Chapter 26
“Oh, angel,” Damien sighed as he lifted a hand to Caroline’s face.
Caroline had been able to keep on a mask of indifference as they made their way through the crowded ballroom and up the stairs, but the moment he had shut the door to her quarters, she had cupped her hands over her eyes and begun to sob.
Guilt tore through his chest at not getting to her sooner. He had stayed away for the last few days, trying to give her the space she kept insisting that she wanted, but it seemed that he had returned a moment too late to save her from her stepmother’s cruelty.
His heart then threatened to break as Caroline nuzzled into his palm and her hot tears ran down his wrist. She looked so tired, so small and frightened, and it was all his fault.
“I am so sorry,” he rasped, drawing his other arm tentatively around her waist. “I should have been there with you. If I had, things never would have gone so far. I just... You wanted...”
Damien’s words were cut off as Caroline stood on her toes and kissed him.
Surprise and yearning surged through his veins instantly, shutting down any thoughts he might have had.
He groaned as her arms wrapped around his neck and she pressed herself close, and he quickly responded by wrapping his arms around her, trapping her against him.
After a moment, their lips parted, but instead of letting her go, he pulled her closer, taking control of the moment and pressing his lips back to hers. Pleasure shot straight to his groin as she let out a soft whimper, and he succumbed to his craving to devour her.
Is this what heaven feels like?
He worshiped her lips, drawing each one into his mouth, then let his tongue glide over her bottom lip.
He relished the whimper she made when he did, seizing the moment to deepen the kiss.
Her grip around his neck tightened as she suckled his tongue gently, sending another wave of pent-up desire to his already aching cock.
When they finally parted, they stepped back, panting.
As he met her eyes, he saw them dark and hooded with lust just as intense as his own.
Her lips, which were already full, now looked irresistibly tempting, swollen and glistening from the heat of his kiss.
He had to stop himself from leaning in to kiss her all over again. But first, he needed answers.
“I do not understand,” he rasped, willing his mind to stop buzzing. “You wanted space. You told me you did not want me to touch you.”
“I know,” she breathed, bringing a hand to his jaw. “I only now realize how silly my rule about no touching was.”
He could not help but let his lashes flutter shut as he felt her soft touch, and he nuzzled into it like the touch-starved man he was.
“It was just a way to protect myself,” she explained.
“I was denying that I crave your touch. I thought it was a trick, that you were trying to seduce me into being obedient, but I know now. I know that you care for me. That you want to protect me. I knew it before you saved me downstairs, but that moment only confirmed what I already realized.”
Relief poured through Damien, and he exhaled a deep breath as he let himself bow toward her.
“How? When?” he asked.
A small smile touched Caroline’s swollen lips.
“Two days ago. Right after you disappeared,” she explained. “And let us just say that Jeremy does not always play the fool. He has moments of startling sincerity.”
Damien let out a weak laugh as he placed his hand over hers and moved her palm to his lips so he could kiss it.
“Remind me to let him host another party,” he joked. “And buy him a bottle of excellent port.”
Caroline laughed with him, but then her doe eyes grew somber.
“I have been so unfair to you,” she whispered, the pain evident in her voice. “You were truthful with me the entire time, and I was too afraid to see what was right before me. Please forgive me, Damien.”
Damien shook his head before he pressed his forehead to hers, still struggling to believe that they were finally reaching a good place.
“There is nothing to be forgiven. You had every right to your beliefs. I took too long to show you anything otherwise,” he replied.
“I just... I could not believe that a man like you would really like me for me,” she confessed.
“You have no idea,” he rasped, his thumb tracing her cheekbone as he looked down at her.
“I have wanted you for so long that I have forgotten what it felt like not to. Every room you walked into. Every time you looked anywhere but at me. I have been half mad with it, Caroline, and too much of a coward to tell you.”
He felt her rise to her tiptoes again, and he readily met her lips with another kiss. It was slower, sweeter, and when he pulled away, he let out a husky chuckle.
“What is so amusing?” Caroline asked, her eyes twinkling with affection as he met them.
“I was just wondering if this makes me a good dog now,” he teased, and her laugh sent flutters through his bloodstream.
“Oh, yes,” she giggled. “A very, very good dog,” she teased back.
“Oh, angel,” he breathed, and kissed her as he still smiled. “You do not know how long I have been waiting for this...”
When she pulled back, he found her eyes questioning.
“What is it?” he asked, smoothing his palm up her back and to the nape of her neck, relishing in the way she shivered and then leaned into his touch.
“I just… I noticed that you no longer call me little mouse,” she confessed, blushing adorably. “You started calling me angel instead. I certainly do not mind, but I am curious as to why?”
Damien rubbed the nape of her neck, loving that she let out a soft sigh of relief at his touch.
“After you told me that awful story about what your stepsister did with the mouse, I decided that you needed a different name. I did not want anything I said or did to remind you of them,” he confessed.
Caroline’s lips parted as her eyes filled with emotion and tears, and she stroked her fingertips along his jaw and up to his hair.
“You did that for me?” she asked, her soft voice wavering.
“Oh, angel, there is so much I would do for you,” he rasped, feeling a lump form in his throat. “I would do anything for you.”
“It was them I feared,” she confessed, a tear sliding down her cheek.
Before he could help himself, he leaned in and brushed it away with his lips.
“Not you,” she whispered into his ear. “I see that now. I do not fear you, Damien. I want you.”
Something gave way in his chest at those words.
He had waited so long to hear them. Longer than she knew.
He had watched her from across rooms for years, wanting her and telling himself he had no right to.
He had gone five years without touching another woman because none of them were her.
He had built this entire marriage around the slim hope that she might one day look at him the way she was looking at him now, and he had never once let himself believe that she actually would.
And here she was.
Desire swept through his veins, pushing away any sad thoughts or residual worries, and he smoothed his hands up to cup both of her cheeks. He pulled away, just enough so that he could meet her eyes.
“You have me,” he said, unable to hold back the ache in his voice. “Every part of me that is worth having, and some parts that are not. I have been yours for longer than you know, angel, and I am done pretending otherwise.”
Caroline shivered under his touch as his amber eyes darkened with desire, and she nodded as she pressed herself close.
“Then, please, Damien,” she pleaded, curling her fingers into the lapels of his jacket. “Show me.”
“Come here, wife.”