Where Percy had laughed at her and gone off into a field with Alberta, Court had lingered. He’d knelt and offered her the use of his thigh as a stool.
“I’m still here, Vivi,” he said.
She swallowed hard, thinking about her brother and the unfairness of his life cut so swiftly and brutally short. Court was here. Percy was not. And she forced herself to think of the rest of what had happened, then. How Court had grasped her waist when she’d placed her boot on his manly thigh, half perishing with embarrassment and unrequited love for him, and he’d caught her waist in an easy grasp, helping her to reach the lowest branch.
“You helped me,” she said softly, her fingers moving over the taut, bare skin of his lower back, relishing the feel of him.
“Let me help you again. We’ll sit together on the count of three.” He pressed another kiss to her head, almost reverently. “Ready, sweetheart?”
“No,” she said, clutching him tightly, panic pushing the pleasant memory aside and making her chest go tight.
“Deep breaths,” he reminded gently. “You can do it. One.” He kissed her again, nothing more than the comforting brush of his lips over her part, and yet it meant so much, the gesture so painfully tender and caring that she might have wept were her demons not so intent on chasing her. “Two.”
“Court,” she protested, sinking her fingernails into his back. “Not yet.”
She was thinking about Percy. About the yacht sinking in that terrible storm, how terrified he must have been. Thinking about his final moments. Had he gone down with the ship, or had he struggled to swim to shore, only to sink below the waves and disappear forever? And what had that felt like, losing his ability to breathe…
“Come back to me, Vivi.” Court’s stern, beloved voice tore her from her agonizing thoughts as he continued to caress up and down her spine. “Stay with me. Right here, in this moment. Can you do that for me?”
She wanted to.
A shudder went through her, and she was cold. So cold. She shivered, trembled, longed to surround herself in the welcoming heat of the bathwater.
Not the ocean, she reminded herself, closing her eyes tightly.I’m with Court. I’m safe.
“Yes,” she gasped out. “I can do it.”
“Good,” he crooned, stroking her hair now. “Three.”
And then, he was guiding them both down, into the bath. Everything became a blur of light and sound and fear, and she scrambled to fight him, but he was stronger and he overcame her with ease. They sank together, Court resting on the bottom of the tub with Vivi atop him, much as it had been earlier during their bailey picnic.
She was gasping for breath, and yet she had done it. She was here. Submerged to her chin and wrapped in Court’s strong arms, her face tucked into his throat.
“You did it, sweetheart.” He kissed her forehead. “You’re in the bath with me.”
Relief washed over her, joining the warmth, and miraculously, the fear began to recede. She trembled against him, overwhelmed by the virulence of her reaction.
She tipped her head back, meeting his gaze, love for him and joy colliding with the lingering old panic he had helped her to overcome. He cupped her cheek reverently, simply staring down at her as the bath warmed them both. She was thankful she had selected such a large tub, though certainly she had not done so with this in mind. And yet, how much better it was to share her bath with Court than to sit in her three inches of water alone.
“Just like the tree,” she murmured, overwhelmed by the day, by Court’s return, by her feelings for him.
“Just like the tree,” he agreed, and then he lowered his lips to hers and kissed her with slow, thorough sweetness until she was whimpering into his mouth and one of her hands had strayed to his nape, curling into the too-long strands there.
This kiss was different from the voracious meeting of mouths they had shared earlier. It was softer, more tender. It was deliberate and careful, and yet it was a seduction so thorough that she never wanted her mouth to leave his. She wanted to wrap herself around him, to hold him close, to never let him go.
Beneath her bottom, the undeniable thick prod of his cock coming back to life sent a pulse of need to her sex. He deepened the kiss, the pressure of his mouth growing more insistent, his tongue at last teasing the seam of her lips. And she opened for him with a helpless sound, wanting to forget everything but him. The past, the present, the future.
She didn’t want to think about the pain he’d caused her, about the reasons they’d spent the last year apart. Didn’t want to think about the looming house party, or the dozens of guests she was about to receive. All she wanted to concentrate on was Court.
Her husband, her friend, the man she had never stopped loving.
Her body moved with a purpose all its own, and she was gliding in the water, settling so that she was astride him, with his cock nestling against her aching folds. Shamelessly, she kissed him as she rocked her hips, craving the most intimate joining of all.
He was first to break the connection, his lips leaving hers to travel along her jaw, down her throat.
“Vivi,” he murmured her name against her skin as if it were a prayer. “My sweet, gorgeous, bold Vivi. I’ve been lost without you.”
What could she say to that? For her, it had been the same. She had buried herself in tasks as a means of distraction. She had thrown herself into restoring the gardens at Sherborne Manor and renovating the bathrooms. She had immersed herself in the Lady’s Suffrage Society and in her growing group of friends. But one thing had been missing from her life, and it was Court.
