“Well, it now seems he is closer to death than not.”
“Oh.”Chagrin coloured his expression.“That is not pleasant at all.I am very sorry for her.”
“Yes.I also.”Victoria may soon be without her husband, but it had always seemed to Eleanor there was little feeling between them, not even friendship.Not like she and Benedict.
A small smile touched his mouth as he looked at her, his expression warm and open and always the loveliest thing she’d ever seen.She always wanted him by her side.She never wanted to threaten that.“Are you regretting our lessons?”
Surprise lifted his brows.“What makes you ask that?”
Picking at the velvet of the seat, she avoided his gaze.“You acted strangely at the end of our last lesson.”
Exhaling, he leant back against the squab.“I did.”
“We do not have continue with them,” she said in a rush.“If they disturb you, we can cease.”She would much rather lose the lessons than lose him.
“No.”Leaning forward, he took her hands.“El, I want nothing more than to help you.”
His blue eyes held hers.She was intensely aware of him, his big body filling the carriage, how his knees brushed hers with the sway of the carriage.Her gaze snagged on the gloved hands surrounding hers, how much larger they were than hers, how strong.Hands that had touched her and brought her such pleasure.
Her heart pounded, her breath jerky.“It was an intense experience.Anyone would be disconcerted.Especially as we are friends.”
Something flickered in his eyes before he gave a smile that didn’t quite reach them.“We shall always be friends, El.”Light and shadow passed over his face as the carriage rumbled on.“It will be some time before we arrive.Fancy a lesson?”
The casual way he asked was somehow like a slap to the face.Was he… Did it mean so little to him?He did it for her, she knew, and for her to attract another but…did it mean so little to him?
Light again passed over him.His hand were as fists on his thighs, and a muscle ticked in his jaw.Maybe he was in truth not as casual as he seemed.Though it was ill done of her and unfair, relief filled her.“What can be done in a carriage?”
He raised a brow.“Many things.For example.”He started to pull at the fingers of his gloves.
“You taking off your gloves is not that much of a lesson.”
“Patience, El.”Laying them to the side, he held out his hand.Without hesitation, she slipped hers into his.He traced the soft mound of her palm through her glove.“Such a delicate hand, El, and yet I have seen the marvels it has wrought.”His fingers trailed up the line of buttons running above her elbow.
She bit her lip, tingles running along her skin.A dark lock fell over his brow and her fingers itched to push it back in place.Then, she realised she could.His gaze jerked to hers as she brushed the lock back.Blue held her, locking the breath in her chest.So many carriage rides she had shared with him, so many moments like this, but never with this feeling in her chest, the swirl in her belly, the heat.
Still holding her gaze, he flicked open the first button.And then the next.And the next.All twelve he opened, and she was undone along with them.Desire raced through her along with liquid heat, and from nothing more than the unbuttoning of her gloves.
The glove gaped open.Breaking their gaze, he rested his fingertips lightly upon her exposed skin, tracing the faint blue of her veins, her fluttering pulse.He had destroyed her with not much more than a touch, baring nothing more a brush against skin.How could he make her feel so much with so little?
Bring her palm to his mouth, he pressed his lips to its centre.She gasped as his tongue touched her fleetingly, his lips soothing the moisture from her skin.
Murmuring her name, he wrapped his arm around her, his hand cupping her cheek as he brought her mouth to his.The kiss was passionate and wild, and he pressed into the squab.He smelled delicious, of Bayswater and citrus, and underneath the scent that was Benedict.Moaning into his mouth, she clutched the lapels of his jacket to bring him closer.
He kissed beneath her jaw, light, feathering kisses, and then he did the same down her throat.She squirmed under the delicate licks and nibbles, her skin so sensitive she felteverything.He devastated her, taking her apart until all she wished was the brush of his lips, the nip of his teeth, the luscious stroke of his tongue.
His tongue.The illustration fromSophiaflashed before her.“Benedict?”
He hummed against her skin in response.
“I have seen something… That is, can we…” She licked her suddenly dry lips.
He pulled back.“El?”
Hesitantly, she met his searching gaze.She could ask him.She could ask him anything.“I saw…That is, there is an illustration of a woman and a man was and he was…”
His thumb traced her cheekbone.“You can tell me, El.”
Heat burning her cheeks, she started, “He was between her thighs.”
