Page 31 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman (The Marlow Family Secrets #3)

Caro watched Rob throughout dinner and during the quiet evening in the drawing room that followed. They did not play cards, instead Drew and Mary talked to him about his plans, and about Mary’s family. Caro sat in silence.

Occasionally he would glance at her and she would see their secret in his eyes.

Mary was the first to say she would retire, Drew said he would go up with her, then Rob said he would retire too as he was to leave early the next morning.

Caro did not want the evening to end, but nor did she want to sit here alone.

They all stood.

Her heart pounded against her ribs as they walked from the room. She climbed the stairs beside Drew and Mary followed beside Rob. They would expect her to say goodnight first.

She smiled towards Rob, longing to kiss his lips.

He smiled in return. ‘Goodnight, Caro.’ He bowed his head.

‘Goodnight.’ She turned quickly as she felt the threat of tears. Leaving Mary and Drew to say their goodnights .

Caro let the maid release her buttons and brush out her hair.

Then she climbed into bed and lay there wide awake, memories, images and feelings playing through her mind.

She had never expected to feel these emotions again.

This whole summer had been wonderful. He would go, but he would leave behind a happier, if heartbroken, woman.

Her heart ached. It would break tomorrow. But he had taught her she could choose how to respond. She could mourn him and shut herself away again or she could live as though nothing had changed. She would keep living because that was his gift.

She sat up and threw the sheets back, realising he was still here. They still had tonight.

Her footfalls were soft as she walked over the creaky floorboards. It was dark, but she knew the house well enough to find her way to his room. Drew and Mary’s rooms were at the farthest end of the first-floor landing, they would not hear.

Her fingertips trailed along the wall of the landing as she walked through the dark. She felt the doorframe, her hand lowered and touched the cold brass doorknob.

Her heartbeat skipped to the rhythm of a vigorous country dance when she knocked gently.

It was scarcely half an hour since they retired, but he might be asleep.

A slight rap on wood pulled Rob into consciousness. He had fallen asleep thinking about Caro.

The sound came again. Someone was knocking on the door of the bedchamber.

He sat up, the sheet sliding to his waist. The air was not as warm since the storm passed, but he had come to bed naked – it was too hot for clothing.

The knock struck a little harder. ‘Rob.’ His name whispered through the wood.

Caro. ‘Come in,’ he said quietly.

The door creaked as it opened. He rubbed his forehead, trying to wake up. The room was pitch-black because the night was cloudy.

‘Where are you?’ she whispered. He could hear her smile in her voice.

A sound of amusement broke from his throat, before he answered, ‘Here.’

Her footsteps brushed on the floorboards. ‘I could not sleep,’ she whispered. ‘Do you mind?’

‘No.’ For the entire evening, his senses had remained aware of her, and aware they only had a few hours left. ‘I am glad.’ He got off the bed and stood as he heard her approach, reaching out blindly.

His hand touched her shoulder.

‘Rob.’ Her next step brought her into his arms.

His hand stroked her hair; it was loose, flowing down her back. His head lowered as hers tilted back and their lips met.

His conscience had been condemning him this evening, and yet here he was again, responding to the call of lust. He did not care for morals and idealism with Caro. He wished for another moment of bliss, and this time it would not be in a squalid little hut. They would be naked in a comfortable bed.

His hands fisted in the fabric of her nightdress and lifted it off over her head.

‘Lie down,’ he urged, as she had urged him earlier.

They guided each other’s movements in the dark .

Her skin and hair were scented with the lavender from the soap she must have used in her bath.

He touched her leg to get his bearings and found the soft skin of her inner thigh.

She opened her legs, making space for him to kneel between her thighs, the soft mattress rocking.

He imagined the sway of her breasts.

Memories from their moments on the cramped bed in the shabby hut flooded him in waves.

His erection brushed somewhere on her skin, as he leaned to kiss her.

He found her lips with his, and her breast with his hand.

Learning her body in the dark was very different, and there were no clothes to hinder him.

He moved from between her legs and lay down beside her.

His hand traced every curve of her body, committing every detail of the shape of her to his memory.

In the early summer, he thought he saw something in Caro no one else had spotted, now he knew everything no one else saw.

He felt so hungry, it was as though his stomach became a vacuum that wished to devour her. ‘I love you,’ he said over her mouth before pressing a kiss against her jaw. He said the words with uncertainty, yet they were the words on his tongue.

‘And I love you.’ Her echo of them came with a depth of emotion that implied utter truth.

His kisses followed the path of his hands, across her chest to her breast and downwards; learning her body with his lips and his tongue as he had been learning with his hands.

He lifted his head. ‘I will not apologise, not now nor after. This is what we both want.’

‘It is,’ she agreed.

The next kiss he pressed on her stomach, and he swept his tongue into her navel. When he kissed below it, she sighed. He trailed his tongue over the line of her hip bone, where it pushed against her skin on the right.

His fingertips brushed across the skin of her left inner thigh as his kisses descended, exploring. His tongue parted the velvety skin and licked the satin of her inner plains.

Her fingers clasped in his hair and her body arched towards him, encouraging him. Her legs lifted and rested on his shoulders. ‘Rob.’ She rocked up against his tongue. He used his fingers as he had done at the hut, and when he withdrew them, he licked them and licked her.

‘Rob.’

The tip of his tongue teased the little bead at the head of her flesh.

A choked sound escaped her mouth, then a little groan as he did it again.

His lips closed about it, and he sucked her there, as his forefinger stroked inside her.

Her breath shallowed, quickened, in the rhythm he heard before they succumbed to the bliss of this in the hut.

She was close to what his brother called ‘ the little death ’.

‘Ah!’

Her cry was harsh and long. A warm fluid ran about his finger, as her muscles throbbed beneath the tip of his tongue.

When he rose up, he felt like a hero. Harry had told him it was not easy to bring a woman to this moment. His hands pressed into the mattress beside her shoulders as he moved over her. Then he was baptised again when he thrust into her.

Caro made short sounds as he moved; those sounds and her fractured breathing filled the room.

He moved swiftly and then slowly, pushing hard to a deep depth and then pressing in in shallow pulses. Learning what everything felt like and how she responded. All the time her hands ran over him and whimpers of pleasure left her lips .

Perhaps when she came to town in the autumn, he might consider engagement until he could afford to marry.

Her thighs pressed at his hips and her bare feet brushed the back of his legs as her body arched into another spasm of release.

He pressed a kiss on her cheek. She turned her mouth to his. ‘I love you so much.’

The words resonated through his soul.

‘I love you also,’ he replied, thrusting heavily into her, his pelvis striking hers. He withdrew and thrust again, and again, working towards his own end. Then the storm swept in, clasping every muscle. He withdrew and spilled his seed on her stomach, breathing hard, his arms trembling.

When he returned from heaven, he tumbled on to his back beside her, shaking the mattress. ‘I love you very much too,’ he said into the darkness, his senses clamouring.

She turned to her side and kissed his temple, then rested her head on his chest as his arm wrapped about her. Her leg came across his thigh and her hand lay on his stomach, making a pillow of his body.