Chapter Four
Ellis concentrated on his survey work. He was working on a particularly dangerous precipice of land when Theodosia determinedly approached, moving in like a storm.
She waited until he stopped what he was doing and approached her.
“What are ye doing here?” he asked suspiciously, his words more clipped than he intended.
Thrusting a bound bundle in his hands, she stepped back and crossed her arms. “Explain these to me,” she demanded.
He looked down at what she had given him.
His letters. The ones he had written to Theodosia that she had ignored.
He thrust them back in her hands. “I dinna ken what ye want me to say.” And he didn’t.
She had received the letters. Read them.
And chose to ignore them. Him. If aught, it was he that should be demanding an explanation.
“Did you send these?”
“Ye ken I did.” She was acting odd.
She shook her head. “I did not.”
Ellis was confused. “How could ye no’ ken? Ye have them,” he spat. Frustrated at being confronted like he had done something wrong, he returned his attention to his equipment.
“I did read them, but only yester morn, which was the first time I had ever seen them.”
Ellis paused. “What?” He turned to meet her eyes.
Theodosia’s gaze swept over the moors as she chewed her lip. “I had not seen these letters before then.”
“I dinna understand. I sent them, just as we had discussed.” He sighed. “Ye chose to ignore them.” He hated the hurt he could hear in his voice.
“They were not delivered to me is what I am telling you. I found these,” she pointed to the stack of letters she once again held, “hidden in my mother’s armoire.”
The words that Theodosia spoke seeped past Ellis’s defenses. “Are ye saying…” he let his question trail off, afraid to voice his thoughts.
“I had waited and waited for you to send word. My bag was ready. After weeks, then months, it was evident you had a change of mind.”
“I didna.” His voice barely above a whisper.
A tear escaped Theodosia’s eye, and he approached her, swiping it away with the pad of his thumb.
Their gazes clashed.
His eyes dropped to her mouth, her lips a perfect bow.
They moved at the same time, closing what little distance was betwixt them. Theodosia reached out and he pulled her close. His mouth crashed down onto hers and he nearly lost control when her lips yielded, giving him entry. He had dreamt of tasting her again but never thought he would.
And then he remembered she was married.
He broke the kiss quickly. “I am sorry. I shouldna have taken such liberties.” He stepped back, shoving his hands through his hair.
“Please do not apologize. I welcome your kisses, Ellis. I have missed them. More than I could ever say,” she confessed boldly, biting her lower lip.
His eyes focused on her mouth for a long moment before his senses returned to the issue at hand. He shook his head to clear his inappropriate thoughts.
“How can ye say such things? Ye are spoken for.”
Confusion marred Theodosia’s brow. “Pardon?”
“I doona believe yer husband would take kindly to learn ye are kissing another man.”
Her face scrunched. “Husband? I have none. What do you speak of?”
What game was she was playing? Some kind of mind trickery to make him think he was daft?
“Are ye no’ married?”
Theodosia scoffed. “Absolutely not. Wherever did you hear such a tale?”
Ellis had never second-guessed his thoughts so much as he was doing now. A picture began to form in his mind, and he did not like it.
His brows drew down. “Your father met me one day, after some time of me sending ye letters with nary a response. I was told to leave ye be. Ye wanted naught to do with me as ye were engaged to another.”
Eyes wide with shock, Theodosia shook her head.
“He showed me a contract. It had your signature at the bottom.”
She continued to shake her head, bringing her hands up to cover her face. “That’s impossible. I was never set to marry. But I was led to believe that you had moved on.”
Pulling her close, he wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on the top of her head. “I didna. I ne’er have. I couldna.”
“Why would my father and mother devise such a scheme?”
“I dinna ken.” He buried his nose in her hair, inhaling the scent of lavender and berries that was hers, and hers alone. “Come.” He held his hand out for her to take. “I believe we have much to discuss.”
She allowed him to lead her to his tent and smiled when he ushered her inside.
Picking up the bottle of scotch, he poured her a dram in the one glass he had and handed it to her.
Sitting on the blanket, she accepted it with a smile and sipped at the spirit until the glass was empty and gave it back to him.
He refilled it and drank it down in one pull.
Theodosia looked around the space he had been spending his nights in. She ran her hands along the quilt. “This is where you are living? You’re not going back to the inn?”
Ellis shook his head. “Nay. ’Tis easiest if I stay here whilst I work.” He poured another dram and offered it to Theodosia, who declined with a shake of her head. He knocked back the liquid in one swallow and tossed the glass to the side before he dropped onto the blanket beside her.
Their shoulders brushed and she breathed in a sharp hiss.
He turned to face her and she did the same. Tentatively, he reached out a hand and tucked an errant lock of hair behind her ear, letting his fingers linger on her soft skin.
She leaned into his touch, eyes closed, her long lashes fanning her cheeks.
Lord above how many times had he dreamt of this scenario? Too many to count.
“I do not know what my parents’ intentions were,” she whispered. She reached up and grasped his hand, placing a soft kiss on his palm. “But I do know I have missed you so, Ellis. I have longed for you many nights,” she whispered.
“And, I ye. My heart has been torn asunder, unable to heal since I found out ye were promised to another.” His voice cracked with the pain he had felt since the day he had learned she was no longer his.
Her hands framed his face and she forced him to look into her eyes. Big, blue eyes, that shone with unshed tears. “But I was not.” Her voice broke.
With a finger under her chin, he drew her closer to him, pausing with their mouths just a hair’s breadth from each other as he searched for any hint of deception in her eyes.
He found none.
He crashed his mouth onto hers, and she welcomed his advance with no hesitation.
Whatever barriers had been betwixt them crumbled into dust and soon their hands were grasping at each other’s clothing.
He shrugged out of his surcoat, letting it slip down his arms and to the ground as Theodosia untied his cravat, kissing the exposed skin of his neck.
His body roared to life, his cock ready to punch through his trousers. It had been too long since he’d buried himself into her warm heat. The time would come for them to slowly reacquaint themselves with each other’s body. But now? He needed her now.
He fumbled with the buttons of his trousers and pushed them just enough to allow his cock to spring free. He lifted Theodosia over his lap, pushing her skirts up and out of the way so she could sink down on his length.
They both gasped in unison as she enveloped him, taking his full length. Her nails dug through the linen of his shirt to score his shoulders.
He clutched her waist, lifting her and drawing her back down, helping her ride him.
“I willna last, Love,” he said through gritted teeth.
She pushed her hand betwixt them and he could feel her fingers moving in fast circles and she sought her own climax and began to contract around him. She had always been an eager lover.
Squeezing him as she called out his name. Her head thrown back, exposing her neck. He had never seen a more bonny sight.
He rolled them over so he was on top and could drive deep into her.
Lose himself. Breaths short and heaving, their pleasured moans filled the tent.
The pressure grew, building, taking them higher and higher until they both screamed out each other’s name at the same time, reaching their releases simultaneously.
Their bodies shuddering together almost violently.
Ellis fell on his back and Theodosia snuggled into his side.
“I have missed you so much, Ellis.” She kissed his chest, making his muscles jump and contract under her lips.
“Promise me ye willna leave me again.”
She pushed onto her elbows so she could look him in the eye. “It was never my choice to leave you before.”
Noticing the delicate locket she wore, he touched the smooth gold. He had gifted it to her for her birthday. Finding the small mechanism that would open the heart, he pushed it. Inside was a lock of his hair, a dark curl. He remembered when she’d shorn it from his head.
“I never stopped loving you,” she whispered.
“I yearned for ye e’ery day,” he confessed.
Wrapped in each other’s arms, Ellis thought of the last two years he’d lost. Years that he could have made Theodosia his wife. A mother.
The wind of the moors whipped around the tent, causing the walls to shiver and shake, matching his anger. Theodosia’s touch calmed him and when her breathing evened out, he began to relax, seeking sleep.
And just as he was about to slip into the dark oblivion of sleep, distant hooves echoed from afar.