Wrapped in robes and each sipping a glass of wine as they sat before the fire, Heath cleared his throat. “Kat, these past weeks have been more than I could have hoped for. I can’t imagine my life without you in it, now I have found you.” He set his glass aside and dropped to one knee, legs shaking in fear of her rejection. Taking her wine and setting it next to his, he continued. “Would you honor me by becoming my Countess?” He pulled a carved wooden box from his robe pocket and opened it to reveal a huge sapphire surrounded by diamonds. Still emotionally raw from their joining, he clenched the box and waited.
Her breath caught as she stared at him, her gaze fathomless. Would she do forever? Could he survive without her? No. He would fight for her to his last breath. She was his.
“Kat, if you’ll let me, I’ll always protect you.” His jaw tensed and his heart squeezed.
She shook her head. “No. I’ll not have you any more tarnished by me than you already are in society. They’ll never accept me again. I am ruined by my profligate husband. I don’t want anyone else touched by his poison.” She stood and shifted toward the fire, hiding her face.
His primal self screamed and clawed in denial. With a Herculean strength of will, he restrained the instinct to lash her to the bed and master her body until she recognized that she belonged to him. He trembled with the effort, and the pain of the rejection of his love. “Kat, please, don’t deny me out of hand. It’s my choice to risk the wrath of society, my choice whom I marry. I choose you. You or no one.” His heart pounded as he prayed he could convince her to listen to her heart.
Turning, she pulled the lapels of her robe closer together, clutching them at her neck. “How can you say that? Until you have experienced such isolation you cannot know of what you speak.”
“Ha! I do know it. I’ve always been isolated from them, if not in an obvious way. Do you not, like them, wonder why I have never married?”
“I assume you have your reasons, which are none of my business.”
He drew a slow deep breath. This was his opening to convince her. “Not true. In a strange twist you are central to my reason. Tell me, do you enjoy the time we spend together? The nature of our interactions?”
“Very much. I feel safe, cared for, protected when I am with you.”
Pleasure at her words pierced his chest and strengthened his resolve. “I’m glad. I feel strong, needed, and desired when I’m with you. I don’t feel the shame and confusion I often experienced as a young man when the need to be with a woman, as I am with you, called upon me. For years I refused to consider marriage for fear of terrifying some poor girl. Not until you did I feel normal, balanced, at ease. Last week at the lecture and then during tea, I found the same peace with you in public as I do at The Market. I need that in my life. I need you.”
Her eyes widened, giving her a wild look. Then she sank into the chair, still mute.
Hope burbled in his chest, made him ache to hold her and sooth the turmoil in her eyes. “Kat, I love you. I love that you share the same ideas as I on botany and how you feel right in my arms as we waltz. I love that you have strong opinions and are willing to share them with me. I love your smile, the way your eyes sparkle both when you argue and when I make love to you.” His breathing had changed to a deep drawing of air.
Her body shook as the first tear slipped down her cheek. The moisture remained a moment before evaporating. Then there were too many, and they trickled together to form rivulets down her face. Heath reached for her. Pain and fear curdled his belly, made him desperate. “Please. Tell me you feel something, anything for me. Tell me you’ll be my bride.” He drew her against him and squeezed, burying her face against his chest.
She squirmed in his arms a bit, then cleared her throat, and leaned back. “Yes. Yes, I will. I-I’m not sure when or how but I fell in love with you, with Sir, and then I was so confused by it, I wanted to run away. But you invoke calm in my life, a peace unrivaled in all my days. I need you, too. I love you.”
Heath felt the fear dissipate as love rushed in to fill his heart. His woman. They drew together, their lips meeting in a deep soul stirring kiss that held the power to last forever.
~ABOUT THE AUTHOR~
Sorcha Mowbray is a mild mannered office worker by day…okay, so she is actually a mouthy, opinionated, take charge kind of gal who bosses everyone around; but she definitely works in an office. At night she writes romance so hot she sets the sheets on fire! Just ask her slightly singed husband.
She is a longtime lover of historical romance, having grown up reading Johanna Lindsey and Judith McNaught. Then she discovered Thea Devine and Susan Johnson. Holy cow! Heroes and heroines could do THAT? From there, things devolved into trying her hand at writing a little smexy. Needless to say, she liked it and she hopes you do too!
You can visit Sorcha at:
www.sorchamowbray.com
Historical Romances from Decadent Publishing
Enslaved by Cassandra Dean
I was to teach a slave.
Marcus, a gladiator in my father’s ludus, was compelled to my presence to learn of Rome’s gods, her legends. When first he came, fear consumed me – fear of this silent, resentful slave who burned with his anger.
Time, though, changes much. Marcus softened and I grew unafraid. As we became closer, I grew more than merely unafraid – I grew to love him. Never did I think we would be separated.
I was wrong.
Seducing Liberty by D.L. Jackson
A 1Night Stand Story
Out of the mists of time, rides a story of espionage, love, and a 1Night Stand.
When Ryann Summers, an actress playing the role of Lady Liberty, an Agent in Washington’s Culper spy ring, asks Madame Eve of 1Night Stand for a date, a night she’ll never forget—where her identity is kept secret—she gets more than she bargained for.
Now she’s caught in the middle of the American Revolution and between two of the sexiest men she’s ever set eyes on. If she can survive the musketballs and the invading British forces, she just might find everything she’s been searching for—sex hot enough to set the sea on fire.
Love Revealed Page 8
