Chapter 16
Dinner wasn’t as enjoyable as it could have been. Elias had left. But Victoria wasn’t going to let him off the hook so easily. The moment Lord Reginald excused himself to his study, Victoria slipped up the stairs, intent on continuing a conversation with Elias.
She didn’t bother knocking when she arrived at his door. He wouldn’t have allowed her in if she did. But he did want her there, didn’t he? Elias was a stubborn man, but he liked Victoria. He just…didn’t know how to express it.
Victoria found Elias with his hands pressed against the windowpane. He had discarded his coat and vest and loosened his collar. His hair was disheveled and he was gazing out towards the woods. Her sudden introduction into the room started him.
“What are you doing here?” His voice was gritty and raw.
Victoria shut the door and moved about the room as if she had, in fact, been invited inside. “You left so suddenly.”
“Most people would take that to mean I was no longer interested in their company.”
“I am not like most people.”
“No. You are far more stubborn.”
She grinned. “I was just thinking the very same thing about you! How wonderful it is that we have so much in common, don’t you think?”
“It’s nearer to a curse if you ask me.” Elias strode angrily in her direction. Victoria didn’t retreat. “What are you doing here? Why did you come?”
“Lord Reginald has retired to his study, my mother is in the capital, and I desire company.”
“I am not a play thing. You’ve no right to demand that I entertain you.”
“Must you be so dramatic, Elias? Consider for a moment that I enjoy your company. Is that so awful?”
“It’s terrible!” he lamented, turning his back on her. Elias began to pace the room, seeming very agitated.
“Well, you are the most interesting person in all of Winstonshire. That’s not my fault; it’s yours. You must deal with the consequences.” She took a seat at his desk.
“Get up. You are not staying here. If the servants found out we were alone in my room together, what would they say?”
Victoria raised her eyebrows suggestively. “I wonder…would they think I am trying to seduce you, or the other way around?”
“There will be no seduction.”
“Does that mean no more stolen kisses?”
“That was…a mistake.”
“Was it?”
“Of course it was.” Elias ran his hand through his already tousled hair. He cleared his throat. “I should apologize. I imagine that frightened you.”
Victoria couldn’t help but laugh.
Elias looked at her finally, his eyes dark with anger. She put her fingers to her lips, cutting her laughter short. “You mock me.”
“You kissed me, Elias?—”
“And I am trying to apologize.”
She ignored him. “Your lips were on mine, your arms around me. Do you really think it was fear that I felt?”
He turned his back again, unable to hold her gaze. Victoria was growing quite tired of all his pacing. She was just about ready to hold him down. “Fear, disgust. How am I to know what you felt?”
“You’re mad,” Victoria told him. Swiftly, she rose from the seat and made a beeline for Elias. He did not hold his ground. The giant of a man stepped back until the wall prevented one step further. “Look at me,” she demanded. Elias could do little else. “I liked that kiss and I want more of them.”
“You are engaged to my uncle.”
Victoria shrugged. “You heard what he said about stolen kisses.”
“Is that why you urged him to write to Rebecca Sinclair-Langley?”
“Rebecca Langley-Sinclair.”
“Who cares? You were trying to divert his attention so you wouldn’t have to…tend to your wifely duties.”
Victoria’s eyes went wide. “There will be no wifely duties. My goodness, Elias. What do you think is going on here?”
“You are marrying an elderly man for his wealth. I am sure there are certain private matters that go along with that—I ask only that you spare me of the details.”
Victoria laughed that brazen laugh of hers. It came so easily. Her demeanor was so light. Elias, on the other hand, felt a crushing weight on his chest and the urge to run to the woods—a place where he could be free, wild, and allow his emotions to spread to their full breadth. “Is your opinion of us so low? Surely, you know your uncle better than that.”
“He’s been a changed man since you and your mother came here.”
“Really?” Victoria asked, truly interested. “Why do you think that is?”
Elias couldn’t say—but he knew that he felt it too. The house was brighter, there was more life in it, more laughter, more conversation. He couldn’t hide in his room or brood in the library anymore. His life in the shadows had been infiltrated by sunshine. Cursed sunshine.
“I like your uncle tremendously, you know.”
“I would hope so, considering the wedding is not far off.”
Victoria tossed her hair back, giving Elias stern eyes. “If that bothers you so much, you should marry me instead.”
“You are a cruel woman,” Elias growled.
“I fail to follow your logic, sir.”
“A man like me will never wed.”
“Not with that attitude.”
“Not with this face!”
“Are you worried about your scars, Elias?”
“I was ugly before the scars. They make no difference in my situation.”
“I think they’re handsome. I think you are handsome.”
“I think you should be more careful about what you say to people.”
“I need not be careful if I speak the truth.”
“You claim to speak something other than lies?”
“Where have I lied?” Victoria was annoyed; she prided herself on strength of character. She never lied.
“This. This entire thing you are doing now. It is one big lie. Your seduction of my uncle, this game you are playing with me?—”
Victoria jammed a finger at Elias’s chest. “You kissed me, Elias.”
“Because you…you made me so…mad!”
Her eyes twinkled. “Are you mad now?”
“I have never been more furious in my life.”
“Would another kiss help?”
“This is the cruelty of which I speak.”
“It is cruel for you to deny your lover kisses.”
“You are no lover of mine.”
Victoria’s expression grew earnest. “Yes, Elias. I am.”
Silence hung in the tense air between them. Gently, Victoria’s hand sought Elias’s. He didn’t pull away.
“I want to tell you something, Elias.”
“What?”
“The sea has held my heart for as long as I can remember. When I was forced to come back, I didn’t think anyone or anything would be able to spark my interest. I was in a fog, a sort of purgatory that I had resigned myself to.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
Her eyes held layers of meaning and she leaned closer to Elias, her tone hopeful. “You excite me.”
“You’re insane,” he accused. Victoria only smiled. “The women of Winstonshire cringe at the sight of me. They cross roadways to avoid me, and they hold their children nearer when I am in the village.”
“I can’t say that I resonate with the women of Winstonshire. Nor would I want to.”
Elias growled. “I look like a monster, Victoria, and I promise you that I act like one too.”
She gave him seductive, heavy-lidded eyes. “Prove it.”
And Elias decided that he would. His hands went to her hips. He pulled her roughly against him. She didn’t fight it. She melted against the heat of his embrace. Victoria stood on tiptoes and her arms went around his neck. The kiss he gave her was wild and passionate. Victoria would have accepted nothing less. Inside, she knew that she had met her match. No man had ever been her equal in terms of spirit—and she knew that she and Elias were kindred when it came to spirit. There was something in them both that was different. Something that resisted the laws of society and hungered for the great wide open. Elias fought it, he was at odds with that desire. But Victoria had been taught to embrace it and so, it was easy for her to embrace him. Elias…her man. Her one true love. Wrapped in one another, she could feel her love for him growing more intense than her love of the sea. This was her future, right here, in her hands. The knowledge exhilarated her and she was desperate to set it in stone.
Her fingers tore at the buttons on his shirt. She found bare skin and searched it with desperation. Elias felt delicious—his hard muscles, the jagged scars. This was a real man and that masculine body was a delight. She grew drunk on it.
“This is not how a lady behaves,” Elias warned.
“Would you like me more if I were proper?”
He shook his head, his nose grazing hers. “I like you like this.”
“You admit it then, you like me?”
“Don’t make me say it,” he growled.
“Fine. Don’t speak. Show me instead.”
Elias lifted Victoria into his arms and took her to his bed. Her dress was hastily unlaced, her bodice fell away. The layers of skirts were tossed aside and soon she was naked. Nothing stood between them. Now she could admire Elias in his full glory. He seemed larger somehow, she could feel his heart pounding against his chest. His skin was hot to the touch, but that didn’t stop her. Her fingers explored his scars first, and then, her lips did the exploring.
Elias skated the line between man and beast. More than once he thought he had lost himself, but a steadying touch kept him in the moment. Soon, Victoria’s hair was spread out across his pillow and he was looking down at her in her bare and vulnerable beauty. She was maddening, there was no doubt about that. But he could not deny the fact that she looked like an angel.
He shook his head. “You are my uncle’s bride.”
“I’m in your bed. I’m yours, Elias.”
And hadn’t he longed for exactly that? Didn’t it thrill him to know that she had been in his room, that she had left her ribbon beneath his pillow? He’d closed his eyes and pictured her, just like this.
His hands gripped the underside of her thighs and he spread Victoria’s legs. She whimpered in anticipation. Elias’s lips began at her waist and with each kiss, he sank lower, pausing only to lavish her clit with attention. She gasped. His kisses were slow and teasing, and his eyes never left her face. He would want to commit this moment to memory,
Her lips parted, and her eyelids fluttered each time he deepened his kiss. “Touch me,” she begged. “I want to feel your hands on me.”
He couldn’t deny this request, for he wanted it so very badly. His fingers teased the lips of her pussy, and she swirled her hips, grinding against his touch. Victoria was wet with need. Slowly, Elias slid his fingers inside her, and Victoria’s moans grew more frantic.
I should stop myself,Elias thought. He knew that Victoria didn’t belong to him. She could never belong to him. Nor would she like him so much if she knew his dark secret. He should be a gentleman and bring this to an end. But he couldn’t and he didn’t really want to.
“More!” she cried, grinding against his hand. He brought his cock, hard and throbbing, to her wet pussy. There would be no coming back from this. If Elias made love to Victoria, she couldn’t marry his uncle. She would have to leave Winstonshire, and the pain of having her near would finally be over. He wanted to be closer to her and at the same time, he wanted to drive her away. This would do it.
With great care, he entered her. Victoria’s legs gripped him. She pulled him close, harder and faster than he would have moved.
“Come here,” she begged, pulling his body against hers. They were skin on skin, chest to chest, her arms around his neck, and his anchoring her waist. It felt impossibly right and Elias was moved by emotion. This was the first time he ever felt so expansive in his human form. Never had he felt so free, unless he was in the cursed forest—and it frightened him.
His heart raged against his chest and fear gripped the young man. He was going to change. He wouldn’t be able to help it. And in his monster state, what would Victoria think of him then? He pulled away as hastily as he could.
Victoria sat upright, her face wearing a look of complete surprise.
“I can’t…” He stumbled across the room and frantically began to pull on his trousers and shirt.
“Elias! What are you doing/”
“I can’t be here…with you…”
“Are you worried about your uncle? Elias, the marriage has been arranged to help my mother and I. There is nothing between Lord Reginald and myself. I care for you. Only you.”
Elias wasn’t listening. He was fighting the change and he wouldn’t be able to fight it for long. He made for the door.
Victoria was on her feet in an instant, barring him from exiting. “Elias Harrington, you get back in that bed.”
The woman knew no shame; she had no sense of decency, and she stood there before him, naked and brazen—ready for a fight.
“I don’t know what your problem is, but it isn’t Lord Reginald.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I want to understand.”
Elias shook his head.
“Is this because of your scars? Is it because women like Lydia and Agnes don’t fawn after you as they should?”
She was mad. She looked at Elias and saw something no one else did. She saw a man worthy of desire, and coming from a woman like Victoria, it was more than he could have ever dared to dream of. He feared, very deeply, that he was falling in love with her and if he did that…he would ruin everything. How long would he be able to keep his secret? It hung by a thread even now. And if she knew, she would never again look at him with those playful and seductive eyes. She would fear him, just as the rest of the world did. And he couldn’t bear that.
He squeezed her hands and steeled his heart. “It is because I want nothing to do with you!” He practically spit the words at her. Elias wanted them to sting, because hurting her now, like this, would be far better than exposing her to the truth. If he cared a damn about this woman, he had to protect her from himself.
With that, he bolted from the room. Elias needed to get to the Perished Woods. He needed the familiar embrace of his father’s homeland.