“Christ, now I am. I’m so hard for you. I keep thinking about your perfect cunt gripping my cock. So hot, so damned tight. Put your fingers inside yourself.”
She whimpered, put her other hand between her legs and slid a finger into her wetness, gasping as her internal muscles clenched around the digit. “It’s so good, Archie.”
He grunted, the door shifting between them. “I wish I could have you right now. I’d make you feel so good, better than you’ve ever felt. If only you were mine.”
Tears pricked the back of her eyes, the want and urgency so conflicted and confusing she whimpered while her fingersmoved faster, one hand pumping two digits inside her channel while the other strummed her clitoris.
“You’re close, aren’t you?” His words were grasped from the air, as wrecked and desperate as she was. “God, I’m going to come, and it’s for you, only for you, Marigold.”
She cried out, her body shuddering and seizing as her hips bucked against her hands, her head arched against the door. His curses and grunts reached her ears through the static and she knew he was coming as well, overcome byher.
A strange sense of power possessed her. The same woman who’d been diminished to a shell of herself had reduced a man like Archie to a trembling mass of lust without even touching him. And she wanted more, craved it.
“Marigold,” he gasped, his breathing still ragged. “Are you alright?”
She laughed, surprising herself. “Yes. Are you?”
His chuckle was deep, velvety and rich. “Yes.” He heaved a sigh. “Christ, that was—”
“Incredible,” she interrupted. “Amazing.”
A long silence fell between them, and anxiety climbed through the debris of her climax, reaching out its insidious tendrils and burying them in her flesh. What would happen next? They’d crossed a clear boundary and sent something precarious into motion. How could they maintain distance, protect themselves from ruin when they knew what they could have were the circumstances different?
Her fingertips snaked through the gap between the door and floorboards, and after a beat, his fingers touched hers. Somehow, even after all that had happened, this was the most intimate moment of the night.
“Can you sleep now?” he asked.
“Yes. But I don’t want to.”
Silence again, as though he was thinking about what to say, something wholly outside his character. “Neither do I.”
Chapter 19
“Isshedead?”
Archie shot his youngest sister a glare. “She’s sleeping. And it’s not your business.”
He’d crept past Marigold’s sleeping form just before dawn—when she’d unlocked the door, he didn’t know, which was likely for the best. His morning chores accomplished, Eloise found the perfect time to strike with her interrogation.
She gave a pointed look at the mantle clock. “I didn’t think it was possible to sleep this late. What did she do last night?”
Archie nearly spat out the coffee he’d been drinking, settled on choking. He wiped the dark liquid from his shirt and turned his back on his sister, knowing his cheeks were blazing. “Leave her be, El.”
“Is she lazy?”
“No, and hush!” Archie hissed. “She’s accustomed to different hours.”
“But we’re going to be late for church, and I hate when Father Mackland glares at us.”
“I can always drop you off and come back,” Archie said, including a mental prayer for that exact result. He needed some time alone with Marigold to talk about what had happened last night, what it meant, if anything.
“That’s not fair!” Eloise’s mouth twisted into a scowl. “If you’re not going to church, neither am I!”
“That’s enough,” his mum said, sweeping into the room with Samantha on her heels. His sister must have taken fashion cues from Marigold, because she’d stuck several feathers and flowers from their garden in the brim of her church hat, but the whole thing must be off-kilter because she was walking at a glacial pace with her hands extended to the sides.
Eloise snorted. “What died and landed on your head?”
Samantha tried a dignified lift of her chin but it unbalanced her headwear, and she slapped a hand on top of an unsuspecting daisy to stabilize it. “It’s the latest in fashion. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
