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"Sillyit" And she was He looked so… well, adorable, kneeling and frowning and holding still while she de-feathered him And it was lovely to play with the thick, shiny layers of his hair, which he never would have allowed in other circu up, impossible to suppress
But as a hter left her throat, and she felt relaxed and almost dreamlike as she continued to pull the fluff from his hair The sound of the croaslike curtains of night and clouds and low, the contours of his face stern and beautiful He see froh she was already finished Her fingers sifted gently through his hair So vibrant, heavy, the shorn locks like velvet pile at the back of his neck
Win’s breath caught as Merripento his feet, but he tugged her closer and took her head in his hands His ainst her lips
She was stunned by the rip She waited, listening to his hard, angry breathing, unable to understand what had provoked hiuttural voice "Nothing"
Win’s lips had turned dry She h a thrill of anxious tre "You have yourself," she whispered
"You don’t know s I’ve done, the things I’m capable of- you and your family, all you know of life co-"
"Make me understand Tellthe both of us," she said unsteadily "Leave o"
"I can’t," he snapped "I can’t, damn you" And before she could make a sound, he kissed her
Her heart thundered, and she opened to hi rance of smoke, and man, and the earthy autuer, his tongue stabbing deep, searching hungrily They knelt together ainst his, closer, harder And every place they touched, she ached She wanted to feel his skin, his muscles bunched and hard beneath her hands
The desire flared high and wild, leaving no roo all this velvet, here and now, and have his ith her She thought of taking him inside her body, and she flushed beneath her clothes, until the crawling heat made her squirm His ive hiue stroking the vulnerable spot until she gasped
Reaching up to his face, she shaped her fingers over his jaw, the heavy grain of shaven beard scraping deli-ciously against her delicate paluided his mouth back to hers Pleasure filled her as she was blindfolded by the darkness and the sensation of him all around her
"Kev," she whispered in between kisses, "I’ve loved you for so-"
He crushed her mouth with his desperately, as if he could smother not only the words but the emotion itself He stole as deep a taste of her as possible, ardently deter to hi with incandescent heat He was all she had ever wanted, all she would ever need
But a sharp breath was torn fro the warto recover equilibriulow of desire faded, Win heard Merripen say roughly, "I can’t be alone with you This can’t happen again"
This, Win decided with a surge of anger, was an ie his feelings for her and wouldn’t explain why Surely she deserved more trust fro to her feet As Merripen stood and reached for her, she pushed ian to shake out her skirts "You are absolutely right, Merripen We should not be alone together, since the result is always a foregone conclusion: you make an advance, I respond, and then you push me away I a, Kev"
He found her bonnet and handed it to her "I know you’re not-"
"You say I don’t know you," she said furiously "Apparently it hasn’t occurred to you that you don’t know me, either You’re quite certain of who I a the past two years You ht at least make an effort to find out what kind of woman I’ve become" She went to the end of the fabric corridor, peeked out to make certain the coast was clear, and she stepped out into the oing?"
Glancing at him, Win was satisfied to see that he looked as ru I’m too cross to enjoy any of the displays now"
"Go the other direction"
Win was silent as Merripen led her from the Crystal Palace She had never felt so unsettled or peevish Her parents had always called irritability an excess of spleen, but Win lacked the experience to comprehend that her ill humor stemmed from a source quite different from the spleen All she kneas that Merripen seemed similarly vexed as he walked beside her
It annoyed her that he didn’t say a word It also annoyed her that he kept pace so easily with her brisk, ground-digging strides, and that when she had begun to breathe hard from exertion, he barely seemed affected by the exercise
Only when they approached the Rutledge did Win break the silence It pleased her that she sounded so calm "I will abide by your wishes, Kev From now on, our relationship will be pi atonic and friendly Nothing more" She paused at the first step and looked up at hiive a rare opportunity… a second chance at life And I intend toto waste my love on a ain"
When Ca before a towering pile of parcels and boxes overfloith ribbons and silk and feminine adornments She turned with a sheepish s a little at the sight of him His collarless shirt was open at the throat, his body al in its sensuous o, she would never have envisioned being aze chased lightly over her, the pink velvet dressing gown open to reveal her che expedition was a success"
"I don’t knohat caetically "You know I’ant I only s But…" She gestured lamely to the piles of fripperies "I seem to have been in an acquisitive mood today"