“There was never anything to forgive. You just had to be reminded about which path you needed to take.”
She smiled, and it caused his cock to twitch in his trousers. “Kiss me?”
He grinned widely. “As if you even needed to ask.”
He slammed the door shut with his cane and tapped on the roof.
As they set out, with the storm crashing all around them, Davien’s mouth descended on hers.
~ ~ ~
They were thoroughly disheveled by the time they made it back to London, sometime in the early morning hours. The coach stopped in front of a fashionable townhouse with two, large white columns in the front. The rain had finally lessened to a gentle sprinkle as Davien took her hand and led her to the front door.
“Where are we?” Cosette whispered as he used a key to get inside.
He put a finger to his mouth, as he led her into the foyer, to indicate that they should be quiet. Cosette bit her lip, wondering whose house they were in. Surely they weren’t trespassing?
With a wink, Davien led her up a set of gleaming, white marble stairs. Their clothes were still damp from earlier, although the sight of her dirty dress caused her to cringe. It didn’t look any better than a soiled rag clinging to her body. If any servants awoke and happened to notice them, they would surely think she was a common whore from the streets, here only to satisfy Davien’s needs.
He pulled her down a hallway and finally paused before a door to their right. He indicated that she should precede him. She walked inside and he softly shut the door behind them. The first thing she noticed was the welcome sight of a fire in the grate. She was chilled, and her body appreciated the warmth.
Davien came up behind her and encircled her in his arms. “Let’s get this dress off of you, shall we?”
Cosette sighed, the teasing torment that they had given each other in the carriage about to boil over into heated desire. But since she had a small portion of her wits about her, she asked, “Don’t you think you should tell me where we are?”
“It’s a townhouse that I own, one that I rent out.” He turned her around and began working on the fastenings of her clothes, his fingers deft and sure, as he quickly began to disrobe her.
“It’s yours?” Her breath caught as his thumbs brushed the tips of her nipples through her shift.
“You seem to forget that I’m a duke, my dear.” His dark eyes glimmered in the firelight. “Surely you didn’t think Shadowlawn was my only residence?”
As he kissed his way down her throat, she realized that’s exactly what she thought. “How many other houses do you have?” she asked on a sigh.
“At last count, there were five.” She felt him grin against her exposed clavicle. “So if you are still intent on going to Scotland, or Ireland, or Italy, or . . .”
She pushed him far enough away that she could look into his eyes. “Anywhere is home as long as I’m with you.”
He growled deep in his throat as he led her over to the bed, clad only in her shift. It wasn’t the massive, four poster that Cosette had come to know as theirs in his chamber at Shadowlawn, but as she watched him remove his clothes, she realized that none of it mattered. They had confronted one of the worst possible experiences that anyone could face and survived. And in that moment, she realized that was the key to it all.
At the beginning of their journey, they were lost, broken, searching for a way to end this hell on earth that had been constructed around them. It wasn’t until they had to work toward a common goal could they surmount the odds stacked up against them.
Whatever opposition might come their way, whatever resistance, they would endure it. Together they were strong enough to defeat any foe.
It finally all made sense.
And as the last of Davien’s clothes fell to the floor, she grinned.
“I hope that smile is because of me.”
Cosette allowed her gaze to roam over his naked body, lingering momentarily on his impressive manhood that pulsed with need. For her. “Of course.”
His eyes took on the feral appearance of the beast, only that unholy light was gone, shattered, sent back to where it came from.
Davien grasped the edges of her shift and, with one firm tug, split it right down the middle, exposing her nudity to his hungry gaze.
She clutched the counterpane on either side of her, desire soaring through her every nerve ending. “You seem eager to mate this evening, Your Grace.”
He put his fists on the bed near her legs and slowly crawled up her body, his naked back rippling and bunching as he crawled closer to her, stalking her. “You will regret that, madam.”
“Promise?” she purred seductively.
His grin was pure evil. “Oh, yes.”
