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She was nothing but feeling, heat coer as he took her with slow, luscious drives He rolled his hps with each forward pitch, repeating the movement until she went crimson and whimpered in a last burst of release And he stayed with her, riding every drawn-out spas to her, he coaxed her to wrap one leg around his waist, and he lifted her other leg until it hooked over his shoulder The position opened her, changed the angle between theain, it caressed a new place inside her Another rush of pleasure started, surging so high and fast that she could hardly breathe She lay still beneath hi as she took hiht possible She was propelled into another clax, strong and dizzying, but before the last tremors had faded, he withdrew abruptly to take his own release, his sex throbbing viciously against her stomach

"Oh, Cat," he said after a while, still over her, his hands gripped in the bedclothes

She turned her face until her lips brushed the rim of his ear The erotic perfume of sex and damp skin filled her nostrils Her pal over the taut surface, and she felt hientle scratch of her nails How re him soften inside her as their pulses slowed What an astonishing assi twinges and pulses in the places they pressed together

Leo lifted his head and looked down at her "Marks," he said, his voice uneven, "you are not a perfect woman"

"I’m aware of that," she said

"You have an evil temper, you’re as blind as a mole, you’re a deplorable poet, and frankly, your French accent could use so himself on his elbows, Leo took her face in his hands "But when I put those things together with the rest of you, it makes you into the most perfectly imperfect woman I’ve ever known"

Absurdly pleased, she smiled up into his face

"You are beautiful beyond words," Leo went on "You are kind, a, and passionate You also have a keen intellect, but I’ to overlook that"

Her se proposal?"

His gaze was intent "I have a special license from the Archbishop’s Court of Faculties We could wed at any church, whenever we please We could be , if you say yes"

Catherine turned her face away fro a frown into the mattress She owed him an answer--she owed him honesty "I’m not certain I’ll ever be able to say yes to that"

Leo was very still "Do you mean only when I propose, or if any man did?"

"Any man," she admitted "It’s only that with you, it’s very difficult to refuse"

"Well, that’s encouraging," he said, although his tone conveyed the opposite

Leo left the bed and went to get a da, he stood beside the bed and watched her "Think of it this way," he said "Marriage would change hardly anything between us, except that ould end our argu way And of course I would have extensive legal rights over your body, your property, and all your individual freedo about that"

His quip al despair Finishing her ablutions, she set the cloth on the bedside table and pulled the bed linens up to her breasts "I wish people were like the clocks andThen I could have whatever is wrong with h, I have so properly"

Leo sat on the side of the bed, his gaze holding hers He extended a ht the back of her neck in his hand, and held her steady His hly, until her head swa his head, he said, "I adore all of your parts exactly as they are" He drew back and touched her taut jawline, his fingers gentle "Can you at least adainst the soft caress "I … it’s obvious that I a the side of her throat

"Whyif it’s obvious?"

But he persisted, da to understand how difficult it was for her "It’s only a feords" His thumb brushed the hard, anxious pulse at the base of her neck "Don’t be afraid"

"Please, I can’t--"

"Say it"

Catherine couldn’t look at hied a shaking whisper "I’ to draw her close "Was that so bad?"

Her body renched with the longing to huddle against his inviting chest But instead she put her ar a crucial distance "It makes no difference," she forced herself to say "In fact, it ave her a quizzical glance "Worse?"

"Yes, because I can never give you anything ardless of what you claie your sisters have The way Amelia is with Cam, the devotion and intimacy … you’ll want that too"

"I don’t want intimacy with Cam"

"Don’t joke about it," she said wretchedly "This is serious"

"I’m sorry," came his quiet reply "Sometimes serious conversations make me uncomfortable, and I tend to resort to hu to tell me But what if I say that attraction and fondness would be enough?"

"I wouldn’t believe you Because I kno unhappy you would beco how devoted your parents were to each other, and knowing that ours was a counterfeit by comparison A parody"