.
Leah didn’t know how to respond to William’s question, so she gave him the first answer that came to mind. “I’m unsure what you are referring to.”
She found out two things a moment later. One, William knew she knew exactly what he was talking about and two, he’d been holding a great deal of his body back from her. A shift later and he was sinking into her, pressing her more firmly on the mattress while settling his large, hard, and heavy frame firmly against her.
A curl of heat blossomed in her lower body at recognizing what usually happened when a man had her in this position. She’d had two lovers in her life, but nothing had felt this wonderful. William was more solid, as though his bones were made of steel and his muscles shaped with stone.
She had to fight every driving urge within her not to slide her hands down to his shoulders and pull him even a fraction closer.
It was then she realized that she still had a grip on his face and was at the moment pressing her nails into him.
“Oh! Pardon me.” Her hands flew to her side.
He chuckled. “It’s fair that you’d attack me. I am, after all, in your room and on your bed.”
She thought him right about that, though she’d not been clawing at him from a need to flee. It had been want driving her.
It still did as she gripped two handfuls of the bedding.
William’s laughter died from his eyes, and he became as unyielding as the jaw she’d touched. Already an afternoon shadow was appearing. “Why is Sudworth so protective of you?”
“He’s that way with all the women.” And her brother did care for the women and their safety. Mr. James had not been the first husband to have found his wife at the Spinster’s House.
“No.” William was not letting her get away with that answer. “There’s more there.” His green eyes were unsettling. “Does he have some sort of right to you?”
“We’re not that way,” she told him. “I’m more like… a sister to him than anything else.” How close she was to spilling the truth. “My relationship with Mr. Sudworth is not like…”
“Ours,” he finished for her and added a grin that made her toes curl.
She rolled her eyes. “You’re crushing me.”
“And you’re a liar.”
Her head snapped up, and she was surprised to find that he was still smiling. “You’re an odd man, Sir William. Most gentlemen would take only an honest woman to bed.”
“Oh, you’re honest enough.” His hand, which had been by her head, settled on her hip and squeezed. “Honest where it counts.”
She stifled a moan even as she felt her vision blur. She stared up at him through half-lidded eyes. “You’re ruining my reputation in this house by being in here.” Though from the scandalous murmurs she’d been hearing from the women lately, she was more likely to be envied.
He lifted a brow and then lifted a hand to rest his head on, a position that said he had no plans of moving anytime soon. “How strange that you would think about what the other women thought and not your husband. After all, if I did the things I wanted to do to you right now, we’d be engaging in an illicit affair.” He was trying to corner her again, seek out the truth in her story.
He’d not get it.
She looked away and pulled in her first breath of clean air. Only the faintest whiffs of his inebriating scent entered her lungs. “You’re wetting my bed.” And since there were no maids in the Spinster House except for the housekeeper and the cook, Leah was expected to take care of her own bedding just like the other women.
“It serves you right for dumping water on me.”
She stared at her blank wall even as a small smile formed on her lips. “You did that to yourself. I told you not to come in.”
“While knowing I’d do the exact opposite.” He pushed himself farther down, moving between her legs. It was only then that Leah noticed her skirt had been lifted. The brush of his cold pants and the hard thighs underneath them pressing to her stocking-covered thighs was a shock to her system. While she’d been very aware of the hand he’d showed her, she’d forgotten about the other.
His hand landed on her knee, the pads scraping her flesh. Every part of her body became attuned with him.
She turned back to him and found the hard planes of his face without emotion, but those eyes had turned forest green. “What are you doing?”
His hand didn’t move. “I’m checking the damage I’ve caused. I want to see how wet you are.”
Like the stroke of flint to stone, she went up in flames at the crudeness underlining his words.
He moved higher up her body, and Leah felt the press of another very hard part of his body as it grazed her most intimate place. She made a startled noise of pleasure before she stopped herself.
“Shall I stop?” His hand sat firmly on her knee and though it didn’t move an inch, it muddled her mind.
She didn’t want him to stop. What she wanted to do was press forward and rub her lower body over the evidence of his desire for her. He didn’t even have to move. At this rate, she’d reach her peak in seconds.
“Is that a yes?” He leaned down and brushed his mouth over hers.
The shock of it had the effect of clearing her mind.
William kissed her and immediately her mind went to the past, to the boy she’d loved…
Before he killed Starlight. Her poor innocent cat. He was always rough. He’d always played so roughly with her. Even now, he was being aggressive.
That old anger was weak, yet still, she clung to it and allowed it to burn away any lingering need she had for him in her body. A desperate act that worked. “My pride may not be frail, but I still hold some dignity. I’ll not pay you with my body.”
In a blink, his eyes showed confusion and then in the next flash, they changed to something feral and he rose from the bed, scrabbling away as though he’d discovered her bed to be full of snakes. “I would never ask that of you.” He was clearly angry at the idea she’d implied he would.
He moved his hands through his hair and turned away. Had she hurt him? “I’m sorry if you think that’s what I intended to do.” He wouldn’t meet her eyes.
She straightened and a great part of her wanted to reach out and take him into her arms. She’d not meant to cause him pain, only anger him. But she didn’t move. Anything that would push William away was better than the other options. He was dangerous, she reminded herself. She’d sensed death in him when Zed had shouted his command through the door. Why her brother had tested a man like William she wasn’t sure, and she’d been forced to calm William down herself.
Calming him had turned out to calm her as well. It had felt right to touch him, and she’d been thrilled that she’d been capable of pulling him from that dark place.
But no more. They were getting too close.
“I’ve another dress in the laundry room. If you could have one of the girls get it for me—”
“I’ll do that.” He turned to the door. “And then you’ll meet me downstairs for dinner.”
“Why?”
He stopped with his hand on the open doorframe. “Because this isn’t over.” Then he was gone, and Leah had no clue what he’d been referring to.