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My God . Darcy stiffened. But as she lifted her head to look at him, her eyes crinkled and she smiled from ear to ear.

Darcy let out a breath in sweet relief. She ran her fingers along his cheek and kissed him once, twice, and slipped her arms around him. Catching her breath, she gently pulled him in to the base of her neck and whispered in his ear, “I love you. Of course, I’ll marry you.”

He kissed her, deeply, hungrily. He wanted to devour her.

Eventually he broke the embrace and reached for the ring before slipping it on her finger. “I wanted to give you my mother’s ring, but this one will have to do until we return to Pemberley…”

Before he could finish, she kissed him again.

She worked her way to his jaw, his neck, then drawing him to her again, she kissed his lips, this time opening her mouth to his.

His tongue flicked hers, then he deepened the kiss, drawing her into him, mingling tongue and lips.

Pleasure swirled and rose between his thighs, a most dangerous reaction, and he gently broke from her embrace and stepped away.

“ We must stop, Elizabeth. Now.” He breathed hard. His manhood strained at his underclothes, and he quickly turned away from her to hide his physical reaction.

“ Take me to bed, Darcy.”

Darcy turned, startled. “But we’re not married… I—”

“ If today is all we have, all we will ever have, I don’t care if we’re married. I don’t care about the honourable thing. All I care about is that you and I are here, and we are alive, and we love each other.” She stroked his cheek. “Do you love me, Darcy?”

***

Darcy stared at her incredulously. “How can you doubt it?”

Lizzy arched an eyebrow. “I don’t. I don’t doubt it for a minute. That’s why I will ask you again—will you come to bed with me?”

A myriad of expressions flew across his face: desire, struggle, resistance, then finally, his dark eyes burned with passion.

He didn’t speak but removed his jacket. She hooked her fingers in his waistcoat and pulled him into the bedroom.

The bed was turned down, the sheets clean and fresh.

She had no idea that morning that he would ask her to marry him, but she wanted him, all of him, and prepared this bed for tonight.

He stood, his eyes hooded, whilst she undid his waistcoat, button by button.

She loosened his tie, and he, in his impatience, tore it off.

Her movements must have been too slow for him now as he struggled out of his shirt and sat on the edge of the bed to remove his shoes and socks.

She sat next to him to do the same, but he stayed her hand. “Allow me.”

As he had yesterday, he knelt before her and undid the buttons of her shoes, one by one.

Without a hint of shyness, he ran his hands over her knee, and then reaching a little higher, he took hold of the stocking and slowly unrolled it.

As he ministered to the other leg, a desire she had never felt so intensely before stirred between her thighs.

She stood and turned her back, and he started untying the fastenings of her dress.

After she pulled it over her head, she watched in the mirror how he took down the braces from each shoulder.

She faced him. “Now, allow me.” Standing only in her corset, gown, and drawers, she brushed his hands aside and with great concentration began to undo the buttons of his trouser front. A groan escaped him. As his trousers puddled around his ankles, his member strained against his underclothes.

It was something she’d never seen before, but she heard talk of in great detail by some of the working-class women she’d met at her suffragette meetings.

It occurred to her that she’d learned about more than women’s rights at those gatherings.

When she smiled at the thought, he bent his head and searched her face.

“ Are you sure? We can stop now… I don’t want to take advantage…”

She didn’t let him finish. After pulling the pins from her hair, she let the tresses cascade to her shoulders with a shake.

Then, gently stroking his cheeks, she drew him into a kiss.

He kissed her tenderly and tentatively as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her hard against him.

His arousal pressed into her, but her corset remained a barrier between them.

As he pulled back, breathing hard, his eyes bored into hers. “I love you very much, Elizabeth. And I want you. If you are sure…”

She had never been surer of anything in her life. “Anything can happen. Anything. I won’t lose you again—”

“ No matter what happens now, you’ll never lose me. Never.” He stepped back from her, never taking his gaze off her.

My God, always the gentleman.

“ Help me out of this corset.”

Darcy coaxed her mouth to his, and she opened herself to his passion before he leaned his forehead against hers, breathless, and with a look of determination, he began to undo the clasps of her corset.

Hands shaking, she helped him. Soon it lay on the floor like a discarded suit of armour along with her undergarments until she stood only in her chemise, her breasts covered in white ruffles.

He touched her cheek with such tenderness, and she turned into it, brushing her cheek against his fingertips.

The soft black curls of his chest hair peeked above the opening in his underclothes, and she began in earnest to undo the buttons as he let his hand fall to his side.

When she reached the bulge below his waist, she looked up at him.

Every breath of his came slowly. She undid the buttons below his waist.

Darcy pulled her against him, and in one swift movement, he eased her chemise over her head. His engorged member rubbed against her belly, and she went liquid with desire.

Warmth filled the apartment so unlike the damp cold of England, and yet her skin prickled under his gaze.

They stood there, as nature made them. Then she gently reached for his hands, entwining her fingers through his, and placed them on her breasts.

He caressed her, teased her—teased his lips where his fingers had been. She sighed… groaned.

He took her by the hand, and with equal tenderness, gave her leave to touch him in his most intimate spot. She marvelled at the softness of his skin and caressed him, stroked him as his breath began to come in short bursts. “Wait.”

“ Am I doing something wrong?”

His black, sparkling gaze flooded with tenderness. “No, no… on the contrary.” He kissed her mouth lightly and led her to bed. As she lay there, he gazed at her from the foot of the bed. “How perfect you are.”

Her gaze swept over his body, his perfect swimmer’s body, a sleek, taut sea animal.

No, you are perfect, my love . He stood there, so unabashed, able to say to her what was in his heart when the words stuck in her throat.

My prince, my Adonis. No, it sounded too silly, even in her head.

She wanted him to cover her with his body, to touch her everywhere.

She wanted to feel all of him, to explore him with her eyes, her hands, her mouth.

“ Come to me.” She offered her hand, and he took it, entwining his body with hers, warmth on warmth. A film of sweet perspiration coated her skin, mingling with his as they gave way to desire to know one another completely.

Lizzy lost all inhibition, running her fingers from the backs of his legs up to his shoulders and round to his chest, entangling them in the black curls.

He touched her everywhere, and she opened herself to him, nearly crying out the first time his fingers explored the tender folds of her.

She wanted to pull him inside, to keep him with her always.

Their mouths met, and with light and feathery kisses, he scattered them on her neck, her shoulders, and then met the softness of her breasts.

“ Oh, Darcy. Darcy .”

He raised his head at the sound of his name, and he searched her face, his expression changing like the sky during an English summer shower. Passion… desire… tenderness—love.

She undulated under him, her desire almost painful.

“ Guide me,” he whispered. Still locked in his embrace, she did as he asked and let him become one with her.

He plunged into her like a perfect dive into a placid pool.

She wasn’t sure if she should move with him, but her body knew.

Exquisite sensations rippled through her. Her love for him unbound.

She wrapped herself around him, pulling him over her, cradling his head in the crook of her neck, then they lost themselves in one another, crashing like waves against a shoreline until they spent themselves and lay tangled together, still touching. Soon sleep overtook them both.