She wilted against him, letting him hold her. “I would not go anywhere else.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Sebastian cradled Aurelia in his arms. A small, cynical part of him had been sure she would storm away, insisting on sleeping separately from him as she sought new ways of punishing him. Rightly, too. He had been a fool, and he had hurt her, and for that, he would endure an eternity’s atonement.
Just not losing her again.Never that.
She tipped her head back up to peek at him, and without thinking, he kissed her. For a second, she tensed, her lips tight against his, and he felt certain he had ruined the moment already.
Then she relaxed, opening her mouth to him, and the world suddenly steadied. It was as though she had become his anchor, and without her, he drifted seaward. But when he had her here, with him, kissing him back as though she had needed him all this time as much as he needed her, everything made sense again.
Hemade sense again.
Theonlyway he could ever be whole was with her, and the fact that he hadn’t known this when he first met her felt absurd. How could he not have looked at her and known she was his future?
“I’m so sorry for everything I did to hurt you,” he breathed against her mouth. “Can you forgive me?”
“You said we were starting over.” She looked up at him, adorably serious. “So there is nothing to forgive.”
Right.Starting over. He looked down into his wife’s face, wondering what his life might have been like if he had done this when she’d first arrived. Giving himself over to the inevitable.
“Mylady,” he stressed, taking her hand and kissing the back of it with as much grace as he could muster. “It is an honor to have you here.”
“In your bedchamber or on your lap?”
“Oh—right.” He gently set her down on the edge of the bed. “An honor to have you at my home, and my life.” He bowed elegantly. “I am delighted to make your acquaintance.”
Aurelia’s eyes danced with an unspoken laugh as she rose and stepped back, appearing to view his room for the first time. She glided through the space as though she were in an elegant dress rather than his clothes—but he had to confess, he liked the lookof his clothes on her. She was slender, drowned in his shirt, but her hips caught the material of his breeches, drawing attention to her shapely legs.
His primary motivation had been to get her warm and dry, but he couldn’t deny how much he preferred seeing her in his clothes.Hiswife—the need to claim her was near primal in him.
He had almost lost her. Now, he needed to make her his in every way.
“What acharmingroom,” she gasped with a dainty hand to her bosom as she made her way to the bed, hips swaying. He stared, transfixed by the sight of her rounded derrière. “I gather I am to spend some time here…”
“If it pleases you,” he rasped in near torment at the self-control it required to maintain this silly façade.
She glanced back at him, arching a single brow. “And if itdoesn’tplease me?”
“Then explain whatever issues you have, and I will do my best to resolve them promptly,” he answered quickly. “Your comfort is of my primary importance.”
“I… see.” He caught the edge of her smile as she turned back around. “Well, I’m very pleased to hear that. Perhaps I would like to stay here after all.”
“I’m very glad to hear it.” He approached her from behind; he saw the moment she registered his proximity by the way she stiffened, but when she tossed him another coy glance over her shoulder, he took that as permission to take hold of her hips, guiding her back to where he was hard for her.
“You make me feel out of my mind,” he murmured seductively in her ear. “Desperate for you. Sometimes I wonder if this is normal. For a man to be so consumed by his wife, he can think of little else.” He caught his breath as she deliberately rubbed herself against him. “And then I think that it doesn’t matter, not in the slightest, because why would I ever need another desire except to be close to you?”
He leaned down and nipped her ear. “I want this marriage to work,” he whispered. “Whateverit takes.”
She twirled in his arms, glancing up at him beneath fluttering lashes. “Then let us make a marriage that will work.”
“Butfirst.” He pushed gently at her shoulders until she fell back on the bed. “And forgive my crudeness, sweetheart, but I find myself rather insatiable as of present. I need to taste you.” He tried, desperately so, to keep the raw hunger from his voice, but she must have sensed it, because her fingers grazed his cheekbones, and she simply nodded once.
“You may do as you please to me.”
He growled a little under his breath as he throbbed. “You may yet regret telling me that.”
She whispered in challenge, “Thenensurethat I do not, good sir.”
