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“Thank you for telling me,” she murmured. “I am deeply honored that you have shared this with me. I know it is not easy.”

“You defended a woman you never met tonight, in front of half of London, without knowing the truth about what happened to her.” His thumb moved slowly over the back of her hand. “I don’t know that I have ever been more moved by anything in my life.”

“Nathaniel…”

“Let me finish.” His voice dropped further, something in it shifting from grief into something warmer, more dangerous. “I have thought of you constantly since that night at the auction. And now you know the truth about my sister’s death and my hunt for Cumberlea; he was the true reason for being at the auction.”

Of course, he was not there to partake in the auction. He is not like that.

“I told myself it was concern, at first. But it was never only that, Laura. I have thought of the way you looked at me across that room before either of us knew who the other was, unafraid in a way no one has been of me in years. I knew I had to keep you.”

“Oh, Nathaniel,” she breathed, her lip quivering.

“I have thought of you in the garden with dirt on your hands, and asleep with Iris curled against you, and standing in the ballroom tonight with your chin up defending my sister’s memory to people who never deserved to even whisper her name. I did not know, when I signed that contract, that I was about to lose my mind over you. I did not even know it was happening until it had already happened.”

Laura’s breath caught, and warmth spread through her chest. “I don’t know what to say…”

“I am not asking anything of you tonight.” His free hand rose slowly, giving her every chance to pull away, before brushing a loose curl from her cheek. The reverence in the touch made her heart ache. “I only wanted you to know the truth of it. All of it. You asked me once if you deserved that much, and you did. I should have given it to you way sooner.”

She didn’t pull away. Instead, she leaned into the warmth of his palm as it cradled her jaw, letting his words wash over her like the tide. It felt so fragile and yet so right. She watched something shift in his eyes, darkening, sharpening with a sudden, fierce hunger.

“I am not afraid of you,” she whispered, echoing the words she’d thrown at him weeks ago in his study, though they meant something entirely different now. “I never was. I think I have been afraid of exactly this, this whole time. The gravity of what we share, I feel it as much as you do. I am only afraid of…”

“Of what?”

“Of how much I have come to want you.”

Before the words had even faded, his mouth descended on hers.

The kiss started tentative, warm and soft, before Nathaniel’s restraint snapped. His tongue parted her lips and plunged inside, tasting her. Tasting her surrender.

All the blood in her body rushed between her legs, and her breasts grew heavy. She closed her eyes, losing herself in the taste of him. All her reservations, worries, and fears vanished from her mind.

He cupped her cheeks in his hands, holding her steady as he kissed her. Then one hand moved to the back of her neck, fingers tangling in her hair as he tilted her head back and deepened the kiss.

Suddenly, he lifted her into his arms, kissing her the whole time. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and he braced one arm behind her back and one under her round buttocks, holding her up as if she were a feather.

Desperate for more, Laura lowered her lips to his neck. She kissed and licked, savoring the salt of his skin. Nathaniel growled and held her closer before setting her down on a nearby table.

“What are we doing?” she gasped, dizzy with desire.

“We are doing nothing, my sweet. You are going to lie there and let me worship you.”

“You must understand,” she said, propping herself up on her elbows to look at him. “I do not know how all of this works. I do not want to disappoint you.”

A low growl rumbled in his chest as he took off his shirt, revealing his broad chest. His muscles were hard and defined, and her mouth began to water.

As he moved closer, he looked down at her, raised an eyebrow, and she realized she was powerless to resist anything he intended to give her.

“You could never disappoint me. You are my dream, etched from fantasies I didn’t even know I had. You are exquisite,” he purred, trailing his hands up her legs and pushing up her skirts.

She parted her legs, and that was all the invitation he needed. He pulled the chemise off her body, then returned to the center of her thighs and slid his fingers up and down her wet folds. She writhed and moaned at the foreign sensation.

Just when she thought it was the most perfect feeling in the world, he slid a finger inside her, and her inner walls tightened around him.

“You are so tight,” he groaned, leaning over her to plant kisses on her neck and earlobe. “And so perfect. But there is one thing I need from you…”

“Anything,” Laura cried out as he thrust his finger deeper while his thumb circled the soft nub at the apex of her sex. “Please.”