Bound by Bliss
Page 36
Her name filled the room, one long syllable of Blissss.
Another wave broke within her, her hips rose again, a scream left her lips—and then she fell, boneless, finished. Her eyes met his, complete.
—
He sagged upon her, knowing he was too heavy, but without the muscles to move. She’d drained him. He’d never felt anything like that, never felt himself come apart and yet live. He drew a deep breath into empty lungs and with supreme effort rolled off her and to the side. She mumbled a protest, but made no move.
Sweat coated him from head to toe. The cool air of the room brushed over heated flesh. He should say something. He knew these moments demanded words. He knew how to use words. Only none came.
He lifted an arm and reached above Bliss’s head, freeing her hands from the tangle of pearls. He grasped her fingers and brought an arm down with his, the fingers of their hands tangled together. He held her there for a moment, the simple meeting of palms enough, a soothing balm upon his soul.
“Wife.” There, that was a word, a word that said all that burned within him.
Her head turned slowly, her eyes focused on their clasped hands. “Husband,” she answered.
Her fingers tightened upon his.
Silence.
They lay there for a moment or perhaps ten. He could not be sure. It did not matter.
“You are my love,” he said as words returned to his mind.
Silence.
A moment of disappointment. No, he knew she could not say the words, could not admit them even to herself. He understood her wound and could only hope that someday time and the constant reassurance of his love would help heal the crack within her.
“You still don’t believe that it will last, do you?” He asked the question he most feared the answer to.
She was silent again for a moment and then spoke with care. “I believe it more than I did yesterday and I think tomorrow I will believe it more. Give me time and perhaps I will fully believe it. That is all I can ask for, time.”
“Why? What has changed your feelings?”
She collapsed back upon the bed, staring up at the ceiling, but her hand found his again and clenched it tight. “It will sound strange, but it was Temple. I am still not ready to talk about what happened. It was not as dreadful as you might fear, but it changed me.”
“What? I do not understand.” He wondered if she’d yet heard that Temple had apparently fallen down a flight of stairs the day before and broken both his legs and four fingers on one hand. One would have thought the poor man had been beaten within an inch of his life if one had not known better. A curl of satisfaction formed in Stephan’s belly. And the man was taking up commission with the army in India as soon as he was healed, a most strange thing for an earl to do. Stephan could only hope he was not grinning too broadly.
“Am I telling you the secrets of my heart and you grin like a fool?” Bliss asked, her pique clear.
“I am sorry. A passing thought of your beauty. Tell me what happened with Temple that made you decide to take a chance.”
“I had already decided to take it, I think. I had already said yes, but when I suddenly found myself faced with fear and horror I realized I didn’t want to have missed things. I wanted joy, and if I had to take risks to find joy, then I would take risks. I make it sound far simpler than it was. I didn’t have a sudden epiphany and reach deep understanding, but over these last days, slowly, softly, it has come to me. I want love. I want a family. I want you. And if the only way to have those things is to accept that someday I may lose them, then I will have to accept that—even if I am not quite sure that I like it.”
Yes, that was his Bliss. She had not actually said she loved him, but he knew both that she did and that someday the words would come. “I am glad.” He squeezed her fingers.
She rolled on her side and stared at him. “I am glad too.”
He grinned at her.
“Don’t look so smug. There are still many questions I have if we are to do this thing, this marriage.”
“Yes? You know your wish is my command,” he replied.
“Oh, don’t give me that. I know very well who it is in this bed that does the commanding. You’ve made that very clear.”
He was glad she understood that. “So what questions do you have, my love, my wife?”
“Well, first, how many times a night can we do that? And is it always the same? Always that good? And now that we’ve done that do you still want to do the other things? I have to confess I rather enjoyed taking you into my mouth and watching how you reacted to my every touch and stroke. What about the wax? I am not altogether sure I want to do that again, but I am not altogether sure that I don’t. Could I pour it on you? How would your cock react? Have you done that before? And what of spanking? Is it only for punishment or could we do it other times as well? And what about Madame Rouge’s? Will we go there again? Can I watch again? I have to admit that…”
Duldon let his eyes drift closed, just for a moment. He did love his Bliss, love his wife. He doubted it would have been possible to choose better. He knew a smug smile was spreading across his face as he listened to her—and let his fantasies free. She did have the most glorious imagination. He could hardly wait to begin answering her questions.
He squeezed her hand tight and then drew it beneath the sheet he’d drawn up over their hips.
Her voice quieted as she felt just what was waiting there. It was time to begin answering the first of her questions.
BY LAVINIA KENT
Bound by Bliss
Revealing Ruby (novella)
Mastering the Marquess
About the Author
LAVINIA KENT is a former two-term president of the Washington Romance Writers and a four-time Romance Writers of America Golden Heart nominee. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her family and an ever-changing menagerie of pets.
www.laviniakent.com
Facebook.com/LaviniaKent
@LaviniaKent
The Editor’s Corner
March into romance this month with Loveswept—our authors are savvy, and their hot books will warm up the cool winter evenings.
Jennifer Chance’s Rule Breakers series turns up the heat in Risk It as a wealthy playboy and a beautiful con artist engage in a high-stakes game of seduction. USA Today bestselling author Lauren Layne revisits her salacious Sex, Love & Stiletto series with The Trouble with Love, where a jaded columnist discovers a steamy way to get over an old flame: falling for him all over again. USA Today bestselling author Stacey Kennedy returns to the tantalizing world of Club Sin with Tamed. In Cecy Robson’s latest urban fantasy romance, A Curse Unbroken, the search is on for an unholy grail, while evil is licking its wounds—and looking for revenge. Another of our Loveswept USA Today bestsellers, Jamie K. Schmidt, revisits Club Inferno, the erotic playground where glitz and glamour mix with leather and whips, in Fever. Seduction returns to Violetta Rand’s Devil’s Den, a Texas strip club where hearts can’t hide when the chemistry is right. In the latest Disgraced Lords novel from USA Today bestselling author Bronwen Evans, A Touch of Passion, a vivacious thrill seeker clashes with her dutiful defender—causing irresistible sparks to fly. Then Maeve Greyson unleashes a thrilling tale of magic in My Highland Lover, as a feisty Southern gal falls into the arms of a rough-hewn Highland chieftain. And in Sharon Cullen’s steamy historical romance Sebastian’s Lady Spy, love is a hazard best avoided—until an unforgettable affair exposes their undercover hearts.
But there’s more!
Come Flirt with us—Saying yes has always come easy for Fallon. Now, as Renita Pizzitola’s steamy, poignant Crush series continues in Just a Little Flirt, winning her dream job means Fallon must say no to the guy she wants the most. And in the new Extreme Risk novel, Slashed, from New York Times bestselling author Tracy Wolff, a burned-out underdog and a vulnerable tomboy defy the pressure to be perfect and go after what they really want.
Until next month ~Happy Romance!
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Gina Wachtel
Associate Publisher
Love stories you’ll never forget
By authors you’ll always remember
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