across his lower lip.
“I have to tell you something that may influence your decision. I’ve never … I mean, with a virgin … I always avoided … damn it, I’m making a mess of this.”
She smiled, pushing away from the door to approach him. “I have something to tell you, as well. I’ve never done this at all. It will be a first time of sorts for us both.”
He scowled, flinching when she began loosening his cravat. “This is no laughing matter.”