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“I don’t know what I would have done if I lost you,” he admitted. “I was so scared that I wouldn’t see you again. When I read that letter… I worried that I misread your affection, but I didn’t believe that you would be so cowardly as to use a letter to convey your feelings, when you’d always used your words. You’ve made me feel so many emotions I never thought myself capable of feeling these past few days.”

He sighed. “I have never felt fear so potent as I did tonight. I couldn’t even stay still. My heart felt as if it was going to burst out of my chest. What have you done to me, Arabella?”

He hadn’t been expecting an answer, but when she laughed softly, he frowned. Was confessing his feelings funny to her?

“I love you too, Edward.” She pressed a kiss to his chest. “I love you.”

Edward looked down at her and let out a laugh, pulling her closer to him. He didn’t know what he’d done to deserve her, but he was grateful he’d married such a perfect woman.

“I love you too, Arabella.”

Her eyes widened as a blush bloomed in her cheeks. He smiled, kissing her forehead and then tilting her face up to his. He planted a chaste kiss on her lips, nipping her bottom lip at the end.

Her eyes fluttered open when he pulled back, and he smiled at the sight of her desire. His hand slowly trailed up and down her back, his body becoming more aware of the beautiful woman wrapped around him.

“Arabella,” he whispered.

He wanted her so badly now that he felt if he didn’t have her, he could die. His hand cupped a buttock as her legs moved, brushing against his aroused member.

“Ara…”

“Oh, Edward,” she moaned against his shoulder. “Love me.”

He lifted her face to his, kissing her deeply, flipping her over so he was lying between her legs.

He moved his hips, aligning his straining member against her core, groaning when she moaned into his mouth. He moved again, swallowing her cries.

Her fingers dug into the hair at the nape of his neck and then his shoulders, not settling in one place.

He loved how responsive she was to his touch. It sent more blood to his already painfully hard member.

Her hands then trailed down his chest and stomach, and he nearly spilled when her fingers wrapped around him.

Edward caught her hands and pinned them above her head. “I won’t last very long if you do that, love.”

“Please,” she moaned.

He pulled back from her, unfastening her nightgown and stays, then pulling them up and over her head so she was blissfully naked beneath him.

He drank in the sight of her beauty, highlighted by the golden glow of the candles around them, from her pink nipples to her toned stomach to the dark curls at the apex of her thighs. The red bruises on her wrists stood out harshly against her pale skin, reminding him of what he’d almost lost.

“You’re so beautiful,” he breathed, stilling her hands as she tried to wrap them around herself. “You never have to cover yourself around me, love.”

She struggled to meet his eyes and tried to close her legs, but he wouldn’t let her.

He was used to brazen women who flaunted their bodies and knew how to put on their charms to seduce men, but her sheer innocence aroused him more than his former lovers’ skills ever had.

“You’re so beautiful,” he told again, leaning down to kiss her.

She accepted his kisses eagerly, moaning into his mouth as she impatient writhed beneath him.

He pulled back and took off the rest of his clothes, before leaning over her, empowered by the way her eyes drank him in.

“Now we will be one,” he whispered, hooking his arms beneath her legs and wrapping them around his waist.

As he lined himself with her core, he felt her stiffen beneath him.

He kissed her deeply and slowly, communicating how he felt with his lips and tongue.