The Matter of a Marquess - Jess Michaels Page 0,37

hadn’t.

Still, she hadn’t noticed him following in her distraction. She turned the corner into the library, and he hesitated. After their agreement to meet here, he’d pondered all the questions he’d wanted to ask her. All the things he’d wanted to say. But now all he could think about was the broken expression on her face and he wanted so desperately to comfort her.

Which meant he should walk away. He was compromised, after all. Weak to whatever was happening between them, whatever remained of what they’d been to each other all those years ago. The very best thing he could do was retreat, not put himself in her path.

But he couldn’t do that, either. Walking away now was impossible, so he drew in a ragged breath and entered the library behind her. She was standing at the fireplace, one hand gripping the mantel above her, the other pressed to her forehead. She was drawing in breath, short, rapid gasps, trying not to cry, and his heart broke to see her like this.

“Aurora,” he whispered as he shut the door behind them.

She turned her attention toward him. She refused to meet his stare and wiped at the tears that sparkled in the corners of those warm, brown eyes.

“I—you weren’t meant to come for a few more minutes,” she said. “I was trying to gather myself so you wouldn’t have to see. I don’t want your pity, or for you to think I’m trying to manipulate you.”

He shook his head. So that was what he’d created between them since her arrival here. Because of his outburst on the drive, because of their agreement to pretend they shared no past, because he pulled away from her whenever they edged too close. All those things made her feel she had to hide herself, hide her feelings, hide from him.

Perhaps he should have let that be. Perhaps it was for the best. But he couldn’t help himself, not anymore. His hands shook as he reached behind himself and carefully locked the door. Her eyes went wide at that inappropriate act. Even wider as she tracked him when he moved toward her, slow step by slow step.

“Aurora,” he whispered, his voice rough with the desire he felt and the emotions he couldn’t control. “There are many things I feel when I look at you, but none of them are pity. And there are many things I want and need to say, but none of them is an accusation. I don’t know what happened out on the terrace that made you so upset, but the only reason I followed you early was because I felt an uncontrollable desire to…to comfort you. Even if it isn’t my place, even if it makes me a fool.”

She was staring at him, eyes wide and filling with renewed tears. Her throat worked as she swallowed hard, and then she said, “The only person in the world that I would want comfort from is you, even though it’s equally wrong.”

He had almost reached her, and now he took the last step that separated them. He caught her hand, smoothing his thumb along the silky fabric of her gloves as he drew her even closer. A hair’s breadth apart, and then less as he wrapped his arms around her.

“Do you know how long I’ve waited to do this?” he whispered.

He didn’t allow her to answer. He dropped his mouth to hers, and nothing else mattered as he kissed her.

Aurora had warmed herself with memories of Nicholas’s kiss for years, but now that he was doing it this…this was something far better.

His lips were firm and warm as he dropped them to hers. For a moment they just stood there, mouths touching lightly, his arms so strong around her, and time stopped. They might have stood there for a day or a week or a year—none of it mattered. This was happening and she wanted it more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life.

At last she shivered, he opened his mouth, and suddenly the gentle brushing of lips transformed into something else.

His tongue pushed into her and she welcomed him, lifting to get closer as they sank into each other at long last. They moaned together, the sound merging in the quiet of the library. She drank him in, marking how he tasted faintly of whisky and mint and his favorite chocolate and everything good in the world.

The world that was now spinning out of control around her. She gripped her hands into