Like him, she could not help but to see the hopelessness in their situation, the futility of her feelings. She was married to his uncle. He was a young, handsome man. She could not ask him to wait for her. Nor was she free to pursue him.
He held her tight to him, neither of them speaking. For a few moments, they simply breathed together, absorbing the tremendousness of their emotions, the connection joining them. The sun was golden with promise, the birds sweetly singing, and Robin felt so deliciously perfect, his strength protecting her, embracing her. She never wanted him to let go, and neither did she want to release him.
If only they could stay thus, in each other’s arms. If only reality would not intrude. If only they were not doomed to have nothing more than this month, which grew smaller with each day that passed.
“God, Tilly. I love holding you in my arms,” he said, his voice low, ragged with emotion.
Her fragile heart, which she had long believed incapable of such a depth of feeling in the wake of her disastrous marriage, beat hard. “I love when you hold me.”
“I do not want to let you go.”
She heard the unspoken in his words. Knew instinctively what he was feeling, because it mirrored her own turbulent emotions. Tilly tipped her head back, staring up into his beautifully sculpted face.
“Then don’t,” she told him.
The words were a dare for the both of them.
Foolish and reckless and real.
His head lowered, but he was thwarted by the brim of her bonnet. “You and your hats.”
There was no heat in his voice. At least, not irritation. There was instead only blatant, open admiration. And desire. Oh, yes. She recognized the gruff, husky note to his baritone. The deepening of his blue, blue eyes.
“You like my hats,” she said.
“Your hats are ridiculous.” He kissed her nose.
“Tell that to my milliner. She charges quite dearly for them.” As she said the words, she inhaled deeply, bringing the musky, masculine sent of him into her lungs.
“I have no doubt she does.” He dropped a swift, chaste kiss to her lips, untied the ribbon keeping her bonnet in place, and then plucked her hat from her head, tossing it over his shoulder without bothering to see where it may land. “I like you golden and wild, Tilly, as you were meant to be. I like you imperfect and real, with bare toes and your hair cascading down your back. I like the Tilly you truly are, not the duchess you’ve been forced to become.”
She liked the Tilly she was with him.
She thought it was the closest she had ever come to returning to herself.
For she had lost sight of who she was years ago and had spent her marriage hopelessly, helplessly adrift.
She wetted her lips, overwhelmed by him and by the magnitude of her need. “I like the woman I am with you. You make me feel things I have never felt before. Make me feel as if I have returned to myself.”
“You deserve to be loved and worshiped, to be treated like a queen.” His gaze searched hers as he stroked her cheek. The touch was featherlight, a whisper of gossamer over her craving flesh.
No one had ever told her so.
But when Robin said it, she believed him.
“And what of you?” she asked him. “What do you deserve, Robin?”
She knew so little about him, about his past, his present, his future. Had he loved before? What aspirations did he have? Who was he, outside of his role here at Coddington Hall?
“I deserveyou,” he said suddenly, fervently. “You are what I want, what I need, and to hell with everything and everyone else. That is how I feel when I am with you, Tilly. You are dangerous, woman.”
If she was dangerous, then he was lethal, this wickedly handsome stranger who had appeared in her life for the maddest of reasons. And she wanted to give him herself. Not just her body, but every part of her. Her heart, her present, her future, her kisses, her love. She wanted to give him everything and anything.
“What if I told you that I began falling in love with you that day in the boat?” she asked softly.
“Christ, Tilly.” His fingers trailed down her throat. “You have no notion what you do to me. How much you tempt me.”
She thought she did, because he had the same effect upon her.
