her only chance to avoid absolute ruin.
Mustering a smile that felt forced, he asked, “Are you ready to see the ocean?”
Her smile lit up her face and he felt it straight in his chest as if he’d been hit with a sunbeam. He swallowed against the unwanted emotion clogging his throat. God, she was beautiful. How did she not know that?
“Very much so. I should like to dip my toes in it, I believe.”
He linked their hands together, her long graceful fingers threading through his own. Her palm was chilled slightly. Together they walked down the overgrown path, reminding him how very long it had been since he’d been here.
“I still can’t believe this is your first visit to the coast. Did your family not take holiday when you were younger?” he asked.
“We did, on occasion. But we went north rather than south.” As he assisted her over a particularly rocky part of the path, she said, “It’s warm here with the sun shining today.”
“Yes. Unseasonably warm.” He helped her step over the tangled vines covering the ground. “When we were kids we’d take days like this and go swimming.”
She glanced over at him, her eyes wide with curiosity. “In the sea?”
“Indeed.”
She looked aghast. “Is the water not freezing?”
He chuckled. “Yes, it generally is. But when you’re a boy, you do not care about such things.”
“I suppose I was less concerned with my comfort when I was a child. I remember plenty of times I played in the rain and my mother would fuss and fuss about me catching my death, not to mention all the mud I got on my clothes and in the house. But splashing in those puddles was the very best.”
“Indeed.” But thinking of his childhood only reminded him of his brothers, which led him back to Thomas. The man who’d betrayed their entire family, Sullivan was certain about that, and yet the man who obviously still held Tilly’s heart. Jealousy, black and thick, coiled through Sullivan’s body, and he dropped her hand as they reached the beach. He started them on a course, walking down to the shoreline.
They walked in silence for a long stretch down the sandy expanse. Every so often, Tilly would bend and reach down to pick up something. After repeating this several times, he stopped walking and reached for her hand. Clutched in her palm were bits of sand and broken shells. Confused, he looked up at her face.
“Freckles, you are stepping over complete and lovely shells for these fragmented pieces?”
She gave him a shy smile. “I suspect people always overlook these because they are not perfect. I find beauty in them regardless.” She held one up to him. “See all of the colors in this one? No, the shape is not complete, but it is still wondrous to behold.”
He longed to pull her to him, to hold her close to his chest. He wanted to tell her how perfect she was in his eyes. But then she spoke again.
“This is like your relationship with your bother,” she said, holding up one of the shell pieces. “Yes, it’s broken in some places, but still valuable. You need only try to salvage it.”
He shifted away and closed his eyes. Why couldn’t he be the one to reach her heart? Why couldn’t she see his brother for the bastard that he was? Indignation pumped through him. Well, she might prefer Thomas, but the reality was she was Sullivan’s wife. Which meant he was the only man who could touch her. The only man who could bring her pleasure.
The next moment he pulled her to him and crashed his mouth down onto hers. Though she was obviously surprised by his ambush of a kiss, she took it in stride and met his tongue, stroke for stroke. Gently, he lowered them until they were kneeling on the sand and then lower still until he loomed over her body. And the kissing never stopped.
He reached a hand down to her ankle and slid it up her leg until he cupped her mound. She squeaked in response and pulled her mouth away from his.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Touching my wife.”
Her eyes rounded. “Here? Won’t someone see?”
“It’s unlikely, but I don’t give a damn.” He threaded his fingers through the slit in her drawers then found the dewy softness of her curls. She was already wet from their kissing. He moved his hand back out from under her skirts and worked at the bodice of her gown