Alive.
Still watching her, he licked his lips. His muscles flexed as he reached his finger deeper inside of her.
“God, I love touching you,” he murmured, withdrawing his finger and then thrusting it inside again. “Do you know what you feel like? So warm and wet, like nothing else in this entire world.” His thumb slowly massaged the nub above her opening.
Her heart raced. She was transfixed by his gaze and by all the sensations he elicited.
He added another finger and reached even higher now. Maggie couldn’t keep from arching her back, pressing herself against his hand.
“There you go, sweetheart. Let go. God, you’re beautiful.”
His fingers curled and rubbed at her insides, touching her in places she’d never been touched before. She was on the edge of a cliff. The breeze lifted her up, swirling her over the sea. He pushed his hand in again and then lowered his mouth to her breast.
She was flying, careening for the heavens.
His hand moved faster, causing her to cry out. The wind lifted her again. Into a vortex. Swifter this time, making her dizzy, stealing her breath.
Her senses evaded her. Sheheardwhite flames, and shesawhis hand in her mind, touching her core, caressing what she perceived would be the center of her being.
For how long, she did not know. But she flew, she gave herself over to the sky, and then, in one glorifying rush of satiation, drifted back to the ground.
His fingers remained inside of her, but his hand had stilled. He’ rested his face on one elbow as he gazed down at her, an expression of awe on his face.
“You made me fly.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“You were meant to fly.”
She couldn’t endure the intensity of his gaze. Especially now, in this weakened state that he had caused. She closed her eyes and allowed her bones to melt into the ground, not even a little self-conscious that her breasts were bared in the daylight and that he was watching her.
“I’m not certain I can walk home now,” she mumbled after a few minutes. “You are… quite good at that.”
When she opened her eyes, he was shaking his head. “Not me. It is all you, Maggie.” He withdrew his hand slowly, and she had the oddest urge to cry.
But then he rested beside her. “You cannot marry him.” His words surprised her. They were not pleading or demanding, just a matter of fact.
He was right. Of course, he was right.
But that meant that she was going to be alone. Because this young man beside her had dreams that he must chase. Adventures to embark upon.
It made her feel sad but happy for him at the same time. He had his entire life ahead of him.
She, on the other hand… could not marry George Kirkley. She could not marry him because she did not love him, and she never would. And also, because she did notwanthim.
And because he was Sebastian’s uncle. That would be, oh, so very wrong.
And if she was not going to marry George, that meant she must put off the opportunity to become a mother. She must put off the opportunity to have a family of her own. She would put her dreams off, indefinitely, possibly forever.
She pinched her eyes together tightly. It hurt. Letting go of a dream.
It hurt.
“I told him that I would consider returning with him to London, when the party is over.”
“But you won’t.”
She opened her eyes to look at him. He wasn’t smiling and if she didn’t know better, she would imagine that he was falling in love with her. She wished...
What did she wish? That this man beside her wanted the same things she did. That he was a few years older and she was a few years younger and that he didn’t need to sail to another world?
