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CHAPTER NINE

I shall drown myself in sheer embarrassment , Eliza decided, holding her head underneath the bath water. She opened her eyes, and the scented oils burned them. Raising her head, she rubbed her eyes.

“Blazes!”

“Are you wel,l Eliza?” came Robert’s bemused voice, as he was clearly waiting for her on the other side of the door.

Will I ever stop making a complete goosecap of myself?

“All is well, Robert, I shall be ready soon,” she called back in the cheeriest voice she could manage.

She had eaten first, and true to his word, the food had made her insides more tolerable.

Standing tall in the bath, she relished the sensation of the water sluicing down her body before drying off and completing her toilette She donned another day dress, this one a muted yellow, and quickly pinned back her hair.

She had the rest of the day and tonight to reform her repentant rake.

She whispered Donne to herself. “Let him teach me that nothing. This / As yet my ease and comfort is, / Though I speed not I cannot miss.”

Robert had taken her on a tour of the gardens, and while he had said the walk was not long, she begged to differ.

The gardens were vast and bordered by large parcels of land that homed cows and sheep.

Luckily, they were in the distance, and the only scents reaching her were fruity and floral as they entered a fragrant garden with a flowing brook.

“I must cool my feet, Robert. The water looks so refreshing.”

“I will join you.”

Kicking off their shoes like children, he chased her towards the stream.

Picking her up by the waist, he spun her so she was pressed against his chest. They had not spoken a flirtatious word as they toured his property and instead had spoken of a variety of topics, much as their letters.

He had shared the latest squabbles in parliament and she in the women's circles.

It had been an intimate conversation, suited for married couples.

And now, held tightly in his arms, the intimacy was different—titillating and urgent.

At this angle, with the way the sunlight hit his hair, she noticed the grey at his temples.

“How distinguished, Robert,” she purred, reaching up to finger a lock.

“I am aging by the day, my lady,” he responded in mock woe.

“Perhaps, but it only makes you more handsome, which should surely be a sin, considering how wickedly dashing you already are.”

Having expected a witty retort, she was pleasantly surprised when he captured her mouth with his.

Sparks burst in her. Their mouths were a furnace, flaming as he deepened the kiss to a place she had not known existed.

The erratic thumping of their heartbeats pressed against one another spurred the flames.

It was now or never, and she ground her hips against his, and his hardness made her ache.

Without releasing her lips, he took hold of her hands and guided them under his shirt to press against his warm skin.

The contact made her gasp, and he chuckled against her lips.

“I am going to ravish every inch of you, Eliza.”

Egad, it is finally to happen.

Eliza almost choked on her gasps as they quickened and she was unable to calm them.

He chuckled as she steadied herself against his chest.

“Surrender your body to me.”