Three seconds later she is crying out, spasming over my fingers, clutching my hair.
And I am satisfied.
Chapter 26
Annabelle
The audacity of this man.
I thought I had secured my victory. Now it is all in disarray.
Alfred Saintsbury has once again broken me.
He found my weakness: that I want him to feel more for me than I am capable of feeling for him, that I am already addicted to his sweet attention and to the kind regard he shows me even when I am being cruel and impossible and demanding and horrid. Even when I am lying to him.
I need to reassert control.
Because right now, it is dangerously possible that, in claiming to love me, Alfred has gained the upper hand.
He stands before me, risen from his knees.
I scramble upwards and reach towards him.
“No, Annabelle,” he says.
I retract. I have no idea what he means.
“You cannot instantly best me. And you don’t need to. I have not beaten you.”
But it feels as though he has.
“Don’t you want me to please you?”
“Perhaps in time.” He sits on the bed and looks at me. “But right now I’d rather hold you. You look so beautiful with your skin flushed from orgasm. Is it wrong that I want to hold you afterwards?”
“I have no interest in such things.”
“Then do it to please me. I cannot see the harm.”
I think of commanding him to leave my chamber.
I should.
But he looks so pretty, so handsome, sitting on my bed in his smalls alone. Itishard to see the harm. What does it matter if the man loves me? I will certainly not fall in love with him. And he knows that.
I move towards him and he opens his arms to me. I lean against his chest, letting myself relax. It feels good after such an intense climax.
And it makes it easier to mention something that I am not sure he understands yet. And I feel honor bound to point out to him.
“This scandal. When it is known. It will make it difficult for you to marry. If you ever want to. I know you desire it—one day.”
Behind me, he tenses.
“Yes,” he says. “I know. It will make it impossible to have the kind of marriage I wanted.”
“Rightfully, you should hate me.”
“And yet I feel just the opposite.”
