Rain had pelted the manor house from dawn, and now it was midday. Rachel’s parents were back in Manchester again, and knowing that they were alone and inside felt like a gift to William. He left the portrait to dry and went to seek out Rachel. Luckily, he came across her maid and asked her where Rachel was.
“I believe she is in the library, Mr. Smith,” Miss Colton said. “She’s…”
William had nearly headed off to find Rachel, but Miss Colton’s words stopped him. “She’s been what?”
Miss Colton nibbled her lip a little, “The best I can say is despondent. She has not told me what Lord Strathmore had done to make her so, but I can only assume he did something.”
At the insinuation, he gritted his teeth. That pompous Lord had done something to distress Rachel. “Thank you for telling me. And don’t worry, I’ll find out what happened.”
She gave him a relieved smile then headed off with a parting word. Striding to the library, William wondered how he would coax Rachel into telling him what had happened. When he entered the library, he found it—empty?
Confused, he began to meander through the shelves and got to the back of the room, and there—he sighed in relief. Rachel was asleep, perched on a window seat. The book on her hand was a precarious inch from tumbling out of her hold.
Gently leaning his hip against the wall, William plucked the book out of her lax hand then rested it away. He then reached up and brushed his fingertips across her smooth cheek. “Wake up, sweetheart.”
Instead of startling, Rachel’s lids fluttered, and he watched as her eyes slid into focus. “William?”
“You dropped asleep in the library,” he explained. “I’m not in your bedchamber.”
She pinked. “I wasn’t thinking that.”
“I just spoke to Miss Colton,” he said as he sat on the edge of the ledge. “She seemed to hint that Strathmore did something to upset you. Will you tell me what happened?”
Rachel pulled away with a sigh. “He told me something that I would have sworn he was lying about…but he was not. He told me that his parents were married but separated from the main home. And both parents take lovers when they have a care to.”
William ground his teeth hard enough that it was a surprise that his molars had not cracked. “Did he say that was your future with him?”
“Not in so many words,” Rachel whispered. “But I would not be surprised. He does not care about having a loving marriage, which I suspected, but it felt worse to hear it coming from him.”
“What a—” he bit back a foul curse not fitting for her to hear, “—nob.”
Rachel giggled at the pronounced pause in his words. “He is, isn’t he?”
“To be fair, I am also jealous of him,” William admitted while reaching out to rest a hand on her hip. “He gets to be with you when I cannot.”
“You don’t need to worry too much,” she said. “I feel nothing for him the way I do for you.”
Fire suddenly flashed through his chest while he shifted his touch to her face. His thumb slipped under her chin, and he realized that he was about to kiss her. A second later, his firm lips pressed against hers and managed to pull out a sigh of pleasure from her.
The delicate jasmine smell of her skin was intoxicating, as was the feel of her lips. The plumpness of her mouth against his and the slender softness of her body sent heat coiling through her limbs. It spread to his lower belly and further until he began to grow hard.
A soft mewl of pleasure from her and instinct guided him to kiss her harder as she did her best to keep up with him. William pulled away to let her breathe and kissed her cheek and jaw first before he reclaimed her lips. In a provocative stroke, his tongue ran across her lips before his teeth nipped lightly at her bottom lip.
Rachel sucked in a breath, and with that opening, he was kissing her deeply. As his tongue twisted and twined with hers, it aroused an urgent need inside him for something he deeply wanted but knew he could not have. And it made him kiss her deeper. Eagerly she tried to match his kisses, giving him one more lustful moan.
She scooted forward on the seat to press her body into his and reached up to touch his face. Strong desire had him sealing his mouth with hers as the kiss grew deeper. Pleasure engulfed him at a deeper touch, and the feel of her unfettered breasts on his chest almost made him feel wild and out of control.
Which pushed him to pull away. If he did not, things would get out of hand, and neither of them could handle the ramifications of that. He did not go far but stayed close enough that they could share heated breaths. He laid a kiss on her cheek and then sat back.
“You are worth so much more than what hand you’ve been given,” William whispered.
“I’m just happy he is not here today,” Rachel said plainly. “He is a proud, self-righteous, exasperating man. Sounds familiar?”
His brows lifted high. “Are you asking me to pass judgment on your parents? I could not dare. Tis not my place, but I can see what you mean.”
Rachel shifted enough that she rested her back on half of his chest and shoulder. “I’m starting to dream, William, of somewhere else. A place where I am at peace. It’s all in mist, so I have not seen where I was. All I know is that I am at peace.”
“It’s all I want for you,” he nosed at her ear. “For you to find peace and happiness wherever you end up.”
