He arranged a rug over her knees. “Lean against me, sweetheart.”
Thea was only too pleased to. She closed her eyes. But she found despite the lack of sleep, she wasn’t a bit tired. As it always was when close to him, while he made her feel safe, conversely, her nerves seemed tightly strung. All her senses came alive when his arm came around her, holding her firm against him.
She put her head against his chest and breathed him in. She was of a hopelessly impatient nature.
Thea’s flowery perfumefloated around Ash. She leaned heavily against him. He’d spent a restless night aware that Thea slept at the end of the corridor. The presence of the chambermaid in her room was not so much to protect Thea’s reputation but to keep him from giving in to his baser instincts. The looks she had given him as they said goodnight seemed very much like an invitation. But his grandfather had leveled a glance at Ash before he departed and said, “I know you will behave honorably and protect Thea.” Any thoughts of a little romance where Ash might overstep the bounds were hastily shelved, hence the chambermaid. Now he could not change his mind. In any event, it was not what he wished for their first time together.
The carriage rocked around a corner and Thea’s soft bosom pressed against his side. Behaving with honor might please Grandfather, but it was the last thing on Ash’s mind. He wanted to kiss her sweet lips. He shifted uneasily.
Thea raised her head. “I should sit up, this can’t be comfortable for you.”
He smiled down at her. “Not at all.” While it wasn’t in one sense, he still enjoyed having her close.
She moved away and busied herself, tidying a loose lock of her hair then looked out the window. “Where are we?”
“We’ll stop to change the horses in about an hour and have a bite of luncheon. We’ll arrive at Meadows by nightfall. It will be good to be home, won’t it?”
“I guess so. She turned back to the window.
Ash’s hand on her arm drew her back. He placed a finger under her chin to study her face. “What is it, Thea?”
“I had hoped we’d talk. Really talk. I can’t quite believe you desire me or wish to marry me when I have hardly behaved in a respectable manner in the past.”
He sat appalled. “Thea, I’ve fallen hopelessly in love with you. I love everything about you. I admire your uniqueness, your courage, your determination to see justice done and help others, but I also find you beautiful and desirable. Just to look at you makes my heart beat faster.” He sighed. “If I haven’t made that clear in the past, I am very much remiss.”
She smiled, and her eyes grew misty. “Oh, Ash, I love you, too, most dreadfully.”
With a moan, Ash pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Her soft body molded against his, causing an electric current to flow straight to his groin.
Thea murmured, and her mouth softened beneath his. Fighting his need to make love to her, Ash traced the line of her jaw. “No one forced me to propose, Thea. I wanted you. Even when Farnborough’s suit failed, I was not about to stand by and let some other man claim you. And some fellow soon would.”
“All the mamas at the balls were infuriated when our engagement was announced. You had made it clear you didn’t wish to marry for years.”
“I had talked myself into believing I needed no one. I can take chances with my own life, but not those I love. When you disappeared, it almost killed me.”
“Because you lost your family.”
He nodded. “That awful day. Grandfather and I were following the coach in my curricle. I wanted him to experience my new matched set of thoroughbreds. We arrived just after the accident happened. The bridge had collapsed. We stood in a horrible, strained silence as the coach was hauled back up to the road. No one survived it. My beloved parents and grandmother, gone. It was heartbreaking. Grandfather never recovered. It’s my hope that our marriage will make his time on earth happier.”
“Oh, Ash, how utterly heartbreaking.” Thea threw her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. She murmured his name and threaded her fingers through his hair.
His composure gone, his barely controlled passion erupted. His hands roamed over her body, shaping her breasts through her clothes as he kissed her deeply, seeking the cavern of her mouth. Thea made no attempt to stop him when he opened the front of her dress. He stroked the velvety skin where the smooth crests of her breasts rose in rapid breaths above her chemise, longing to kiss her peaked nipples, which showed through the cloth. His kissed the erotic spot on her throat while he gathered up the hem of her dress and smoothed a hand over her warm shapely thigh. Thea moaned and arched toward him.
Then, breathing heavily, Ash withdrew his hand and pulled down her skirts. He sat back with a groan. “Good God, Thea, the thought of touching you, of being intimate with you is almost too much to bear, but not like this,” he rasped. “I intend our first time together to be special.”
“Then I suppose we must wait,” Thea said, sounding regretful. She licked her lips swollen from his kisses.
She was completely unconscious of what that gesture did to him. He adjusted himself with a rueful smile and smoothed his disordered hair. “We will stop at the inn for luncheon in half an hour. And I prefer when we do make love, to take my time and kiss every bit of you.”
Thea gave a breathy giggle.
Chapter Twenty
Thea’s hands claspedin his, Ash smiled lovingly at her where they stood in her grandmother’s entry hall.
“You will come as soon as you have news?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Do you doubt it?”
