Chapter Twenty-Eight
Every inch of her body felt sensitive. Need pulsed through Liberty. Need for the man beside her. Toby was here, and he wanted her as she wanted him. Her Toby.
Liberty had never thought to feel passion. Never believed, if she wed, it would be for anything but duty and to create a child. But that changed the minute Toby put his hands on her.
“Touch me again,” she whispered as his eyes, heavy with desire, ran over her body. In that moment, she would give him anything. All rational thought had fled, and there was just them and now, and the tension spiraling higher inside her.
He leaned closer, and then his lips were there above the slope of a breast. Her moan had him licking his way down to the peak. His tongue slid over the sensitive bud and Liberty shuddered as sensation coursed through her.
“Toby,” she whispered, and he lifted his head.
“Toby, good? Toby, stop?”
“G-good.”
“Thank God.”
He lowered his head again and laved the taut peak until she was writhing on his thighs. Tension built inside Liberty with every lick. He eased her dress upward with his hands, the heat from his palms leaving a trail of desire and heightening the building tension inside her.
Liberty wanted to feel his skin. Needed to touch him too. Her fingers went to his neck, and then into his hair.
“Toby.”
He stopped instantly as she spoke his name and looked up at her with that dark, heated gaze.
“I want to touch you, too.”
“You do?”
“Very much.” She knew then that while he may give the appearance of a confident man, a man who had a reputation with women, he still carried vulnerability inside him from the hell he’d endured.
Liberty should have felt exposed seated as she was, bared to his gaze, but she didn’t. All she felt was an aching need for this man. Her fingers went to his necktie, and she freed it.
“I’m hoping you can retie that.”
She smiled but didn’t speak as she worked on his buttons next. When she had a few opened, Liberty parted his shirt and then leaned forward and kissed the skin at the base of his throat. Toby’s moan was low and deep.
“Liberty,” he breathed her name.
She licked the skin as he’d licked her breast.
“Your touch is heaven,” he rasped. “For an innocent, you are skilled in torment.”
“I may not have spoken to you, Lord Corbyn, but I watched you. Saw the boy I knew become a man. Wondered what lay beneath your clothes.”
“I saw you too,” he rasped as she placed another hot, open-mouthed kiss on his skin. “And every time I looked at you, I felt that pang of regret.”
“Shh.” She raised her head and kissed him. His hand went to the back of her neck, holding her closer.
“I can hardly believe I entered this carriage with you hating me, and now you’re in my arms,” he whispered against her lips.
Then there were no more words, only them, and this.
He slid his hands back up her thighs as he spread his wider, opening her to him.
“I don’t deserve your trust, Liberty, but I want it just the same.”
She nodded but could not say the words as his thumbs were stroking circles in the soft curls. Sensation, need, it all pulsed through her as his head lowered once more to take her breast into his mouth.
“Toby,” she whispered as one finger slid lower and into the damp folds between her thighs. He then stroked it along the seam, making her shudder.
“Just feel, Liberty.”
And she did. Every lave of his tongue on her breast, and stroke of his finger between her legs. Soon she was panting and writhing as the tension inside her built to an unbearable height. Then a great wash of pleasure consumed her. Liberty shuddered, her fingers biting into the flesh of Toby’s arm.
“Beautiful,” he whispered, lifting his head to watch her. “That look is one I will never tire of.”
“I have heard of such things, but had not believed them,” Liberty whispered.
“Where have you heard of such things?” His smile was small and tight, and she felt the tension inside him. The hardness pressing against his breeches.
“Women talk, my lord. Men are not the only ones who share confidences and gossip, you know.”
“I’m shocked,” he drawled. “And now you need to get off my lap, because we cannot—”
“We can,” she said, doing something she once would never have had the courage to do. But this was Toby. He made her feel strong.
Liberty moved closer to him, so her body was now flush with his, pressing into him. She felt his arousal twitch.
“Now,” she said against his lips. “I want you to be the one, Toby.”
“No—”
“Yes.” Liberty moved, causing friction that sent a delicious spike of heat through her.
“Christ!” He hissed. “I’m trying to be a gentleman.”
Her hands went to his breeches. “I don’t want you to be a gentleman.”
“Be sure,” he rasped.
“I am. I didn’t even know until this moment I was waiting for you… for this, Toby.”
“Liberty—”
“No promises, not yet. I want this for us.”
His eyes held hers. “There will be a future for us, Liberty. You know that, don’t you?”
Her heart swelled. “I do.”
“We will live our lives together, my sweet.” He took over unbuttoning his breeches. “Tell me you understand that?”
“I understand.”
He freed his length. “Feel me,” he whispered.
She touched the hard flesh, and he groaned. Liberty circled him with her fist and stroked, feeling the heat and strength beneath her fingers. Reveling at every sound that came from his lips.
“For an innocent, you are far too knowing,” Toby gritted removing her fingers. “This, what we are about to do, will hurt you, Liberty, and while I will make it my life’s work to protect you from pain, unfortunately, in this, it is unavoidable.
“It’s all right, Toby. I know what happens.”
“More of that chat between women?” he gritted out.
“Yes.”
“I want you to lift onto your knees, and then lower onto me.”
She did and felt the damp head of his arousal at her entrance. Then he was entering her.
“Easy, my sweet.”
Liberty focused on the sensations.
“Look at me, Liberty.”
Their eyes locked on each other as she slowly lowered, and felt the silken tissues inside her give as he slid deeper. There was a sharp sting of pain as he penetrated her body.
“Christ, you feel good.” The muscles in his jaw bunched.
Liberty put her arms around his neck and held him tight. Toby, her friend, and now her love. Later she’d wonder at that. Wonder at how her feelings for this man had changed so rapidly. Or had they just lain dormant?
“Are you all right, Liberty?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Then when you can move, I beg of you to do so,” he gritted out.
The feel of him was wonderful, even as the pain lingered. She rose, and then down again, and his jaw clenched. She repeated the motion slowly, feeling the delicious tension rise inside her once more. His hands were on her hips, fingers gripping her tight.
“Next time, we will be in a bed,” he whispered, his hips thrusting up to meet hers.
A wave of pleasure hit her again as he continued to meet her as she rode him. Thrust after thrust, as the sensations became almost unbearable.
“Now, Liberty, I cannot wait much longer.”
She felt the tension peak, and then his thumb pressed inward, finding the small tight bud between her thighs and she scaled that pinnacle of pleasure once more. Her cries muffled in his shoulder as he moaned long and low.
The only sounds for long minutes were the clop of hooves and rasp of their breathing in the small space. He held her pressed to his chest. Arms banded around her back.
“I should not have done that, but I will never regret it,” he whispered against her ear. “You’re mine now, Liberty. For always.”
She had no problem with that, however, she had no energy to take him to task for the high-handed way he’d spoken the words.
“And now we dress, in case the carriages have to stop,” he said, easing her off his body and on to the opposite seat. “Use this,” he handed her the handkerchief he got out of his jacket pocket, along with her glasses, which he pushed onto her face.
She cleaned and dressed, as did he, but the silence wasn’t tense and fraught as it had once been between them. Liberty felt no embarrassment, just a rightness that she was here with Toby. Only when they were both as presentable as they could make themselves did he pull her back onto his lap.
“We have so much to say to each other, and so many years have passed since we were friends, my sweet. But first I want to say that any future with me comes with Florence. She is mine now, as are you.”
“And I would have it no other way. I will love her as you do,” Liberty said.
He exhaled. “I knew you would, but I needed to ask. Now let me hold you in my arms for the remainder of our journey, where you will always be.”
“Yes.” Liberty laid her head on his chest as he turned slightly to rest his body more comfortably. “Toby?”
“Liberty?” His fingers stroked her neck.
“Do you speak of Mathew at all?”
He didn’t stiffen like he normally would at the mention of his brother, but he felt the heat of pain in his chest.
“I don’t think you have grieved properly for him, Toby. Will you let me help you do that? Your brother deserves that from you.”
“I know he does.” He buried his face in her hair. “I miss him so much still.”
“We will talk more about him in the future.”
“We will,” he said, feeling the rightness in the words. “And my mother deserves that from me as well.”
“Yes,” she whispered, feeling her eyelids droop. “I love you, Toby.” Liberty then closed her eyes and fell asleep in his arms.