Mine.
Ragged gasps of pleasure fled them both. Their breaths mingled, their bodies joining, their hearts pounding together as one.
He found her pearl, working his fingers over her in quick strokes until she tightened on him, coming as she cried out into their kiss. In two more strokes, he was swiftly withdrawing, grasping his cock as he spent on the bedclothes.
Boneless, Adrian rolled to his back at her side, staring up at the painted ceiling, the mocking reminder of all the hideous wealth surrounding them. He could not bloody well wait to go somewhere else. Somewhere that was theirs.
To be truly free.
She rolled into him, framing his face in her hands, the naked love in her eyes chasing away all the clouds passing through him. “I love you.”
Gratitude hit him like a wave. He clung to it, to her. “I love you, too, sweet Tilly. Now and forever.”
A smile curved her sensual lips. “Forever.”
With the tip of her finger, she drew a T over his heart, marking him as hers. He tucked her head beneath his chin and held her close.
Together, they drifted into a peaceful sleep.
* * *
He woke wrapped in woman.
Lush curves, silken curls, the scent of roses.
He woke, he thought, the luckiest man in all England.
Tilly was already awake, watching him through lowered lashes. “Morning.”
It was the first time she had spent the entire night in his bed. They had kept up the pretenses for the last three months, with her returning to her chamber or he to his before dawn. Waking to her in his bed felt like a gift, suddenly and unexpectedly bestowed upon him. He was not sure what he had done to deserve it, but he would seize it.
“Morning,” he returned, his voice still raspy with slumber. “How long have you been awake?”
“No more than a half hour.” Her gaze swept lovingly over his face.
He ran a hand through his hair. “You should have awoken me.”
“I liked watching you sleep,” she said. “You seem so at ease, all the tension in your jaw, all the sadness in your eyes gone. I was content to let you have your peace for as long as you could.”
Tension and sadness. Was that what she saw when she looked at him? He could not deny that he had been beset by an impending sense of doom that could not quite be chased no matter how diligently he tried to distract himself. Doom because he knew the Duke of Longleigh. And because he understood that securing Tilly’s freedom would not be easy. Perhaps not even possible.
Even if they ran away together, there remained the chance Longleigh would follow or refuse to sue for divorce. Always the chance they could never wed, which would mean they could never have a child together. He would not bring an illegitimate baby into the world. Enough pain had been visited upon him by the circumstance of his birth, and he would never inflict the same upon his own flesh and blood.
But like so many of the troubles awaiting them, he would worry about it when the time came. For now, they still had this glorious morning and each other to be thankful for.
“You are beautiful in the morning,” he said, drinking in the sight of her, gloriously nude in his bed. “I want to wake with you each day like this.”
“As do I. I know what we must do, Robin.” Her palm skimmed over his chest in a caress, landing upon his wildly thumping heart.
He caught the hand and brought it to his lips for a reverent kiss. “Oh?”
“Yes. I have spent a great deal of time thinking about the obstacles facing us, and there is only one solution.”
He kissed each of her fingers, the pad of her thumb. Every part of her was beloved to him. “What is your solution, love?”
“We will leave tomorrow, together, before Longleigh returns. We will take the train to London, and from there go to Haddon House. He is journeying here from Liverpool, and we will be traveling south. Our paths will not cross.”
He presumed Haddon House was Longleigh’s townhome, and likely every bit as stately and ostentatious as Coddington Hall. Going there together would be a bold move, and not one he was certain they should chance. But the notion certainly held its merits.
