Chapter Thirteen #2
If he added up all the days he and Letitia had together, they would fall shy of a month, but that didn’t matter.
Time was irrelevant when the heart was involved.
You couldn’t put a time frame on love or on when it would take over your heart.
For him, he fell for her the first night he looked across a crowded ballroom and locked eyes with her beautiful blue ones.
In that second, he knew he had to get to know her and that he was looking into the future. A future with a blue-eyed goddess.
“Greyson,” she nudged him with her body. “Are you awake? We’re outside my home.”
He removed his arm from around her shoulders and opened the door. “Forgive me. I must have dozed off,” he lied. “Before we get out, I want to remind you that I leave town on Wednesday and won’t see you before I leave.”
“I know.”
He stepped out of the carriage, then assisted her, keeping his hand in hers as they walked up the stairs to find the door opened by Mr. Henry.
“You didn’t need to wait up,” Letitia said as she stepped into the entry.
“I couldn’t sleep, my lady.”
“Thank you for a lovely night,” she directed at Greyson.
Greyson bowed. “You are most welcome, and thank you.” His feet didn’t move until the door closed, and he realized he still stood on her stoop.
He made haste to his carriage, practically jumping inside, and knocked on the roof before the door was shut tight.
He estimated he had the morning to sleep away before he needed to be back at Club Knight for a Black Knight meeting at one.
When his carriage came to a stop outside Danbury Hall, he made quick work of entering the home, running up the stairs and hurrying to his chambers, where he stripped off his clothes.
He forgot to take off his boots and hopped over to the bed, his breeches down to his knees, and fell onto his back to catch his breath.
Exerting oneself this late in the night or early in the morning, however you looked at it, was a bad idea.
He pushed himself up to a sitting position and tugged off his boots in three tries. His breeches fell off easily now, and he climbed beneath the covers and instantly fell into a deep sleep.
*
After Greyson dropped Letitia off at home, she prepared for bed, climbed beneath the counterpane, and fell asleep a few minutes later.
When she awoke in the morning after a dreamless sleep, she rolled onto her side and faced two windows.
The sun was higher in the sky than it usually was when she woke.
Then she remembered telling Jane not to wake her.
According to the clock on the mantel, it was eleven.
Letitia stretched her sore muscles and was surprised by the tenderness between her thighs.
But she shouldn’t be, after being with Greyson.
Her lips curved into a dreamy smile, and she almost giggled.
She, Marchioness Rutherford, had made love with Viscount Greyson, and it was amazing—more than she could ever have envisioned. And oh, the things he did to her!
When he entered her, she felt as though they were made for one another.
Their bodies meshed and became one. When Rutherford had bedded her, she’d enjoyed it, yet she’d always felt unconnected to him.
They remained separate, though joined. She had found pleasure with her husband, but nothing compared to what transcended between her and Greyson.
They tumbled off the precipice as one, soared through the universe, and returned as one, stronger and more in tune with each other than before.
As she fell asleep in his arms, she felt treasured.
And when he called her my love, she almost melted at his feet.
Realizing she needed to get up and start her day, even though she wanted to stay in bed and dream about Greyson, she threw off the covers, padded behind the screen to attend to her morning ritual, and rang the bell for Jane as she passed it.
Then she entered her dressing room, washed up and wrapped herself in a robe, left the room to find Jane opening the curtains.
“Good morning, my lady,” Jane said. “Would you care to dress before breakfast? I ordered a tray brought up to the family drawing room.”
“Yes, a simple day dress will be fine. I’m not planning on going out.”
“Yes, my lady.” Jane entered the dressing room and returned holding a green dress.
After Jane helped her into her clothes, brushed and styled her hair into a simple braid, she dismissed her. “Thank you, Jane. That will be all.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Letitia left her chambers right after Jane.
But unlike Jane, who went down the stairs, she went down the hall to the family drawing room.
A fire was blazing, taking the chill out of the relatively small, cozy sitting room.
Her breakfast tray had already arrived. She sat on her favorite dark-pink-and-cream-flowered settee and poured tea into a cream china cup with a saucer with the initial R in gold.
She sweetened it with sugar and added a splash of milk.
Leaning against the back of the settee, she closed her eyes and sipped her warm tea.
Just the temperature she liked. With her eyes still closed, she envisioned being naked in bed with Greyson again—something she wished to happen very soon.