Chapter 6
“Idon’t believe it.” She couldn’t believe it. Here sat the most principled man she had ever known. Gloomy, yes. Critical, without a doubt. A killer? There was no chance of that in her mind.
“You don’t believe it because you don’t want the truth. Just like everyone else.”
His words changed her tactics though. If he was going to speak, she ought to listen. “Like who?”
“My parents.” At that, she watched him slump forward, dropping his head in his hands, remembering.
“He was calling for my help, and I let him burn to death. I told him not to light a fire—no matter how small—near the barn, but he didn’t want to hear it.
I killed him when I watched him die. I couldn’t… ”
She sunk to her knees placing her hands on his thighs. “How old were you?”
“I was seven.”
“What was a seven year old supposed to do, Alex?”
“Try. I was supposed to try damn it. But he went in to get his dog that had fallen asleep, and I was too scared.”
“You were seven.”
“It doesn’t matter. It certainly didn’t matter to my parents when they blamed me for the fire, for killing off their firstborn. For staking my claim to the dukedom—”
“You would never—”
“It doesn’t matter, Violet. Can’t you see? People don’t want the truth. They didn’t want it when my parents died either.”
“In the carriage accident?”
“Yes. The one where my father was driving drunk. No one wanted to hear that truth either. Because the truth is a dirty, dark secret. Don’t you get it?”
“The truth isn’t dark, Alex. It brings light. Peace. Freedom.”
“If you knew what I wanted to do to you, Violet, you wouldn’t be saying that.”
Her strong, beautiful man, a mosaic of broken pieces of tile. He thought he was broken and dirty. But all she saw was the masterpiece of him.
“You would never hurt me, Alex.” She cupped his jaw, forcing him to meet her gaze. She gasped at the darkness in his eyes. The fire. The need.
Slowly, he stood to his feet and gripped the fabric at her hips. “The first thing I’d do is tear this dress off of you, Violet.”
Shivers looped up her back at the thought of his hands all over her bare skin. “And then what?”
His eyes flared, but then he stepped closer. “I’d lick every inch of you until you begged me to stop.”
Had her dress shrunk two sizes? Breathing was growing increasingly difficult. “What else, Alex?”
His hand traced the top seam of her bodice and dipped down to graze her nipple. “I’d suck on these, Vi. Until you were writhing—”
She pulled his mouth down to hers and locked on for dear life. The same way her legs had somehow wrapped around his waist like a cravat around a neck. His hands were under her frock, sliding up her bare thighs until they rested under her bottom.
“I want it all, Alex. With you. Please.” Her mouth found his neck and latched on, taking a bite of him. Something feral released within her. This was it. This was what she had always wanted with him. There was no way on this ever-loving planet she was going to let go of him now.
His fingers expertly reduced her dress to a pile of fabric, and then he slipped her chemise up and over her head.
“I thought you were going to rip it, Alex?”
“I’ll rip another one. I want to remember this one. The day we found each other.”
She stood bare before him, just as he had done moments ago with his heart.
But then he was stripping off his layers, scattering them about the room.
The least Alex-like gesture she expected.
When he finally stood before her in rippling muscles, she wanted to drop to her knees again, this time in reverence to his magnificent body. But he beat her to it.
He was on his knees. Her legs were draped over his shoulders. Her back was against the wall. And his mouth—Oh, God!—his mouth was licking, nibbling, sucking.
“You have no idea how desperately I’ve needed this,” he spoke in a short pause.
And she wanted to reply, Oh, I think I do. But all that came out was, “Oh…oh…oh…oh my God, Alex.” And her hands were flexed in his hair like she was gripping reins.
When he looked up at her, he had the most boyish smile on his face. Pure delight.
“Tell me there’s more, Alex.”
Without a word, he picked her up and placed her on the bed. “I think you’re ready for me.”
“How do you know?” She meant it to sound coy, but when he slid his fingers through her folds and then licked her glistening wetness off of them, she melted into the bed.
“That’s how I know,” he murmured while he reached down to tap his length where his fingers had just been.
Her gasp had him pulling away. “Don’t go, Alex. I want this.”
“It might hurt. At the beginning.” His features had clenched in disapproval. “But I’ll make it good for you, Vi.”
“I trust you, Alex.” She beckoned him, opening her legs wider to receive him.
When he pushed inside, she pulled him down to kiss him. Everywhere. Her mouth wanted his. Her tongue wanted a dancing partner. Her hands needed a forest to explore. Including the hair across his chest and the small patch just above his hard length.
“Can you take all of me, Vi?”
She shuddered at the promise of more, biting her lip, she nodded. And then he thrust into her, to the hilt. His hands were gripped on her hips. And now she knew what that bunching of the fabric had meant those times he’d grabbed her.
And his desire for her, though she didn’t think it possible, surpassed her own for him. Or rivalled it. And that’s all she wanted. Him.
“Alex,” she called out to him again. Needing to say his name as she went up and over, around, and down on a spiral into pure elation.
“Violet,” he grunted, as he pulsed into her, spilling himself into her as she clenched around him in every way. Not letting go.
And she thought that was the moment that everything would be all right. That their future would finally be together and bright.