He thought of many things when he pleasured himself. Scenarios, mostly, situations where he could take what he wanted. It was rarely a specific person who stoked the fire of his pleasure.
But tonight there was only one thing that entered his mind. Elizabeth spread out before him, her sex glistening as he leaned in to taste her remarkable essence. Elizabeth as she arched under his mouth and fingers. Elizabeth as she writhed and pleaded for more and less and everything while she came and came and came.
He stroked himself harder, faster, reaching for the pleasure he would have found if he’d leaned up over her and slid home deep in her tight channel. If he’d thrust into her while her fingers dug into his hair and her mouth collided with his so he could swallow her moans.
He came so hard and so fast that stars exploded before his vision. He jerked against his fingers, murmuring her name as the world swirled down to this primal need she stoked in him. For a few minutes he slouched against the cushion, panting as his heart rate slowly returned to normal.
He was slaked, but strangely unsatisfied. Visions of Elizabeth still danced across his mind. He pushed them aside and got up, reaching into his pocket to find a handkerchief to clean himself up. But his mind kept spinning as he did it, always back to her. Touching her, fucking her…talking to her.
He tucked himself in place and fastened his trousers. He couldn’t go back to the ballroom in his present state.Thatwas obvious.
His best course of action was to go take a long walk in the cool night and allow everything to calm down a little. Elizabeth would get to regain her footing without having to look at the man who had ravished her. He could try to get himself together before he was forced to smile at her like they were nothing more than acquaintances.
He strolled down the hall away from the ball, into the breakfast room. It led to the terrace and was closer to the set of stairs that went to the garden. He slipped out, watching carefully to make sure any of the attendees of the ball who were farther down on the terrace didn’t see him.
Once he reached the garden below, he sucked in a deep breath. He’d spent so much time lately amongst these flowers and shrubs that it felt like a strangely calming homecoming as he made his way down the path. Who would have thought it? That a garden could become so interesting to him.
“Or perhaps it’s the woman,” he muttered.
Oh yes, Elizabeth was more than interesting to him. Tonight had proven that in spades. She was so gentle, so kind. So intelligent and amusing. But she was also a bubbling cauldron of hidden passion. Remove that lid and beneath was lava ready to overflow.
He hadn’t been ready for that, even if he’d sensed it somehow. Felt it in her touch and her kiss. How many times had a woman’s orgasm moved him so deeply? He didn’t think anyone else ever had. Yes, he wanted his lovers to have pleasure. He had trained himself to be proficient at finding all the ways to make a lady moan and quake.
But when Elizabeth had lost control beneath his touch, that had felt…different. New. Powerful. He’d couched it as a gift he gave, to make up for the terrible thing that had happened to her. But the gift was his, not hers. And it had…changed him. He felt it now in his soul. And that was terrifying.
He was a rake, wasn’t he? Not built to be changed by a woman. Not intending to be swept away by a fine pair of blue eyes and the hesitant smile that went with them. It could never happen. He shouldn’t want it to happen—that was a setup for disaster.
And yet this little ache in him grew every time he saw her across a room or this very garden. An ache that whispered he wanted more than her kiss or her pleasure. He wanted her. All of her, body and soul and heart.
That realization hit him like a ton of bricks in the chest, and he pivoted to look back at the house in shock. As he did so, there was a sharp, heavy pain at the back of his skull and then a wave of darkness washed over him. His last conscious thought was that someone was beating him and that he might never see Elizabeth again.
Lizzie lifted on her tiptoes and peered across the ballroom for what felt like the tenth time in a half an hour. Morgan was still not back after their encounter. What did that mean?
“You look nervous,” Katherine said as she slipped up beside Lizzie and slid a friendly arm around her waist. “Is the party very terrible for you?”
“No,” Lizzie said, trying to find focus amidst her distraction. “It has been a—a surprising night to say the least.”
Katherine’s brow wrinkled. “How so?”
Lizzie almost snorted out a laugh. As if she could explain to Morgan’s sister-in-law that he had brought color to her drab world with his fingers and tongue in a parlor. There was a casual conversation starter.
So she struggled to find something else to say. “Just so many new friends to meet, I suppose,” she said. “But I do wonder where Mr. Banfield is.”
Katherine held her gaze a moment, but then she looked around. “You know, now that you say it, I haven’t seen him for a while, myself.”
Lizzie shifted. “I passed him in the hall not very long ago and he claimed he was going to ask me to dance the next, but two songs have played and he has not materialized.”
“And you wish to dance with him,” Katherine said softly.
Lizzie froze. She was revealing too much without meaning to do so, especially to someone as observant as Katherine. “Not…necessarily, but I did accept out of, er, politeness. And I only hope he is well.”
Katherine frowned and a flash of concern came over her lovely features. “I did see Morgan out on the terrace a short time ago. He was walking into the garden.”
Lizzie caught her breath. “Perhaps we should look for him. Just to make certain nothing has happened to him. There are a great many tools and things piled around in the dark. He might have hurt himself.”
She didn’t believe that, of course. Morgan was well aware of the dangers in certain parts of the garden at present. At his order, those areas had been carefully closed off by the servants so no guest would wander in. But there was a prick of concern that was growing in her with each passing moment, and she would have said almost anything to get Katherine to help her with the search.
“Then let’s seek him out,” Katherine said, and they linked arms and headed toward the terrace doors.
