“So you don’t blame him for his singular dedication?” Derrick asked, genuinely surprised by that answer.
She smiled. “I knew what kind of man he was the moment I looked at him. I knew his heart because he’s too honest not to show it. Of course, he feels a need to complete his duty. To bring the villain to justice. That’s his role—I would never blame him for it. Or for my own failings. Where is he now? Waiting for you to finish with me?”
He shook his head, guilt rising in him. “We knew you wouldn’t take the main road to London and were left with two viable options. He took one, I the other. I found you. We’re supposed to report to each other what we found when we meet up tomorrow. But I…I won’t.”
She gasped and her fingers clenched against his. “Derrick, I would never ask you to betray—”
He lifted their hands to her lips, stopping her from continuing. “I know you wouldn’t. I’m doing it, myself. Because I love you, Selina. You must run because I love you.”
She caught her breath and the tears returned to her eyes. “You do? How? How could you love me knowing what I am?”
“You are my heart,” he explained, that heart nearly bursting in his chest. “And I do know what you are. Not the Faceless Fox, though she is part of you. You are Selina Oliver. You are strong and independent and infinitely frustrating and funny and beautiful, and I could go on and on. Iknowwhat you are. And I love every part of you.”
She was shaking now, not just trembling. “I intended to get Vale to safety and then turn myself in.”
He flinched. “If you must, then we’ll face that together. But for now, just hide. Hide away in London and I’ll try my best to fix this. If I can’t…if I can’t, I’ll find you and we’ll determine what to do next together.”
She sagged against him with a shuddering sigh. Then she glanced up at him. “Do you really love me, Derrick Huntington?”
He smiled through the pain. “Oh, I do. I do really love you. I’d like to prove it. How much time do we have?”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and drew his mouth toward hers. “An hour or two.”
“Hardly enough time at all. But I’ll take it,” he murmured before he brushed his lips to hers.
His body pushed him, screamed at him in the language of desperation and need and fear. But he ignored it. If things went wrong, this would be the last time he took this woman to bed. And he didn’t want to make this joining about fear or pain or regret.
He wanted to make it a promise. To her. To himself. So he deepened the kiss as he eased her toward her bed. She didn’t resist, she just lifted into him as he lowered her back and covered her body with his.
She moved beneath him like the ocean, lifting into him as he kissed her, as his hands stole down her body and memorized her lines, as he unbuttoned her gown and let his fingers dance beneath the fabric against her warm, bare skin. They had done this so many times, so many ways. It had bonded them and united them even when they were worlds apart.
But now…now it was different. He knew she loved him. He loved her. So when he tasted her skin, he was tasting the future he so desperately wanted. When he parted her gown, it was parting the way that seemed so impossible.
He loved her and this meant so much more.
She pushed at her dress, managing to yank it down around her waist despite his weight on her, and he smiled. “Always in control,” he said on a chuckle that dissipated some of the tension in the room between them after her confessions.
“Never with you,” she promised as she kissed him again. He cupped one breast, flicking his thumb over the nipple, measuring the weight of her in his palm. She whispered his name against his mouth and he felt the tug of it like she had cupped his cock.
Need took over again, washing away everything else as he slid down her body and tasted her breasts, teasing her with his teeth and his tongue until she writhed beneath him, her cries echoing in the room around him like music. He pulled her dress lower, over her hips. She kicked the fabric away and spread her legs to give him a place to rest. He took it, pushing her wide as he trailed his tongue over her stomach, her hip and finally stroking her sex in one long lick.
She spasmed against him, already on the edge of release. He raced her toward it, sucking her clitoris over and over, fingering her gently and then rougher until she jolted against him and the flavor of her orgasm coated his tongue.
“Please,” she murmured, tugging at his jacket, pulling him toward her. “Please, please.”
He nodded as he cast the coat aside. As she tore at the cravat beneath. The shirt. He unfastened the placard on his trousers and she caught his hard cock, stroking him until his vision blurred and he couldn’t wait any longer.
He tugged her lower on the bed, rubbing his cock back and forth over her as she mewled in pleasure. And when he took it was a hard, long stroke that filled her slick body completely.
Tears streamed down her face as he claimed her. They merged in their kiss as she held him to her, her fingers tangled in his hair. She lifted to meet him, waves on that same ocean, and he lost himself in sensation. He lost himself in her as pleasure built. She came again at last, her sheath milking him hard with tremors, and he could hold back no longer.
He moved to pull away, but she gasped and cupped his backside, holding him tight as they locked eyes. He could have moved. Could have refused what she wanted. But he wanted it too. So he poured himself into her with a roar and then collapsed over her, sweat mingling as he kissed her and kissed her and kissed her.
Selina curled her fingers against Derrick’s chest, loving how his arms felt around her in the quiet of this sanctuary. Knowing she was selfish for wanting this night to never end. And for what she had encouraged him to do. He’d come inside of her. He might have created a life by doing so. That life could save her from the hangman’s noose and perhaps that’s why he’d done it.
Even if it didn’t, she still loved the idea that a child with his eyes and her smile might exist because of their love. The idea of him or her was beautiful enough to make the next few weeks bearable.
He had been combing his fingers through her hair for what felt like a lifetime, but now he stopped. The tension re-entered his body as he moved a little, forcing her to roll from his chest onto her side. He was frowning, not at her, but into nothingness.
