With a sureness that was now second nature, she moved on him. She basked in the stunned pleasure that flooded his face
every time she took him inside her.
With one ruthless movement, he ripped aside the green silk of her bodice. She gasped when her breasts spilled free to the
cool air. Her nipples pebbled, not just with cold but with excitement.
“Beautiful,” he said with satisfaction.
He caressed her, weighing her breasts in his hands, testing the sensitive areolas. He brushed the hard tips with his fingers.
Then took her more firmly, tugging and rolling until she shivered with need. Each minuscule change in pressure shot
searing heat to her loins, made her tighten around him. He curved up and placed his mouth on her breast while the other
hand continued to torment.
She loved the way he enjoyed her. Before Matthew, her body had just carried her through the day. Now every inch was
imprinted with pleasure her lover gave her. Pleasure she gave him.
“Now,” he growled and thrust up hard.
Their bodies were so in tune that rapture hit simultaneously.
She cried out his name as brilliance streaked through her. Waves of ecstasy buffeted her, sent her reeling. Only a tiny
pinhole of light shone in the dark turbulence.
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ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
And the light was love.
She rode out one climax. Another. Then another. Each flung her higher. Each left her sure she could give no more. Then
the next climax would hit and leave her shuddering in helpless reaction.
When it was over, she wilted in a limp heap onto Matthew’s chest. He was her destiny. He broke her heart. But she’d
never regret sharing these days with him. The radiance would glow, no matter how far apart they were.
Between her legs, she was sticky and she ached. It was a good ache. The best ache. She sighed and buried her nose in his
chest to dam sudden tears.
How could she bring herself to leave him tomorrow?
Toward dawn, Matthew roused Grace from her restless doze. She’d hardly slept and in the candles’ guttering light,
exhaustion marked her lovely face.
He was a conscienceless beast. He’d used her ruthlessly, relentlessly, only giving her brief surcease. She’d be sore. He
hadn’t been gentle, to his shame.
They hadn’t spoken of parting. Although impending separation hovered behind every touch, every sigh, every climax.
He’d tried to make this night more than a sorrowful valediction. He wanted it to be a celebration of their love that she’d
remember with a smile through the years to come. The years he couldn’t be with her.
This was the last time they’d lie together. An elegy played in his heart as he cupped her breast. It fit perfectly in his hand.
She was naked. They’d eventually shed the last of their clothes. He’d forgotten quite when. Somewhere before midnight,
he was sure. Somewhere between carpet and bed. She must be a mass of bruises from him pounding into her on the floor.
She sighed—she wasn’t awake although she wasn’t asleep either—and turned toward him. Her nipple darkened and
tightened. Her body recognized what was to come.
He bent his head and placed a tender kiss on that rosy peak. Then he turned his attention to her other breast, drawing it
into his mouth and suckling it. His touch held a bittersweet softness.
The mark of Filey’s vile bite was now only a shadow. It would fade and disappear. What they felt wouldn’t.
“I love you,” she murmured and stroked his hair.
She’d said those words so often tonight. But he wanted to hear them again. How many times were enough? Enough to
lend an ember of warmth to the icy loneliness that awaited him?
He nuzzled the delicate skin under her breast and kissed his way across her belly. She sighed and bowed up toward him.
He raised his head to find her watching, her eyes dark with grief. The imminence of parting hung heavy between them. He
moved over her and kissed her with all the adoration he felt. Her lips were pliant and silky.
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ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
She opened to him immediately, her tongue seeking. During the long night, they’d tested passion’s fury. This was
different. Sweeter, sadder, deeper. For all that their earlier couplings had been unions of soul as well as body.
Her legs fell open so he rested in the hot apex. He was hard, even after the night just passed. Very gently, for he wanted
her to remember he cherished her as much as wanted her, he stroked her cleft.
She was dry. He’d tried her to her limit. It was a gift of love that she turned so willingly to him now.
He kissed her again, trying to store the taste and feel against the desolation to come. She could revive a dead man with
her kiss alone. In his case, she had. For one insubstantial moment, he’d tasted life in her arms.
He sucked and licked at her neck and she rewarded him with a rush of moisture against his seeking fingers. He nibbled
his way downward, planning on using his mouth to bring her to climax before he took her.
“No,” she whispered, as he lingered at her navel. “I want you with me.”
She was right. This was farewell. He should be inside her. He needed the joining as much as she. They’d shared pleasure
all night. Now he must give her everything he had.
“Grace, you break my heart,” he said rawly, raising himself on his elbows to see her face.
She was pale as the moon. Against her white skin, her lips were swollen and red. He’d remember her like this to his dying
day.
She stroked his jaw. He pressed his face into the caress. “Make love to me, Matthew. As though the world ends today.”
The world did end today.
He knew what she wanted. She didn’t want desperate passion. She didn’t want the excitement of experiment. She wanted
the two of them moving through eternity as though nothing could ever sunder them.
A bird called outside. Sunrise wasn’t far away.
Very slowly, he entered her. Relishing every sigh, every quiver of weary muscles. He planted himself deep, so deep he
touched her soul. Then he held still, breathing as she breathed, his heart beating in time with hers.
Her touch was ineffably tender as she traced his shoulders, his chest, his back. Her wandering fingers wrote a lifetime of
love on his skin.
He took a deep breath so her scent filled his head. Only then did he move. He was slow, penetrating to her core with
every thrust and holding himself there as he glimpsed heaven.
She gave herself up to him. She was his partner, his darling, his lover. He wanted this communion to last forever.
He’d worked off his fierceness earlier. He felt no driving hunger to conquer or subdue or possess. Just this moving
toward and away, endless as the tide or the rising and setting of the sun.
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ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
He kept up the deliberate, tender rhythm for an inhumanly long interval. He thought of nothing but the woman in his
arms and how he loved her. He couldn’t speak. His feelings went beyond words. There was just darkness and sighs of
pleasure and the soft sound of his body sliding in and out of hers.
He clung to that mystical closeness. But eventually his body bayed for satisfaction. He couldn’t hold himself back.
Her climax started slowly and built and built. It was like nothing he’d ever felt. The waves became a great crescendo that
swept him with her into wild release. He gave himself up to her in a blinding burst of joy and love. Then held her safe as
she slowly came back from the brink of the universe.
They would speak the words of parting later. But in his soul, he’d just said every farewell he needed to say.
Grace crept into the salon and scuttled across to the elaborate desk that dominated one corner. It was still early. Mrs. Filey
worked in the kitchen and paid no attention to comings and goings. Matthew had slipped outside to check on something
with his roses.
She and Matthew wanted to present as normal an appearance as possible today. After the night’s unbridled passion, there
had been a poignant joy in talking quietly as they dressed. She always loved to watch him shave, but this morning, the
pleasure had been tinged with sharp regret that it was the last time she’d share the small, precious intimacy.
They had touched constantly as they’d moved about the bedroom. Tiny, glancing contacts. She wondered how she’d
survive without the gentle brush of his hand on her skin.
All the while, sorrow hovered unspoken, darkening the air. Matthew had infiltrated her very marrow. Every beat of her
heart repeated his name. His scent was the air she breathed.
After such a night, how could she abandon him to his lonely prison?
She didn’t just abandon him. She meant to betray him.
Quickly, she checked over her shoulder but the door remained closed. As once before, she rifled Matthew’s desk. She
wasn’t sure what she’d say if he found her snooping through his private papers. Certainly anything but the truth.
Pigeonholes ranked across the top held writing implements and stationery and nothing else. Frantic with guilt and her
need to get back to Matthew, she turned her attention to the drawers.
Here she found what she wanted. Or at least she hoped it was, she didn’t have time to check. If Matthew knew what she
intended, he’d never forgive her.
Hurriedly, she bundled handfuls of documents into her pockets and down the front of her dress. She grabbed another pile
without looking and fled the room.
Grace prayed guilt wasn’t written on her face when she entered the courtyard. Matthew looked up with a smile when she
ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
appeared. He’d seemed calm, composed this morning, but he’d learned to hide his deepest reactions in a cruel school.
Biting her lip, she forced back tears. She had to be strong. For both of them.
“Come for a walk,” she said huskily.
His marked black brows contracted in a puzzled frown. This wasn’t part of the original plan. “Grace?”
She squared her shoulders as if she prepared for battle. Why not? She did. “Please.”
She didn’t know what he saw in her face but he set down his pruning shears and came to take her arm. “As you wish.”
Wolfram rose and trailed after them.
Silently, they made their way through the sunlit woods. As if by agreement, both stopped in the glade where he’d first
kissed her. That magical moment seemed so long ago. She’d lived a lifetime with him since. A lifetime in a little over two
weeks.
“Are you afraid?” he asked in concern, brushing a few wisps of hair back from her face. She played the widow Paget
today and she’d braided her hair tight around her head.
“Yes, I’m afraid.” Then in a rush, “But I’m more afraid for you.”
His eyebrows arched in surprise. “Me? What can they do to me that they haven’t done before? I’ll be fine. I told you—
my uncle’s control of the Lansdowne gold ends if I die.”
Once she might have believed him. Now she knew better. She’d had time to consider all the implications of his decision
to send her away. With an abrupt gesture, she pushed his hand from her face.
“I know what you intend,” she said curtly. Wolfram whined at her tone and pressed closer to his master’s side.
“I intend to get you back to the real world,” he said in a grim voice, dropping one hand to the dog’s head.
“Yes. Then you’re going to kill Filey and arrange your own death. I’m not a fool, Matthew. You’re only biding your time
until you think I’m safe.” Her voice broke, leaving her resolve to remain cool and pragmatic in ruins. “This may be the
last time we speak to each other. We can’t part on a lie.”
“Grace…” He paused, looking stricken. This attack surprised him, she knew. “What happens to me doesn’t matter.”
“How dare you say that?” she spat. “Of course it matters.”
“I’m not living like an animal in a menagerie until I die of old age. I refuse to let my uncle plunder my inheritance any
longer. I can’t escape this estate without harming the innocent. My only options are life in this prison or death. I choose
death. That is my one freedom.”
“Promise me you’ll wait six months,” she said steadily even while her heart screamed denial at the cold accounting of his
options. He couldn’t die. She wouldn’t permit him to die.
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ABC Amber LIT Converter http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
“Why?” he snapped, goaded into a flash of anger. “Nothing will change.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her stomach cramping with nausea as she pictured the lonely hell she consigned him to.
His anger faded and his lips tilted in a smile, although his eyes were dull with hopelessness. “I’m not, my darling. I’ll die
seeing your face and remembering your voice saying you love me. There are worse ways to leave this world.”
Her brief weakness fled. He sounded resigned to his fate and she wasn’t letting him get away with it. She wouldn’t give
in on this, no matter how her heart keened for his misery. “I don’t want you to leave this world!”
His smile vanished. “Jesus, Grace! Would you rather I sit in this cage like a prize capon until I become mad indeed? If
you love me, leave me the liberty to choose my destiny.”
The moment she’d dreaded since she’d guessed his plans had arrived. She straightened her spine and stared at him,