Chapter 44
“‘Nothing will ever take you away from me.’ Swindle rasped against her lips and drew her in for a kiss she felt she’d waited her whole life for.”
The final line of Adelaide
Fitz made sure the door was locked this time, even propped Noelle’s horse-print-upholstered desk chair against the saddle-shaped handle for good measure.
“So do I have to leave now, or?”
In answer, she lept. One hand stole around his waist, and the other the nape of his neck as she branded her lips to his. She couldn’t let him go again so quickly after not knowing whether he still lived or breathed for nearly four days.
The way he returned her kiss was possessive and hungry, goading her to take from him all that she wanted.
She’d been so recklessly close to release earlier, and it wasn’t the only thing that she wanted.
She wanted to reach that pinnacle of feeling, but she wanted to bring him to it again as well.
The feeling of being so close to this man, then experiencing the possibility of never knowing such a gift again, it made her want.
“I didn’t hear Jasper kick you out,” she pulled away from the kiss briefly to say.
“In that case,” Fitz growled, “I’m all yours.”
In response, she dragged a hand from his neck down his chest to his abdomen, stopping at the folds of his breeches. She taunted him with a brow as though she asked a question.
He nodded. “Yes, that’s definitely all yours too, Princess.”
She removed the folds of his breeches and drew out what she had longed for, taking his cock in her hands.
In actuality, it was much larger than her hand, she wasn’t sure how it had fit in her mouth before, but she sank to her knees.
She wanted to give him this. Wanted to taste him and take him over the edge over and over again.
Fitz bit his lip to keep sound from escaping his lips. Fleshy parts of her cried out to be bitten like that.
She wrapped her arms around his impressive length and dragged her tongue over him.
His eyes slammed shut, his hands gripped her shoulders, giving her control and tethering her to him both at once.
“Noelle,” he breathed, his breath short and fraught as she gave him soft, wet strokes.
She gave her mouth over to him, stroke after stroke over the column of him.
She felt a bead of moisture escape from the tip, and then he was gripping her.
No sensation, or daggers, compared to his hands, strong and gentle against her skin.
Fitz pulled her to her feet, slipping his hands beneath her arse as he wrapped her around him.
She was carved splendidly to fit right into his arms.
He sat on her bed as she straddled his lap.
Her hair fell over her face as she leaned her forehead against his.
One long finger of his brushed her fallen hair from her face.
She pulled him in with both hands, stealing him into her keeping with a possessive kiss. Thinking of the way she held him close and fought for him, he wanted her to know how it had affected him.
“When I was gone,” he said, when she pulled away to catch her breath, “when my uncle took me from the house like some child for ransom, I only thought of you. Your face was all I focused on,” he trailed the terrain of her cheek, her jaw, her neck like it was territory he knew by heart,
“I focused on your face, your gaze, while I was fighting to get back to you. My god, I thought at any moment you’d wake, startled; but somehow you slept right through the whole thing. Maybe it was all the alcohol you imbibed that night.”
She covered her face with her hands. He removed them, “But I was relieved you didn’t see…I was horrified of what you’d think of me. All the worst you’d assume. I wanted to say it all, but one of those henchmen of my uncle’s was threatening to break my fingers as I wrote you the note…
I didn’t have time to make it legible, so I left a cipher and hoped you’d pick up on it.”
“I didn’t at first…though if I had…” she shook her head, “It doesn’t matter now. But I’m glad I did.”
Tears winged her eyes. He wiped at them with a finger.
“I’m glad you did too. There aren’t any secrets between us anymore. You see me. And I see you. I’ve never thought I could trust another person with all of it. I’m only sad I wasn’t there to see all of what you did for me.”
She gave him a watery smile and pulled him in for a kiss.
He could feel her smile even through the kiss, he was coming to terms with the way that she kissed him, how every one felt more and more like his undoing, and his re-making.
He made her smile through her tears, he could make her feel everything: anger, excitement, confusion, despair, joy. Because she loved him. She loved him.
“I love you,” she said, her hands bracing themselves on either side of his face. His throat bobbed, and his eyes welled.
“You finally said it out loud.”
She punched him in the chest, and he took her fist in his, opened it and placed a kiss on her palm.
“You wore a costume and tricked half of London’s working class and elite alike, and you stabbed a man,” a laugh bubbled out of him, “and you think I don’t know how you feel? Not to mention it’s all over your face.”
She kissed him, slow and sweet, wrapping her legs around his back. He pulled away to lean his forehead against hers.
“Say it again,” he whispered.
“Would you like to hear me say it or would you like me to show you?”
He leaned back on his palms, mock pensively, and said, “Is both an option, my lady?”
Noelle’s shoulders rocked with laughter. “I love you, and now I’m going to show you just how much.”
Fitz grabbed her by the waist, and in a fluid motion, he was the one atop her on her bed. His hands came around her hips, and one of her legs pulled him closer at his waist.
“I’ve had plenty of time to think about how we can both accomplish that,” Fitz whispered against her breast before he took it into his mouth.