Page 57 of Miss Hawthorne’s Unlikely Husband (The Troublemakers Trilogy #3)

Thornfield House, London

H e hadn’t returned yet. Part of her was terrified that her behavior was the reason.

She was still annoyed even if she wasn’t quite as angry.

What if he was tired of placating her? The more she thought of it, the more she understood her father’s reasoning.

Richard had made a foolish error in judgement but he hadn’t done anything out of malice.

He deserved a chance to make amends. She still wanted to be his wife.

Even now, there was no one else in the world she would rather spend her life with, no one she would trust more than him.

Now she simply needed to tell him that and hope that he felt the same.

After all, she had treated him as though he was diseased.

She’d treated him just as she’d feared he would treat her, believing that she was illegitimate, but he had never considered it.

No matter what she did, he met her with affection and kindness.

Could she say the same? She heard his footsteps in his bedroom.

He was home. Of course he was home. He wasn’t the sort of person to make others worry.

The door was still open. She padded across the room in her bare feet towards the half opened door. When the door creaked open further, he paused in removing his waistcoat and turned towards her.

“Yes? What is it?”

“Are you back for the night?”

He nodded. “I am.”

She nodded and stared at the floor, fiddling with the sleeves of her nightrobe.

“How was it with your father?”

“It was good. He’s single again.”

He nodded. “I went to speak to my uncle, to close the door on that.”

He didn’t walk towards her but he didn’t seem willing to walk away either. Perhaps he was waiting for her to come forward. It was such a stark difference from the last time they had spoken. As if he was waiting for her to begin shouting at him again.

“Did you need to speak with me, Ellie?” he asked.

That name. He wouldn’t call her that if he was angry with her. Maybe he wasn’t opposed to hearing what she had to say.

She shuffled forward to stand in the middle of his room. She sneaked a glance up at him and saw him watching her with curiosity and perhaps… yearning? Had he missed her as well?

His words were echoing in her mind. He’d trusted her with his loneliness and she hadn’t listened.

All she could see was that woman’s hands on him, all she could imagine was the two of them doing what she had done with Richard.

All she’d focused on was the idea that while she was pining for him and loving him so ardently, he had been messing with that harlot who didn’t even care about him.

But it was wasted effort to dwell on such a thing, wasn’t it? He loved her and he’d shown that over and over again. She still loved him.

She crossed the room and slid her arms around his waist, burying her face in the center of his chest. His arms came around her instantaneously, holding her close. She felt his face press into her hair, breathing her in. “I’m sorry.” She mumbled.

“No, I’m the one who should apologize.”

“Well, I did it first,” she replied.

He chuckled and scooped her up into his arms, before settling into a chair with her in his lap. “With your permission, àirén, I would like to go first.”

“Very well,” she agreed, wrapping her arms around his waist and laying her head on his shoulder as his hands stroked over her shoulder and back, down to her legs, pulling her closer.

“You are right that I should have told you the truth of my association with Lady Tremaine once I understood she was likely to become your stepmother. I want you to know that I didn’t stay silent out of any need to protect her or embarrass your father.”

“Why did you stay silent?”

He sighed heavily. “The truth was I was ashamed.”

“Because you had a mistress?”

“No, that she was my mistress. I knew that she was a small, bigoted, hateful woman. My arrangement with her wasn’t anything based in friendship or even human decency.

She wanted an exotic boy toy, and I wanted sex that wouldn’t expose me to disease.

There weren’t many interested in me for the kind of thing you would condone. ”

“There was me.”

“Yes, but àirén you were a child.”

“You really never thought about marrying me at all?”

“Ellie, I didn’t even think you were an option for someone like me.

When you kissed me that first time…” he trailed off, shaking his head.

“No one had touched me like that before in my whole life. It made me realize for the first time what I wouldn’t have and what I wanted more than anything.

It felt as though my heart, my whole body, came awake for you. ”

She cuddled closer.

“After knowing what that felt like, I hated that I’d ever allowed her to touch me. I was embarrassed that I’d let it happen for so long.”

“I understand.”

“That is why I could never want her or consider her again. It’s why making love to you, being your husband, is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever experienced. What we have feels like the most precious unexpected gift, Ellie.”

“You were lonely. I never imagined you could be. No, to that extent at least. To me, you were this paragon of a man, brave, kind, loving, intelligent, disciplined. Beautiful. Successful. I couldn’t fathom you making a bad choice or feeling insecure.

I never imagined that you would see yourself as anything other than those things.

The way I found out about her made me wonder what kind of base simpleton would turn to someone like that.

That thing you said, the bit about ‘eating what is before you’, I thought it was disgusting. ”

“Yes, I could tell.”

“But you are correct that I’ve never felt like how you described. I saw you as perfect but I lost sight of you as a person first. I haven’t truly seen you as a human being and that is unfair. I should love you as you are instead of as some idol.”

“It’s alright.”

“It is most certainly not alright. I want you to know that I love you as you are, for all that you are. Even when you are stupid.”

He brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers.

“I know you do.”

“I’m sorry that you were so lonely. I’m going to make sure you never feel that way again.”

He chuckled. “And I’m going to make sure you time you spent waiting for me is worth it.”

She kissed him, softly at first and then with growing ardor.

It had barely been twenty-four hours but it felt as though it had been an age since she’d last kissed him.

He pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around as much of her as he could before picking her up in his arms and carrying her over to the bed.

He set her down and removed the last of his clothing before joining her on the mattress.

She straddled his lap, her shift riding higher on her thighs as her legs spread to accommodate him, but she didn’t care.

She slid her hands around the back of his neck and kissed him harder, allowing herself to sink into him in a way she hadn’t before.

She had never felt more certain of him, of them, than in this moment.

She had never believed that, like her, he had set her apart in his mind and heart as something precious and glorious, meant to be not only protected but exalted.

His touch had always brought untold pleasure but even that felt different tonight.

Was he touching her in a new way or was she finally able to feel what he’d been saying from the very beginning?

His hands were stroking her legs up to cup her bare bottom in his hands.

For a moment, she tensed, that old fear flashing in her mind, but then she felt him squeeze it, pulling her closer, and she remembered what he’d said before.

How specific he’d been about what he liked about her body, and that part of her body in particular.

She wanted to feel his hands on her skin everywhere.

There was only one way to give them both what they wanted.

She released his neck and began lifting her shift up her torso. The last thing she expected when his mouth left hers was to feel his hands close around hers, stopping her. Her eyes opened to see him watching her with concern.

“Ellie?”

She shook her head and smiled. “It’s alright, I’m not afraid anymore.

” In one motion she pulled the thin fabric up and over her head and dropped it onto the floor, before she could think herself out of it.

His gaze dropped, taking her bare body with rapt interest. She wanted to avoid his expression but she forced herself to look at it.

His touch trailed up her arms to her shoulders, lingering there for a moment before closing around her breasts.

She had been waiting for it to happen, but the contact still drew a soft gasp from her.

Then his mouth was at her throat, pressing kisses along the line of it as her head fell back.

He slipped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer so their bare bodies touched.

She pushed against his shoulders, leaning him backwards onto the bed.

His hand curled around the back of her neck as he kissed her back harder, his mouth opening wider beneath hers.

Then he flipped her onto her back, his fingers blazing a trail down her body with his mouth following close behind.

He teased and coaxed gasp after moan from her, following every undulation of her body until his mouth closed over her sex.

Her hips bucked against his mouth in shock, her eyes flying open before the feel of his mouth on her had them falling shut again.

She couldn’t hold still in the wake of the sensations he compelled from her most sensitive flesh.

His hand pressed down on her stomach, holding her in place, taking his fill until he’d chased her up a peak that left her shuddering helplessly, her hand curled around his.

He rained kisses on her thighs as she lay there replete, her muscles twitching occasionally.

He moved up her body again, pausing to kiss her stomach and mouth, her breasts, sucking on her nipples, stoking the fire within her yet again.

She reached for him again, pulling his mouth to hers so she could kiss him.

He pulled her legs up around his waist and rolled onto his back again, sliding himself inside her fully with one stroke.

She braced her hands on the bed and pulled away.

Did he mean for them to make love like this?

She met his eyes and saw them gazing at her with desire and affection.

“Like this?” she whispered.

“Just like this. Ride me àirén,”

She rolled her hips forward, half braced against his chest, and felt him slide out of her partway, rubbing against every nerve ending within her.

Then she rocked forward and he filled her again, hitting that spot inside her that made her nipples furl tighter, as liquid heat flowed through her veins, pooling between her legs.

She met his eyes again and he nodded in encouragement.

“Go on and do it, let me see you,” He rasped.

He wanted this from her; he wanted her to take him.

She took a deep breath and continued to move, working her hips, bracing herself on his chest when he began to arch up into her.

She clenched down on him involuntarily as she struggled to maintain her balance.

She watched his eyes fall shut and his lips part as he moaned, a frown of rapture on his face.

More, she wanted more of that. She wanted to ruin him ever more than she already had, claim him as he had done to her so many years ago with one smile.

His hands gripped her thighs, then caressed her bottom, urging her to move faster, to take him deeper, to grind against him harder even as his back arched up.

She leaned down and kissed him, the angle shifting his length within her to rub even harder against the spot that sent her wild every time.

He clung to her, stroking her body in long sweeps of his hands as they gasped and groaned against their mouths.

The pressure was building inside her, promising and elusive at first but then more urgent, driving her further as rapture overtook her mind and body. Felt his hands at her hips hard and uncompromising as his hips bucked up into her, his shuddering groan echoing after her cry in the candlelit room.