The Matter of a Marquess - Jess Michaels Page 0,56
the room to her, cupped her cheeks and kissed her.
Nicholas’s mouth was hungry on hers, his tongue seeking hers as her arms came around him, but her ardor matched his own. She dug her fingers into his jacket, clinging for purchase as the room spun out of control. He tilted her head, deepening the kiss, drinking of her like he was dying of thirst and she was all the sustenance in the world. Perhaps she was, perhaps she always had been. So he took and took and took.
He had no idea how long it went on. Not long enough. At last he parted from her, breath short, cock throbbing with an insistent rhythm that demanded he do something they had no time to finish.
“Good morning,” he gasped out.
She broke out in a wide smile, and for a moment he was mesmerized. He had always loved her smile. She had always been a light, bright and joyful, but when she smiled? It lit up the world like the sun.
“Yes it is,” she said, and reached out to catch his hand.
Their fingers intertwined and his entire body relaxed in a way he hadn’t felt for…years. He smoothed his thumb over the back of her hand. “Are you tired?” he asked.
“I should be, with so little sleep,” she said, pink entering her cheeks. “But I’m not at all. I haven’t felt so invigorated in a long time.”
He nodded. That was his feeling, too. Like he could take over the world. But there were still things to talk about with her before he could. “I think you should know that my family is aware we snuck away together last night.”
He watched as the good feelings fled her face and she tensed up immediately. Her hand fell away from his. Nicholas couldn’t help but think about what Selina said about her. That she might be using him to gain access to yet another title. But that didn’t feel right. Wouldn’t she be pleased to be caught in a compromising position if that were true?
“I see,” she whispered. “I suppose I should have known they would mark that we left at the same time. That neither of us returned. And combined with the scandal I entered this house dragging behind me, they all must question my character.”
Hearing that waver in her voice, the defeat and heartbreak, he couldn’t help but move to her. He tugged her into his arms and held her. She softened against him, almost collapsing, and he realized what a weight she had been carrying. He wanted so much to bear some of it for her.
“I don’t think anyone judges you,” he said as he pressed a soft kiss to her temple. “I know them and that is not who they are. It’s more that they…they worry about me.”
She drew back a little. “Because of our past.”
He nodded. Their eyes met and he saw she knew what had to happen as much as he did.
“We need to discuss that, I think,” she whispered.
He nodded again. “But not right now. There isn’t enough time before the picnic. Can we promise to talk about it later? Tonight?”
She moved against him slightly, and every nerve in his body felt like it fired at once, despite the darker topic they’d finally approached head on. “Maybe in bed?”
“I’d like that,” he said, smiling.
She lifted on her tiptoes and brushed her lips across his. “Then that’s what we’ll do.” She sighed as she stepped away. “But do you think I should go on the picnic? Will they want me there?”
He wrinkled his brow. It was so hard to see her struggling. Even with the past sitting right there, ready to be faced, ready for his questions and the difficult answers he might not want to hear.
“They want you there,” he reassured her. “And I need you there, Aurora. These long walks are often tortuous.”
Her lips parted. “Of course they are. And after all that exercise last night—”
“Which I very much enjoyed,” he interrupted. “And do not regret in the slightest. They just don’t think about the difficulty. It isn’t out of cruelty, of course. It’s just that none of them have experienced what I do.”
“Could you…tell them?” she asked.
He shifted. Tell them. “If I knew them better…perhaps,” he said. “But right now I don’t know if they would respond with pity. I don’t want that.”
She nodded slowly. “I think I understand, at least as much as I can.”
He forced a smile. “But if you’re there, you’ll be the carrot