Chapter 24
“Do you truly intend to unhinge that door by slamming it, or is that display merely for my benefit?” Madeline asked.
Kenneth did not give her an immediate answer.
For a moment, he was just quiet, but Madeline could feel the silent rage steaming from him.
The carriage was now jolting over a dark, bumpy road.
She watched his profile, saw his jaw tick.
He was trying to control himself from saying or doing anything in the dimly lit confines of the carriage.
Is he angry?
“Kenneth?”
“Let us speak about this when we reach home,” he replied.
She could not truly argue with that. Still, it was difficult to feel the hot waves of anger emanating from him in such a small space.
He sat across from her, instead of next to her.
But was not this what she wanted? His usually impenetrable walls had not only cracked, but had completely shattered in his fury.
Do not fool yourself. This means nothing. He is dealing with his pride. It does not mean he cares for you, much less that he loves you.
The rest of the carriage ride was painful to bear as her ears had to endure the emptiness next to the sound of the horses’ thunderous hooves and the road’s rattle.
Finally, they reached the front gates of Huntington.
Kenneth did not wait for any assistance.
He flung the door open and stepped down.
Then, he turned around to reach out for Madeline’s waist and lifted her to the ground.
Even as her feet touched the gravel, he did not let her go.
Keeping a firm hold on her, he guided her up the steps.
Langdon opened the door, looking startled at the sight of the two of them.
Madeline could only walk faster to keep up with Kenneth’s footsteps.
She whimpered in protest when she saw that they had gone past her bedchamber door.
He brought her to his own chambers and shut the door behind them.
“Unhand me this instant!” Madeline cried, trying to pull herself away from his grip.
He let her go, and she stumbled backward into the room.
Her heart was pounding hard. Would he ever hurt her?
No. It could not be. He had always made her feel safe.
“What is happening? Why are you pretending to be outraged now?”
“Pretending?” Kenneth echoed, as he removed his leather gloves and threw them onto a nearby armchair. “Do you believe this is a performance, Madeline?”
“I... I do not know what to think!” she yelled, her voice cracking with long-withheld emotion.
“You avoid me for days. Now that I have finally found a place where I am appreciated and wanted, you insist that I leave early. What is the difference between my staying there for two days and my remaining here at Huntington? Nothing. The only difference is that you happened to notice that I was not there.”
“You were laughing with that man!” Kenneth exploded as he took two more steps toward her.
His chest heaved with anger. If he had not raised his voice ever before, tonight seemed to have shifted things.
“You sat next to him, looking at him as if he were the center of your world, Madeline! You gave him all the smiles and laughter that should belong to me.”
“Mr. Sheffield was merely being polite. He will be family soon. He will be Selina’s brother-in-law!”
“I do not care if he is royalty!” Kenneth exclaimed as he took more steps to close the gap between them. Soon, he was looming over her. “You are my wife, Madeline! I do not share what is mine, and I will not keep quiet when you spend the better part of the evening smiling at another man!”
“What you are showing is possessiveness, Kenneth!” Madeline explained, her voice raised like his, as her emotions heightened. “This is territorial pride, not love. You want me to remain a well-behaved ornament or a prisoner ready for your next whim. You are furious that I dared leave the house!”
“I do not know what it is,” he admitted, flinging his hands upward in frustration.
“Call it whatever you will. Perhaps it is pride or possessiveness, as you say. All I know is that I felt my heart being ripped apart when I saw you laugh with another man. I could not breathe. I could not think properly. My mind told me that I would murder him if he dared touch you, and I... I would also die if I could not touch you again. That is the extent of my feelings, Madeline!”
A sob erupted from Madeline’s mouth. It was involuntary. She swore to herself that he would not make her feel strong emotions once more. She told herself that she had had enough, but her throat felt tight as she heard Kenneth’s raw admission of his undoing.
“I am dying, Madeline,” Kenneth whispered, his voice becoming a ragged plea.
“It pains me if anyone dares insult or hurt you. I would go to the ends of the earth to destroy them. But it also hurts me to see you finding happiness in someone else, sharing what we should be sharing with each other. And I know that it is my fault, but it does not stop my heart from cracking. I would do anything to see your smile once more, not directed at Sheffield or anyone else, but at me.”
Madeline remembered that this was the same man who had paid her father’s debts without waiting to see her expression of approval or gratitude. That and the revelation of his agony squeezed her heart.
She had spent weeks trying to find a single crack in his walls. She had not expected them to come down all at once, and the sight of it stole the breath from her.
“Are you truly angry?” she asked breathlessly.
“I am furious,” Kenneth admitted, shaking his head as if trying to rid himself of an image. “Furious enough to do this.”
Kenneth reached for the front of her dark-green silk gown and, with one violent jerk, ripped her corset open by the stays. For a moment, her ears lingered on the sound of tearing silk, bouncing pearls, and popping laces.
Madeline gasped. The heat that enveloped her gave way to the cool air of the room, hitting her bare skin. However, there was no time to contemplate how cold she was because Kenneth’s mouth quickly descended on hers.
Their mouths melded together, deepening the kiss quickly as each seemed to have been starving for a long time. When his tongue touched hers, Madeline could not help but moan aloud. She could feel that this kiss was different from the others. Kenneth did not mean to stop.
And even then, she did not push him. No, she clung to him. Her arms wrapped around his neck, just as possessive as he was. Her fingers threaded into the curls on his nape.
Meanwhile, Kenneth’s hands explored her body.
They were everywhere, as if he were trying to prove that all this was his.
Still, he made quick work of his own clothing, shrugging off his coat and waistcoat, tearing at the buttons of his shirt until it joined the rest on the floor.
His breeches followed, and then he stood before her, bared and unhurried, letting her look her fill.
Then he stopped. For all his fury and his hunger, he did not reach for her again. He held her gaze instead, and when he spoke, his voice had lost its edge.
“I want you, Madeline. I have wanted you since the day you crawled out of that lake and refused my coin.” His jaw tightened, as though the next words cost him. “But I will not take what you do not wish to give. So, I am asking you. Will you have me?”
The question undid her more than any command could have.
For weeks, she had held her ground, trying to make him love her first, but that rule had been built to guard a heart that was no longer hers to guard.
She had given it to him already. He had not said that he loved her, and somehow it no longer mattered.
She loved him too much to refuse her own heart.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, Kenneth. I want you.”
“Then get on the bed.”
Her heart was thudding. Both of them were moving on instinct alone now. Passion. Was this not the very thing she had always wanted? She scrambled onto the bed, shedding the rest of her gown until she was left in only her thin chemise.
Kenneth followed her down, parting her thighs with his body and settling between them as though he had always belonged there.
He buried his face in her neck, dragging his teeth along her shoulder, and then his hand was between her legs.
She had not even felt it travel beneath her chemise.
His fingers found her soaked and slick, and he made a low sound of approval against her skin.
“You are so drenched for me,” he murmured. “Already.”
He stroked through the wet heat of her, slow and unhurried, until she was arching off the mattress and clutching at him. His heavy body was a delicious weight pinning hers, his chest dragging against her stiff nipples with every breath.
“Kenneth,” she begged, her nails raking down his back.
“I am here.” He eased two thick fingers inside her, stretching her, working her open while his thumb circled the aching peak of her. “Feel how tight you are? You will have to take all of me, and you will.”
He set a slow rhythm at first, curling his fingers as he drew them back, finding some hidden place inside her that made her gasp and clutch at the bedding.
The pleasure wound tighter low in her belly, and her hips began to lift to meet his hand. She was climbing fast now, certain she was only a breath away from shattering.
And then he slowed.
His fingers gentled inside her. His thumb eased off just as she teetered on the edge, and the release she had been racing toward slipped away from her. A broken sound escaped her.
“Kenneth!” she complained.
“Patience,” he murmured. “I am not finished with you yet.”
He began thrusting his fingers again, building her back up with the same maddening care, and again he brought her to the brink and drew her down from it.
“Please,” she gasped, beyond shame now. “Kenneth, I cannot... I need it.”
“I know.” His thumb pressed harder, his fingers driving deeper, no longer holding her back. “Then let go for me.”
She reached her climax faster than she thought possible, his fingers driving her up and up until she shattered around them, gasping, her body clenching down on nothing but his hand. He did not give her time to recover.
“This might sting,” he warned, lifting her chemise to bare her breasts to him. “But only the first time.”
She was ready. She could take it. He notched the broad head of his cock at her entrance and pushed, and she felt herself stretch around him, felt every thick inch of him filling her as he sank in.
His jaw was tight, his control held by a thread, and only when he was seated to the hilt did some of that strain ease from his face.
Madeline froze. The sting made her thighs tremble. But she wanted this. She wanted him.
“Are you all right?” he asked, holding himself still inside her.
“Yes,” she gasped. “I just feel... so full.”
He smirked at that, but he did not move. “I like seeing you stuffed full of me,” he said against her ear, and the words sent a fresh pulse of heat through her. “Tell me when you are ready.”
“I... You can move a little faster,” she urged.
He chuckled, but quickly obeyed. At first, he was restrained, drawing back and sliding into her in slow, deep strokes, letting her body learn the shape of him. The sting faded into something molten. She bit her lip to keep from crying out, and he watched her do it, his eyes never leaving her face.
“There is something I have been wondering,” she breathed, half-teasing even with him buried inside her. “Ever since I heard that choking was more your thing.”
Kenneth froze for a second, his eyes widening in shock. He stopped thrusting and huffed a low laugh against her shoulder. “You want to know.”
It was not a question, but she answered anyway. “Yes.”
“Then you will do as I say. The moment it is too much, you take my wrist, and I stop. Nothing else. Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” she breathed.
“Good girl.”
He blinked, and then, almost gently, he placed one large hand over her throat while the other held her by the hip. He applied firm pressure, enough to blur her vision and make her world spiral. And then he began to move in earnest.
So, this was what he had meant.
With her air shortened, every sensation struck ten times harder—the slide of his cock dragging through her clenching heat, the slap of his body against hers, the weight of his hand at her throat. He pounded into her relentlessly, the headboard knocking against the wall with every thrust.
“You are mine, Madeline.” The growl rumbled out of him as he drove into her again and again. “Your every breath. Your every smile. All mine.”
“Yes!” she choked out, and meant it.
He thrust harder at that, his hips snapping against hers, the sound of skin on skin filling the room.
He gave her throat another squeeze, and the head of his cock struck some place deep inside her that made the pleasure detonate.
Her eyes flew wide. She felt herself break apart around him, her sex clenching down on him in wave after wave.
“Oh, Kenneth...”
He let go of her throat as she came, and the air rushed back in to make her climax sharper still. Then his rhythm faltered, turned ragged, and with a hoarse shout, he buried himself to the hilt and spilled inside her, filling her as she pulsed around him.
For a long moment, neither of them moved. Kenneth stayed buried inside her, his forehead resting against hers, both of them breathing hard. She could feel his heart racing where their bodies pressed together.
It was proof, if she had ever needed it, that the man was not made of stone after all.