His eyes on hers, he raised one of her hands to his lips and brushed a soft kiss to the backs of her fingers. “I want you. I want you to be mine—to be my wife. I want you to share your life with me and become the lynchpin of mine.” He lowered her hand, but continued to hold her gaze as he softly said, “After this afternoon, that’s what I want. You.”
Felicia had stopped breathing; as the last word sank into her soul and resonated there, she dragged in a shallow, shaky breath and tightened her grip on his fingers. Holding fast to that anchor, holding hard to his gaze, she gathered her courage. Sincerity and honesty were the strengths behind his words; standing before him in the moonlight, she wanted to—felt compelled to—give him the same. “No simple phrase can carry enough meaning to respond to that.” Her heart thudded in her chest, its cadence a compulsion all its own. “You arriving at the Hall, you being the man you are, was the catalyst that opened my eyes on so many levels. Because of you, I found my talent for helping with inventions and, finally, gained some understanding of my father and William John. Because of you, I’ve lifted my head and seen that my life’s horizons are much broader than I’d known. But most importantly, you and your regard have brought me to see the possibility of a different type of partnership.”
She paused, her eyes steady on his as, in her mind, she looked back over the last days. “I didn’t know how you felt—that you felt this way about me—but you had already said enough to make me consider, to make me think about how I felt about you. And yes, this afternoon brought a revelation for me as well. When I realized what Mayhew intended and how his plans would inevitably affect me and the future I wanted...in that moment, just how desperately I wanted that future struck home.”
Again, she paused, needing to ensure that her next words carried the full weight of her own sincerity, her own honesty. “The events of the afternoon rendered in stark clarity what I need to make me whole—to give me the chance to live my life, to live a full and rounded life, to the very best of my abilities.”
He shifted fractionally closer; his fingers gripped hers more tightly. The intensity of his focus on her never wavered. “And what is that thing you need to make you whole?”
She let her lips curve, let her eyes light with the emotion behind her answer. “You.”
His smile bloomed, then she was in his arms. She moved into his embrace as his arms closed about her. She tipped up her head as he lowered his, and his lips found hers.
Anticipation and promise—both were equally vibrant in that kiss. Equally heady.
His lips moved on hers, tantalizing and tempting. She kissed him back, following his lead, wanting, needing, hungry for more.
The kiss drew out, sensations stretching and spinning—an unspoken vow in the silvery night.
She broke for just a second to murmur against his lips, “I want you. I need you.” She gripped his lapels for emphasis.
He feathered kisses over her jaw and cheeks. “Not half as much as I need and want you.”
Their lips met again, fused again. This time, it was he who drew back, just a fraction, to say, “You called this a different partnership. That’s what I want, too. I want a marriage of minds as well as bodies.”
She looked up at him and wouldn’t have been surprised if he saw stars in her eyes. “Sharing inventions as well as a family?”
“Precisely.” He held her gaze for several seconds—as if committing to that and reading her corresponding acceptance—then he bent his head and their lips met again, and this time, metaphorically, he took her hand and drew her into the dance.
Into the swirling whirl of their desires, into the heat of their rising passions.
His lips turned demanding, commanding, and, eager to learn what more lay in store, she parted her lips, and he plunged into her mouth and explored.
He kissed her deeply, in patent relief and with a passion their words had freed from all restraint.
Gladly, exuberantly, she followed him into the burgeoning flames, returning each caress with equal fervor. For long moments, they communed in the dark, exploring and learning, clinging to each other as their senses waltzed and their wits fell away.
With deliberate focus, she set her senses free—let them soar.
Opening herself to the moment, sinking herself into the kiss, she set herself to savor every moment, every nuance.
Every thudding beat of her heart, the steadily escalating heat of the kiss
, the increasing hardness of the muscled arms that surrounded her and held her to him. The potent thrust of his tongue that she welcomed with her own, prelude to a more intimate joining.
She wanted to—needed to—get closer. She pressed herself to him and gloried in the hard ridge that impressed itself against the softness of her belly. She might be an innocent, but she was no prude; the raw evidence of his desire for her set her pulse racing.
Sliding her hands up, over the contours of his heavily muscled chest—drinking in its splendor yet again—she raised her palms to his cheeks and framed them, the better to meet his heated forays as he devoured her with single-minded passion.
Her senses, her wits, had drawn in; she no longer had any interest beyond the merging of their mouths—beyond following the path that had opened between them and merging their bodies and, ultimately, their lives.
Between them, the heat and an increasingly explicit hunger grew and swelled. Welled, until it became a pounding beat in her blood, a driving force too powerful to deny.
On a gasp, she pulled back, although their lips parted by less than an inch. They were both breathing raggedly. Giddy, her lips all but brushing his, she whispered, “Is it wrong to want to give in to this—this hunger, this need? To fling all restraint to the wind and follow this path to its ultimate end?”
She raised her lids enough to see him do the same. Their gazes met and held.
He looked into her eyes and, with simple candor, replied, “We’re going to marry. I’ll be your husband, and you’ll be my wife. Between us, indulging our desires—yours for me, and mine for you—will now and forever be our right.”