She started with his right cheek, which was scar-free, and moved her fingers gently up to his brow. Her lips tweaked upward, that smile growing as she felt along the firmness of his brow.
Seth continued to stare at her features, quite entranced as he watched her, marking every movement of her face. He was waiting for the moment she might flinch and pull back from him. In fact, he was dreading it.
Her hand swept down the left-hand side of his face, caressing the side of his nose, and then she found his chin. He gritted his teeth hard, as the pads of her fingers softly ran across his scars.
She did not flinch as she explored the scars, across his chin and his neck. It was as if they were not there, marring his skin at all.
“You have such strong features,” she said, her tone soft, almost… admiring. “You have a hard line to your chin too,” she laughed and marked the line of his jaw again with her fingers, rather than the scars upon it.
“You have not mentioned…” He trailed off, uncertain why he brought it up when he hated them so much.
She lowered her head a touch and moved her hands from his face. It took him a moment to realize what she was doing. She took the book from his lap and dropped it on a chair nearby. The sudden thud aroused the attention of the two hounds across the room, who were stretched out lazily by the small fireplace.
The hounds both turned their heads to look at Seth and Charity, then they laid down again, curling up together in front of the heat, closing their eyes.
In the space Charity had created, she moved herself across, lifting her knee so she was sat in Seth’s lap, straddling him. At her movement, at her boldness, Seth felt his length stir instantly.
God, how it is I can desire her so fully? So all at once?
He rested his arms on the back of the rococo settee, holding himself back from touching her as he wanted to. He just gazed at her, admiring the way she had positioned herself over his thighs.
“These upset you.” She moved her hand over the scars again.
“They are scars. They do not belong,” he said darkly, his voice much deeper than he had intended to make it.
“They are part of who you are, Seth.” She smiled rather sadly. “You think I have not spent days and nights wishing my physiology was different? That I had never lost my sight in the first place?”
The guilt swelled in Seth. He had never even thought about it in that manner. Between what they both had suffered, he would of course rather be able to see. His hands shifted from the back of the settee and took hold of her hips, sliding her along his lap so she was nestled against him.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“Do not worry.” She was smiling once again. In his presence, it rather seemed her smile scarcely faded. “What I intended to make plain was as much as my blindness is part of who I am, it is not the summary of me. Just as these are not the summary of you.” She quite lovingly brushed the scars.
Seth sighed and leaned into her touch. She didn’t recoil, and she was not even the slightest bit repulsed. She seemed to care for him, scars and all.
She bent toward him and kissed him. Seth kissed her back. It began softly at first, a mere brush of their lips together, but soon,Seth could not control himself. He kissed her with passion, his hands splaying across her hips as he drew her against his chest.
With the vigor of the movement, she managed to kick the book off the chair beside them.
It startled the hounds who promptly roused from their slumber. Seth clicked twice and Shelby jumped up, barked, and shot out of the room, with Rufus quickly following on his tail.
Seth broke off from their kiss and laughed warmly, watching as the door swung shut of its own accord after they left.
“Well, that was one clever way to make sure we are alone,” she giggled near his ear. “I daresay, I rather enjoy what happens when we’re alone.” Her hands touched from the scars at his neck to his cravat.
He needed no more encouragement. He undid that cravat for her, tugging it off his body and throwing it to the side. She went to help him, and they pulled at his waistcoat next, heaving it from his body so only his shirt remained on his torso. Lastly, they pulled that over his head too.
He tossed it across the room where it made something clatter as it fell over. She winced with a humored smile.
“What did we just destroy?” she asked playfully.
“Some of the evergreens you have placed around this room. We can put it right later. I fear I’m a little busy now.” His mischief made her laugh as he reached for the back of her gown. “Your turn.” He grappled with the laces there.
That morning, a whole bundle of new gowns had arrived from town. Seth had made a hurried order to the nearest modiste the morning after she had arrived, and now the dresses had come, Charity had something different to wear, much to her relief as they had realized that morning, she couldn’t put the sodden gown from the night before back on.
“Does my new gown not please you, Your Grace?” she teased him as he deftly undid the laces and began to slip the dress down her shoulders.
“I rather like it. It would look better tossed with the rest of the clothes though.” He pulled it down to her waist, and urged her off his lap for a moment, so she could drop it from her body entirely.
