she tugged his trousers down over his thickly muscled legs, her mouth drew parallel to his shaft. Experimentally, she pressed her lips to it as he had done to her, and glanced up at him as she touched the tip of her tongue to his hot flesh.
With a growl, he tossed her into the center of the bed and climbed atop her, shucking his trousers with a shake of his leg.
“You didn’t like—”
“I loved.” He rained kisses from one breast to the other. “Let’s save that for tomorrow.”
This time, she knew what was coming, before his mouth made its sensual way down to where she throbbed for him. Rather than ruin the surprise, it made the yearning sharper, hotter, her body’s reaction to his talented tongue almost instantaneous. Her legs tightened about him as he brought her to her peak.
She was barely capable of breath when he fitted himself atop her, the tip of his shaft nudging the sensitive nub he’d just licked.
His voice was ragged against her ear. “Last chance to change your mind.”
“I’ve wanted you for longer than you think.” She wrapped her legs about his body. “Stop making me wait.”
“All I’ve ever wanted is you.” He surged inside in one thrust.
She gasped at the sharp pain and he caught her startled cry with his kiss.
Soon, the pain was gone, replaced by the beginnings of the familiar sensual pressure. She moved against him and he groaned.
He joined their bodies fully together, then retreated, in long, slow strokes that grew faster and more frenzied the closer she came to reaching her peak.
She dug her fingernails into his back. “Elijah, I’m—”
Words disappeared from her mind completely as her body pulsed with waves of pleasure. She could feel him inside her as it happened, the knowledge of which only made it better, wilder, stronger.
The moment her contractions ceased, his shaft jerked out of her, his seed spilling hot against her thigh.
After tending her with a clean handkerchief, he rolled onto his back and pulled her with him, cradling her to his scarred chest and wrapping his strong arms about her protectively. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, softly, reverently, then lay his cheek against the spot that he’d kissed.
This means nothing, she’d told them both, repeatedly. She’d always known it for a lie.
He meant everything.
Chapter 13
The Ninth Day
Eli’s eyelids sprang open. It was dark. Mostly dark. The edges around the curtains were visible, indicating the sun would soon be on its way up.
And he was in Olive’s bedchamber.
She was curled into him, her cheek half on the pillow, half on his arm. He had never seen a more beautiful sight. If they weren’t under imminent risk of discovery, he would have happily snuggled her close until late afternoon.
He eased his arm out from under her and tucked the blanket in close about her. It was their first night together and hopefully not the last.
Quickly, Eli slid on his clothes. He retrieved Olive’s apparel from the various places they had dropped or thrown each piece, and folded it all neatly, lest her maid be scandalized upon entering the bedchamber.
The maids! He opened the door as carefully as possible. His heart nearly stopped when the hinges gave a last-second creak.
Poking his head into the corridor like an emerging mole would be no less scandalous than walking out boldly. Eli chose swiftness over subtlety, and dashed from Olive’s chamber down the short corridor to his own.
He heard a murmur of distant voices around the corner, but managed to slide into his room and bolt the door without being called to account for his actions.
Before a maid or footman caught him standing about in fashionable but suspiciously wrinkled apparel, Eli washed with the basin of cold water and donned fresh, unwrinkled attire.
What now?
He raked a hand through his hair as he gazed about his guest chamber.
When he’d first arrived, he hadn’t expected to stay for more than a day, and as such, had packed more books than clothing. A few days with Olive wasn’t enough. He wanted to spend a lifetime with her. He wanted—
His books.
He stared bleakly at years of meticulous, hard-won research piled atop the dressing-table he’d been using as a makeshift desk.
There had to be a way to save lives without destroying Olive’s in the process.
But how?
Once his father learnt of Eli’s romantic interest in the daughter of his mortal enemy, there would be no funding for future cures. No further research at all.
Father would forbid chemists and botany and physic