And they had spent the last few months living as if they had forever. Adrian still had yet to reveal the truth to Tilly. He had been honest with her in every other sense. But his deceit, along with the inevitable clash with the duke, troubled him.
“Something is wrong,” Tilly said, stroking his hair, his cheeks, his jaw.
She had the silken touch of an angel and an ineffable ability to bring him comfort, regardless of how troubled he was.
“How can anything be wrong when I have you in my bed?” He took her lips with his in a kiss that was slow and deep.
She opened to his questing tongue, licking into his mouth and making the needy sound in her throat that never failed to make his cock go rigid.
True to form, he was standing at attention once more.
But the uncertainty of the future was still there, silently mocking him.
There was only one course for them, one true way he could see them being together, with a hope of someday becoming husband and wife. He tore his mouth from hers, kissing along her jaw.Damn it, he wanted to devour her.
“Would you come away with me?” he asked, lips moving to her ear, then down her throat.
And mayhap it was stupid. Certainly, it was a ludicrous notion. Only a madman would suppose a duchess would leave her comfortable life to run away with a man who had been lying to her from the moment he had first opened his mouth to speak. The bastard son of the husband who had made the last few years of her life an utter hell.
He had scarcely any funds and no hope for more other than the ten thousand pounds which had been promised him. He had no title. He was not a gentleman. He was not even a particularlygoodman.
But she did not know any of that just yet, and a plan had been formulating in his mind ever since they had been stranded in the temple during the thunderstorm.
“Come away with you?” She kissed his chin. Her fingers played lightly over his shoulders, filling him with even more fire. “What do you mean?”
“When the time is right,” he elaborated, tonguing the hollow behind her ear, where he knew her response would be as instant as it was gratifying. “If Longleigh refuses to sue you for a divorce, will you come with me?”
Tilly shifted beneath him, sighing her appreciation. “Yes.”
He stilled. “Yes?”
Had she just agreed to his stupid suggestion because she was in the wild throes of lust and she could not help herself or form rational thought? He would not be surprised if that were the case. However, if it was, he had no wish to earn her promise by such nefarious means.
“Yes,” she repeated.
His nose was buried in the abundance of golden, sweet-scented curls at her throat. He had to stop, to make certain the blood roaring in his ears had not drowned out the truth of her voice.
“You would leave him for me?” he pressed, raising his head to stare down at her.
She was lovely, her creamy skin illuminated by the faint glow of the lone lamp he had left lit. Her hair was fanned over his pillow, her eyes rivaling the green of the damask on the walls.
Mine, he thought as he gazed upon her.I need this woman in my life, in my heart. I need her desperately. I want to hold her tight and never let her go.
“Of course I would leave him for you. I love you. Had you any doubt? Take me with you, Robin. Wherever you go, I shall follow.” Her voice was intent, urgent.
Honest.
Something he was not.
He hated the nameRobin, which mocked him brutally in this moment of rare truth. He was being as candid with her as he had dared since that moment in the storm when he had revealed his painful losses to her. He would have to unburden himself soon, and he knew it. But that confession could be had later. Not now. Not today. Not when she was warm and willing and telling him everything he wanted to hear and oh so deliciously wet.
His fingers grazed over her seam, parting her folds.
“He will not make it easy for you, for us,” he warned, kissing down her throat to her collarbone. Here, she smelled of rose and another scent that was distinctly Tilly. He kissed her there, then made his way to the place between her breasts. Then to her nipples.
“I have thought of trying the same course myself, but I did not want to presume that you would think the notion a sound one. But if I abandoned him, I should think he would have no choice but to grant me a divorce.” Her words were breathless now, but imbued with a reckless hope.
The same sensation buoying him.
