Chapter Twenty-Five #2
Those blue irises met his. So trusting. So loving. This was perfection. “So beautiful,” he murmured into her ear. “So perfectly blue.” Like the sky. The ocean. Sapphires…
She slid her hand between their bodies, wrapping her palm around his girth. “You are throbbing,” she whispered, her eyes and voice both filled with awe.
He slid his finger inside her, luxuriating in the tight tug of her pulsing walls pulling him deeper. “So are you, my darling Blue.”
She closed her eyes and moaned.
“Genevieve, look at me,” he demanded.
Her eyes opened, her gaze burning so hot, she fused her soul to his. Branded hers. forever.
“I love you, Genevieve.” He pressed his cock against her entrance.
“I love you, too.” Her gaze glued to his, she surrendered to him, welcoming him into her sweet heat.
Taking cues from her inviting cunny, Jonathan entered her little by little, until he was embedded deep inside her. She wrapped her heels around his hips and clung to him. Add flexibility to her list of attributes. He clutched her hips, then slowly pumped in and out of her.
Pleasure rolled over him so hard and fast that he had to halt his movements and slow his breathing or he would spend much too quickly. He withdrew until just the tip of his rod was inside her, resting his forehead against hers.
“Give me a moment,” he implored. Concentrating on their mingling breaths, he slowed his galloping need. Once he was composed, he fully embedded himself.
Attempting to slow himself down had been pointless.
After just a few thrusts—each accompanied by one of her bollock-tingling moans—he was driving her body into the mattress as she raked her fingernails down his back, the sting from her nails a delicious torture.
Although their kisses remained gentle, their hips crashed violently.
The tension within him coiled until the muscles surrounding his pelvis were involuntarily and uncontrollably contracting.
“Harder,” she begged as her fingertips dug into his nape.
He might be a dolt about a lot, but he knew when a woman was experiencing pleasure and about to explode. His gal was so damn close.
“That’s it, darling.” With a feral growl, he nipped her earlobe. “Come for me.”
“Oh, Jonathan,” she cried as her walls convulsed around him.
His toes curled and his fists clenched. It took all of his discipline to withdraw. His entire core contracted so hard he hissed. And then he soared.
It was a few moments before he had the wherewithal to grab the corner of the counterpane and wipe her belly clean. He collapsed onto the mattress and pulled her close. Nuzzling her neck, he inhaled her musky, floral scent.
“Mmm,” he murmured as he smiled. This might be the happiest he’d ever been in his very joyful, privileged life.
“I watched my father murder my mother,” she said out of nowhere.
So much for Jonathan’s euphoric bliss. He sat up so quickly that his head spun.
Genevieve looked up at him, her eyes wide, her palm covering her mouth.
Shaking his head, he removed her hand. “No, Gen. I am going to be your husband, so ’tis time you confide in me. When did your father kill your mother?”
When she didn’t answer, he lay down and pulled her back to his torso. He couldn’t see her face. Still, he cradled her protectively. “I can lay here all night holding you, because neither of us is going anywhere until you tell me the truth of who you are and what happened to you.”
They remained silently curled together for a long time.
Finally, she rolled over to face him. She swallowed, then spoke, her voice like a faraway whisper in a volatile storm.
“My father is Arthur Bailey, the second son of the sixth Earl of Shipley. When I was about ten years old, he barged into my mother’s chamber and accused her of having an affair with my uncle, the current Earl of Shipley. ”
Jonathan schooled his wince. After hearing from Robinson and speaking with his mother, it was not her identity that had shocked him, but her circumstances.
That she’d witnessed one parent murder the other had never crossed his mind.
He had the urge to ask her if her father had been cuckolded by his older brother, but Gen probably didn’t know the truth.
Besides, the affair was not the point. She’d witnessed her mother’s murder. Christ almighty.
Jonathan rested his cheek on hers so that he could clearly make out her quivering voice.
“When she denied it, he strangled her. I was hiding in the wardrobe, so I saw the entire thing. I think my father knows I saw him. He is horrible and evil and abusive. He gave me to Lord Kilsby, to pay a debt, which isn’t a much better fate than murdering me.
I think he wants to kill me. I can see it in his eyes.
I suppose that is why I lost my voice. I knew that if I talked, the truth would slip out.
But then I met you, and now I’m not as afraid.
” She closed her eyes. “Obviously.” Her lids lifted, and she sighed.
“But I still didn’t mean for it to come out of me tonight. You must have relaxed me too much.”
Dear God, he’d kill the bloody monster. But this was not the time for him to have a tantrum; she needed his compassion. He shoved his roaring anger deep.
“You are safe now, Genevieve,” he said. “He can’t hurt you. He won’t hurt you.”
She sniffled. “I have two siblings who live at Thorn Manor. Christopher is eighteen and Sophia is eleven. Instead of going with Lord Kilsby, I ran away. I left them with our father, who also murdered my stepmother. And all so that I could save myself.”
Ah. The mysterious Christopher was her brother. Jonathan had been a jealous fool. Meanwhile, fear and guilt were eating Gen alive.
“Is this why you are desperate to earn money?” he asked.
“Yes. I thought that if I could afford a room in the city, I could steal them from Thorn Manor and protect them.”
“Then you didn’t leave them to save yourself,” he said, his lips cupping her ear. “You fought back in the only way you could. Using your athletic gifts.”
The faraway look in her eyes focused on him. “You don’t think I abandoned them?”
“No. I think you saved yourself so that you could eventually protect them. Hell, Gen, you survived life on the streets. You defy society by being a woman—an aristocratic woman—who competes in athletics. You are entering a boxing ring with an athlete who is larger and has more experience, all while intending to rescue them.”
She nodded. “Of course, we would have to live as a working-class orphaned family until my father dies.”
The hell she did. “No, you don’t.”
She rolled to face him, tears glistening in her eyes.
Using his thumbs, he dried her tears. “Marry me, Genevieve Bailey. Once you are my wife, he cannot force you to be with Kilsby. Together, we will rescue your siblings. Hell, before you are my wife, we will confront him. We will leave here the day after your mill and retrieve them.”
Gen’s eyes widened. “He will never let them go. Not because he loves any of us, but because he is the devil. He will accuse you of kidnapping Sophia.”
“Then we will sneak them out of the house. I have the way and means to hide them away and ensure he never sees them again. Once he dies, your brother can come out from hiding and then take back Thorn Manor.”
Grasping his hand, she kissed a knuckle. “You would do this for me? For my siblings?”
“A million times over.” If only she had asked earlier.
Arthur Bailey did not stand a chance against him.
He was Viscount Jonathan Davenport, after all.
Handsome, intelligent, kind, generous, and wily, according to the woman he loved.
But more importantly, he was loyal and ruthless.
No one, especially not some piece of shite disgraced, untitled murderer, was going to hurt someone he loved.
“We have your mill on the morrow. We will head to Thorn Manor the day after. I am sure Griffendale will give the Wentworths and Franny a ride back to London. I promise you, your father will never hurt you again.”
“There is a maid,” Genevieve said. “She is younger than I am, and so sweet. She quakes every time he is near. I cannot fathom the torturous things he puts her through.”
The bloody blighter! “I will ensure her safety, too.” He had no idea how, but he would figure out a way.
“And our cook. She was our only friend.”
“Done, Gen. Everyone you want to protect. Anything you need. Forever and ever.” He pecked her cheek. “Now, get some sleep. You are safe.”
And she was. Completely and utterly because he would see to it.