What was in this direction? Save for cliffs.
Finally, the answer came to her.
“The lighthouse,” she murmured, and saw by the lightning-strike of shock on his face that she was right. “You are going to the lighthouse.”
“And if I am?”
“Why?”
“Once again, you ask about things that have nothing to do with you.”
If only she knew his past as well as he seemed to know hers. The imbalance made her feel as though she had missed a step,her stomach lurching. All she had were rumors and Lady Mary Ann’s assertions, although the lady had said herself how little they were to be believed.
What was she to do?
“I want to know,” Aurelia pressed, gazing back up at him, hands clasped before her. She was so cold, but if she conceded defeat now, she would lose this chance to know him better. To prize his secrets from him. “I want to know all those things you choose to hide from me, whether they are pleasant or otherwise. Unless you have a plan of doing away with me, we are to stay married for the remainder of our natural lives.”
“That means nothing,” he growled, taking hold of her shoulders and dragging her forward. Beads of water formed on his hair and eyelashes, and she marveled silently at them, even as her heart thudded with mingled anticipation and fear. “I can take a wife and choose not to know her. I can take a wife and choose not to bed her.”
“But you won’t.” Her lips were numb. “You wish me to bear your children. So we must know what intimacy is with one another.”
“Intimacy?” he scoffed. “I have no intention of intimacy. There needs be nothing intimate in the act we will do together.”
“Then why did you kiss me before? If you have no intention of intimacy, surely there would be no kissing.”
“Why?” His eyebrow arched, but there was still that smoldering anger in his eyes. “Didn’t you enjoy it?”
Aurelia seized her chance. “No.”
His eyes flashed, and he dragged her even closer to him. “Liar. I know what a woman looks like when she is enjoying herself.”
“You do not know whatIlook like, though,” she countered. “And if you insist on no intimacy, I suppose you will never find out, because—”
Sebastian caught her chin with one hand and brought his mouth down on hers. The kiss was hard, angry, and he didn’t bother with gentleness. No, this time he kissed her as though he didn’t want to, as though he couldn’t help himself, as though he hated himself for it.
And Aurelia quietly rejoiced, wrapping her arms around his neck as she kissed him back.
Fire danced to her fingertips, finally warming her, and she felt as though she had dived headfirst into a freezing pool only to emerge in a hot spring. His callused fingers dug into her chin, but she didn’t mind in the slightest, for his lips pressed against hers, and his tongue invaded her mouth, and she was all too willing to be conquered by him.
He told her that they would have no intimacy, but this wasundoubtedlyintimate—their lips so sensitive, their faces soclose, their hands free to roam about their bodies. Yet, the way he was behaving, he sounded as though he fully intended for the act between them to be passionless and perfunctory.
Perhaps it could be; Aurelia had no experience in that direction. But what shedidknow was that there was nothing passionless about this kiss.
He wanted her. That much was obvious.
And she wanted him.
With a snarl, he broke away, seeming to come to himself and realize his hands were in her hair. He untangled them, scowling down at her with even more anger than before.
Yet unlike before, she had no fear, not even that half-formed private one, that he might harm her.
This anger was aimed at her,yes, but it was also aimed at himself.
“Why did you come all this way after me?” With curt, abrupt motions, he shrugged out of his greatcoat and draped it over her shoulders. “Now you are frozen, and for what?”
“I want to know what you aren’t telling me,” mist coated her breath. “Please, Sebastian.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
