Beauty and the Earl (27 page)

To her surprise, he had plunked himself down on the blanket a hundred yards away and now leaned back on his elbows, watching her as she walked toward him.
 

This was as good a place to talk to him as any, despite being out in the open. The cove was almost entirely private, for few knew of its existence at all. There were rumors that the servants in the area came down here to bathe nude at night, it was so secluded.

Now swimming nude with Liam was all she could think about as she crossed the final few feet to him and dropped to her knees on the blanket.

“Liam,” she whispered.

He didn’t allow her to say more. He sat up, cupped the back of her head and drew her against him for a deep, probing kiss that made everything she might have said to him melt away in an instant.

It had been little more than a month since she last touched him, but it felt like an eternity had passed. She was starved for him. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t stop herself from wrapping her arms around him and molding her body to his as he lowered her back on the blanket and continued to kiss her with such tender passion.

His hand slid down, cupping her breast gently as she arched up into the touch without shame. God, how she had missed this. And even though she knew she should stop him, she didn’t. She couldn’t. Her need was too desperate to do anything but fully surrender to it.
 

He began to unbutton her gown, and she gasped as his fingers slipped into the space he had created. Even through her chemise his hand was hot, heavy against her. She moaned as he found his way beneath the flimsy fabric and stroked a thumb over her distended nipple.
 

“God, I missed you,” he muttered against her neck as he sucked there, continuing to pluck her nipples until she thought she might go mad. “I missed this.”

“Please,” she urged, cupping his backside with her hands and drawing him closer. “I need you.”

He stared down at her, face filled with wonder. Then he nodded and the expression changed to one of more desperate drive. He slid her beneath him and hiked her skirts up around her waist. She opened her legs without hesitation and he slid his hand between them, finding the parting of her drawers so that he could slide a finger across the slick opening of her sex.

“God, you are ready,” he grunted.

She cupped his face gently and pressed a kiss to his lips. “I have been ready for you for weeks.”

He said nothing else, but fumbled at his trouser waist. Finally, he opened the buttons and his cock popped free. He positioned himself at her entrance and stared down at her, holding her gaze as he slipped inside, inch by inch, filling her to the hilt of his cock.

Once he was fully seated inside of her, he cupped her face, pressing light kisses against her lips. He was so gentle, so tender that tears filled her eyes and she clung to him.

He began to move, gently thrusting deep inside of her. It was evident he was trying to draw out the pleasure, but it had been so long since he touched her that her body had no patience. She felt the wall of her orgasm building at massively rapid speeds. She couldn’t control her body and rocked against him, crying out in broken gasps that were lost to the sound of the waves breaking on the sand behind them.

She dug her nails into his shoulders as the pleasure washed over her. Her hips thrust wildly against him, and she whispered his name into his neck as her sex fluttered with release.

He drove faster, his neck straining, and as her orgasm began to slowly fade, he grunted out his own pleasure and she felt the splash of his seed deep inside her. She drew him down, reveling in his weight, reveling in this one last happy memory that would wash away the less pleasant thoughts from their last encounter in Bath. And that would be enough.

It had to be enough. For she knew he could offer no more. She wouldn’t even ask him to do so. But she would take this.
 

Liam couldn’t have said how long they lay together, bodies still joined as the waves rolled in behind them in a soothing melody that matched their shared breath. Finally, though, he moved away from her, tucking himself back into his trousers as she smoothed her gown over her body.

There was no shyness as she looked at him. There wasn’t even regret, which was a fact he was pleased about. Violet had always been pragmatic about their physical union. She never minced or pretended.

But that was Violet. Real and true, beautiful and sometimes broken.

But he so longed to fix that.

“Why did you come here?” she asked, propping herself up on her hand.
 

He shook his head. “I couldn’t stay away,” he admitted and felt no hesitation at the words. “I wanted to, I tried to, I forced myself to… but I kept hearing your voice in my head, seeing you in my dreams. With every hour and every day that passed, it grew louder until you were all I could think about. And I needed to see you more than I needed breath.”

Despite his confession, her expression was unreadable as she traced a small pattern of circles in the sand beside her. “Your sister told you where I was?”
 

He nodded. “I’d guessed Romwell because of your son, but yes, my sister and Christian gave me the full particulars so I didn’t need to roam the town, asking at every door.”

Her face jerked up. “Does that mean—?”

“Yes,” he whispered. “We have made our peace. Thanks to you.”

She bent her head but he could see relief written on her face. “I’m so happy for you, Liam. And proud that you’ve come to such a difficult reconciliation. Although I’m not certain I had anything to do with it.”

“Aren’t you?” He laughed softly. “You appeared in my life almost like magic. You flipped my world on its head. And you reminded me about the good and the beauty in this life.”

She bit her lip and refused to look at him. “And lied to you. And manipulated you.”

He slipped a finger beneath her chin and forced her to meet his eyes. “No one is perfect,” he teased, hoping to lessen the tension between them.

She didn’t smile and turned away from his touch. “Liam,” she murmured. “I know you were angry with me when you realized your sister hired me. You can pretend you weren’t, but—”

“I
was
angry,” he agreed without hesitation. “I was furious. But I’ve come to realize that perhaps I needed manipulation, since reason wasn’t working.”

She looked at him, and there was no masking the surprise on her face at those words. “Then you don’t blame me for what transpired between us.”

He shook his head. “You told me in Bath that you had been truthful with me when it came to our connection. Is that correct?”

She nodded swiftly enough that Liam’s heart soared.
 

“When I began, I used sharing information as a way to obtain your trust,” she admitted. “But Liam, I ended up telling you things that no one else in this world knows. And the more I shared, the more I came to know you, the more bound to you I became. That was all real, no matter my motives at the start. In fact…”

She shifted, swallowing hard and Liam leaned closer. “Yes?”

“Not being able to talk to you has left me bereft,” she admitted softly. “It was like a part of me has gone missing this past month. Until you rode up, I couldn’t find it.”

He stared at her, taken in by her beauty, swept away by her honesty, loving every part of her and hoping, with everything in him, for a future.

“It is funny you say that, for I have missed talking to you, as well. Especially since Malcolm left.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Left?”

He nodded. “Yes, run off to Gretna Green with Olivia.”

She lifted her hands to her cheeks, and there was no mistaking the joy on her face at the news. “That is why she hasn’t written to me! I hoped but wasn’t certain.”

“Oh yes. I imagine they will sweep in from some fantastic, private escape any day now.” He smiled, just as happy for their friends as she was. “But you can see how that absence would affect me.”

She nodded. “Yes, you two are so close.”

“It’s more than that.” He reached out to brush the back of a hand down her cheek, reveling in the softness of her skin and the way she leaned into him.
 

“How so?” she asked.

He could see how much she needed to hear him declare himself. A good thing since he intended to do just that.

“When Malcolm left, I lost not only a man at arms, but a friend and confidante. And yet, as I lay awake in my bed at night, I realized the person I wanted to see most, to confide in most, whose voice I wanted to hear…was yours.”
 

She caught her breath, but didn’t interrupt. He was just as happy, for saying those words out loud made him want to say so much more.
 

“Violet, may I tell you all my troubles?” he asked.

She drew back, clearly confused by his question. “Y-Yes.”

“You see, I love a woman,” he said, his hands nearly shaking as he said those words he never thought he’d say again, let alone have his heart so light with the feeling. “I love a beautiful, wonderful, unexpected woman. And I do not know if she could ever love me in return.”

A tear trailed down her cheek, and he reached out to catch it on his finger. “Could she love me, Violet?” he whispered. “Could you love me?”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Violet stared at Liam, hardly able to breathe, to think, let alone speak as he cupped her chin and stared into her eyes with the focused expression of a man bent on possession.

“You love me,” she murmured when she could find words.

He grinned, his face lighting up as bright as the blazing sun above them. “Was I not clear? I’m sorry, let me say it again. I
love
you, Violet. I adore you. I want to spend every day of the rest of my life worshipping you.”

She gasped in her breath, reaching out to grip his lower arms as she was filled up by his love. And yet, she couldn’t surrender to him.
 

“You don’t know what your words mean,” she said. “But Liam, I cannot go back to the world of a mistress. Even yours. I would love you, but I couldn’t bring my son into the madness that would create. And now that I have had a month with him, I could never, ever find the strength to leave him again.”

“I don’t want you to leave him,” Liam said, drawing back as if she was speaking nonsense. “Truly, I must make myself plainer. What I have come to realize, through sleepless nights and troubled dreams and analyzing every moment with you, is that I want to
marry
you, Violet Milford.”

Now her world screeched to a halt and she flinched back, staring at him with what she knew were wild eyes. Wild eyes that reflected a wild heart at his declaration.

“Marry you,” she said, scrambling to her feet and backing away. “But that would make me a countess, Liam.”

He got up, watching her like he feared she would bolt. “Yes, the last time I checked the lines of titles, that would be correct. And that is a problem because…?”

She stared at him. “Please do not sport with my intelligence, Liam. Or forget your own. I am no woman of rank, no matter who my father was. And I have made my living for the past five years as a mistress. The men of your stature will know that and many would gleefully share it with the women in their lives. We would be whispered and talked about for months, years. We might never find acceptance.”

Liam’s eyebrows lifted, but he showed no hesitation about what she said. “So it is the scandal you worry about?”

She lifted her hands in frustration. “Amongst other things, yes!”

“Well, let me deal with those worries one by one then. First, your scandal,” he said, folding his arms. “I don’t know why you think a scandal would trouble me, considering the feud I have engaged in with my brother-in-law for decades. Not to mention the accident that we were both involved in that people talk about to this day. Oh, and the fact that he kidnapped my sister, ruined her and married her. If you think marrying someone outside of rank or who was a mistress will lead the pack in our family scandals, you are really very conceited.”

Violet’s jaw dropped open in shock. Not only because she wanted to laugh at the playful way he dismissed her concern, but because he dismissed it at all.

“You may close your mouth, my love,” he drawled. “I have been whispered about before. I will survive it. Are you weaker than I?”

She swallowed hard. “No. No, I have experienced scandal before as well. But—”

He waved her off. “Then it is settled. Neither of us is so delicate a flower that we cannot bear a few whispers. What is your next concern?”

She blinked. “You are most disconcerting.”

“No, I am a man in love and I will find a way to slay these dragons,” he said with a smile. “Next concern please, Miss Milford. I would very much like to conclude this apparent negotiation and get on with the celebrating.”

She shook her head, filled with wonder at this new attitude. One she rather liked, actually.
 

“You are so certain of yourself?”

He nodded. “Since meeting you? Yes, I would say you have reminded me of the confidence I once had. Another reason to love you, by the way. Now, next concern.”