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He let out a faint sigh and settled back into the pillows. “Em, there is something I’ve been meaning to ask you,” he said hesitantly.
“Yes?” she looked up at him.
“I understood your reluctance to go home when you explained how you were treated, but I wanted to ask if your parents made a practice of that sort of thing?”
“Starving me, you mean?” asked Em, with a quirk of her lips.
“Well, yes, that is an outrageous example. But I meant any disproportionate punishment.”
“Oh yes, starving me was one of Mama’s favorite tactics, although she had never imposed it for that long before, or so ruthlessly. Generally, it was just missing a meal or two. But in this case, the servants were forbidden to speak to me or help me on pain of dismissal without a reference.” She said this quite matter-of-factly.
He was appalled. “Em, that is outrageous. The worst kind of abuse!”
“It’s no worse than the way you were treated, Deo. In fact, I think it is far less dreadful. I did receive some affection, you know. It was just conditional on doing what Mama wanted.”
“What about your father? Was he kind to you?”
She shrugged. “He is far too afraid of Mama to stand up to her for me. He wanted a son, you see. He needed an heir, and he was stuck with me, a useless girl, instead.”
“You are not useless!” he said fiercely and squeezed her tight.
She squeaked and giggled. “Well, no, I don’t feel useless after today, but I used to feel—oh, I don’t know! As if I didn’t fit anywhere. Mama was forever nagging me to be something I’m not—sit up straight, smile, curtsy, dance, converse on the stupidest topics, try to be pretty and desirable to gentlemen—when all I wanted to do was read and study antiquities. And talk to someone who understood!”
“Exactly!” He swallowed the sudden lump in his throat. “That is exactly how I felt.”
She burst into giggles. “Deo, I cannot imagine you curtsying!”
He stared at her for a moment and then his lips twitched, and he burst out laughing. Which made her laugh harder until there were tears streaming down her cheeks and she collapsed on him, gasping for breath. “Oh, please, stop, my ribs hurt!” she said, going into another fit of giggles.
“Emily Frances, you are delightful!” he kissed her forehead and wiped at the tears on her cheeks with his thumbs.
“Mama only called me Emily Frances when she was angry with me,” she said with a sigh. “Which was a lot of the time.”
“I cannot wait to make your mother’s acquaintance,” he said a little grimly. “I shall disabuse her of the notion that you are anything less than perfect.”
“Oh, Deo!” She flung her arms round his neck and kissed him. Which put paid to conversation for a while as he forgot all his vows of continence and pushed her back into the pillows for a thorough kissing.
*
Emily squirmed beneath him, her body set alight instantly by his kisses. Will he make me his wife indeed tonight? It would be the perfect cap to a perfect day. She wanted him quite desperately, she had come to realize over the previous days, and she was a little puzzled by his insistence that they wait on the solicitor’s letter. What difference did it make? He had already said they would repeat their vows if necessary, and if he took her, then Bidenden would stop this nonsense of trying to claim her as his.
She had felt sorry for him when he was injured by the falling tree, but she had no interest in him compared to Deo.
There was no doubt in her mind that Deo was the man she was meant for, and she wanted so much to be able to say she belonged to him and only him in every sense, forever.
Deo tugged at her nightgown, so she sat up to help him get it off over her head. And she was so pleased when he removed his nightshirt and settled back onto her body with nothing between them. Yes! She exulted. It seemed she was to get her wish.
Deo resumed their kisses, his hands roving over her body, cupping and squeezing her breasts in a way she found delightful. Her breasts were small, and she had worried that they were inadequate, but Deo didn’t seem to find them so.
Deo ran his lips down her neck, which set tingles off on her skin and the heated ache between her legs intensified. “You’re so delicious, Em. I can’t get enough of you,” he murmured, and she grinned with pleasure.
“So are you,” she whispered, her hands roaming over his big body. His mouth continued south and when his lips closed over one of her nipples, she arched her back with a cry, as a bolt of aching heat shot to the place between her thighs. His tongue worried at the nipple and his mouth suckled in an extraordinary way that had her writhing with need and whimpering like a puppy.
“Em,” he said breathlessly, transferring his mouth to her other nipple and continuing to fondle the damp one with his fingers. The double assault made her buck under him. The ache between her legs demanded something, some pressure, something! She moved her legs, tangling with his and pushing up into his thigh when it came down between hers.
She made a sound between a moan and grunt, grinding herself shamelessly on his leg. She could feel the hot, hard length of his member pressing into her belly.
Will he take me now? Please, Deo! She panted, trying to move her legs to spread them for him, but he seemed oblivious of her efforts. Instead of repositioning himself between her legs, he moved his mouth down to her belly in a series of damp kisses, moving slowly lower until his mouth was pressed to the crinkly hair covering her mound and the merest inch from the place that ached so ferociously.
