The Undoing of a Libertine (Somerset Historicals 2)

“Indeed you have done.” Jeremy chuckled despite the circumstances.

“Does that laugh mean you’re ready to come back to bed now?” she asked.

“How could you even want me back there with you?”

“Because it is where you belong. And…we are the happiest of lovers, remember?”

His breath punched out in a gush. He hadn’t realized he was holding it in. “Still?”

“I am certain of the fact.”

“After that—after I was so rough in bedding you? How can it be, Gina?”

She set down her candle on the floor and deliberately plopped onto his lap. She wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. God, she felt and smelled divine, her hair just under his nose. He folded his hands together over her hip to secure her, the lovely warmth of her melting his cold dread instantly. Miracles of miracles, she wasn’t disgusted or afraid of him!

“My feelings for you will not be denied. I am right where I want to be, next to you. And I know you have never hurt me or scared me or made me frightened of anything you’ve done, ever.”

“But I saw your face! You had tears, and you looked stricken, and I marked your neck all up! I am so sorry—”

She put her fingers over his mouth again. “You misinterpreted what you saw.” She stroked his lips softly, the pads of her fingers following the curves. “Jeremy, I did have some tears and I may have looked stricken to you, but it was not from fear, rather the shattering pleasure—”

“Truly?” he cut in.

She nodded slowly. “Truly. I was in disbelief from what we’d done, and you took those signs to mean I’d been frightened and you tore off before I could explain.”

He took her face in both of his hands and just held it for a moment. “I adore you. And I only want to show you, but I made a bloody mess of it. Gina, I know I let my self-control slip tonight, and I fell into behavior I swore I’d never show to you.”

“You don’t want to be like that with me?”

“No.”

“But what if I want you to be—” She frowned at him. “Well, I suppose it is forgivable to let your self-control slip when in the throes of what…we did tonight.” He could tell she blushed even though the light was too dim to see it. “I know I had no self-control when it was happening to me.” She whispered the rest to him. “You should know that I—I liked it—the whole thing—and I hope we do it again sometime.” She kept her head down when she was done.

Can this be happening? Can she be real? Jeremy was in utter shock at what she was saying to him. Could his beautiful Gina, traumatic experience and all, be telling him she liked what he’d done to her? Not offended by the hard fucking? Because that was what it’d been. He loved her, yes, but he’d fucked her all the same. But as impossible as he thought it to be, it seemed she didn’t have a problem with the rough ride he’d just given her.

He met foreheads with her and whispered back, “Are you real?”

“Yes.” She made a soft sound, halfway between a laugh and a sigh.

He had to shake his head in disbelief, rocking their heads together. “You amaze me and I don’t deserve you, but still I count myself among the luckiest of men.”

She snuggled down against his chest, and he gripped her a little tighter. “Do you feel better now?” She spoke at his throat.

“Much better.” He kissed the top of her head.

“Better enough to come back to bed? ’Tis like ice in here.”

“God, yes! For I think my arse is truly frozen to this marble bench I was stupid enough to sit on.”

She laughed at him and slipped off his lap. “Come on then. I promise to warm you.”

“Hmmm, I cannot wait to be privy to your methods.” He leaned in behind her to whisper at her ear, his mind running rampant at the idea of what they’d do to find warmth together. “You’re exceptionally skilled at warming me.”

“Thank you for the compliment, lover.” Georgina bent down to retrieve her candle from the floor, and as the flame was lifted, it illuminated the painting behind it. Her soft gasp caught his attention.

“Who is that, Jeremy?”

He put his eyes on the painting again. “It is my mother, Clarissa.”