he sun was rising over London, painting the sky with fingers of brilliant yellow and bold orange, by the time Clara tied the robe on her dressing gown and slipped into Julian’s chamber. A flurry of activity had descended upon the household in the moments after the gunshot rang out. The authorities had been called, statements taken. Word had been sent to the Whitney residence that all was well and that Lord and Lady Ravenscroft were safe at last, merely in need of some rest.
It was finally over. Relief and shock still pulsated through her, leaving her mind as thick as London fog. But there was one thing she knew: she and Julian had been given a second chance, and she meant to take it.
He stood with his back to her, his tall, lean form clad in only a dressing gown as well, his feet bare. He had the curtains pulled back, and he was still as a marble statue, surveying the street below.
Her hands shook as she crossed the room to him so she folded them together at her waist. She had killed a man tonight, and though she would make the same choice again in a heartbeat, she regretted the necessity. If only there had been another way.
She hadn’t wanted to do it. Though she was a crack shot and always had been, she’d never had need of that particular skill until tonight. But greed and jealousy had turned Julian’s brother into a madman, and he wouldn’t have stopped until he’d killed them both.
She stopped a few feet from her husband, feeling hesitant despite his earlier words of love. He seemed to be unaware of her approach. Had he been in shock when he’d told her he loved her? Did he regret it now? Dear God, she hoped not.
“Julian,” she said quietly.
He turned away from the grim vigil he’d been keeping, his beautiful face hard and tense. As his gaze settled on hers, he softened, holding his arms open to her. “My love.”
She didn’t hesitate. In another breath, she launched herself into his chest. He caught her to him, holding her tight. Her breasts crushed against him, and without the barrier of her everyday layers, each inch of his hard maleness was a delicious, reassuring thing. She held him with a matching fervor, desperate to be as close to him as she possibly could after coming so close to losing him for the second time. He pressed a kiss into her unbound curls.
“Thank God you weren’t hurt.” His voice was a low, deep rumble. Beloved. “I could hold you forever and it wouldn’t be long enough.”
She listened for a moment to the steady, reassuring thud of his heart beneath her ear before speaking. “I’m so sorry, Julian.”
“It is I who should be apologizing to you, for bringing you into this mess. What can you be sorry for, darling?” He withdrew a bit to look down at her, his vibrant eyes probing.
Clara hesitated, her mind grappling with what she had done. “Your brother. I’m so sorry…I didn’t want to do what I did.”
“Jesus, Clara.” He cupped her face. “You saved my bloody life. You saved our lives. Edward was unhinged. He tried to kill each of us on two separate occasions, and tonight he would have succeeded if it weren’t for your bravery. Never be sorry for that. Christ knows I won’t.”
She searched his expression, feeling the guilt that had been festering inside her in the hours since she’d shot Edward begin to dissipate. “But he was your brother. And I…I killed a man, Julian.”
“You were fearless,” he said gently, rubbing his thumb over the fullness of her bottom lip. “My own plucky Virginia girl. You mustn’t let this weigh on your heart. If I’d had a pistol, I would have shot him myself. He was mad, and was bent on murder. You did the only thing you could have done.”
She believed him, and the last of the guilt lifted from her. “I couldn’t bear for anything to happen to you. I would do it again.”
“Ah, my love.” He crushed her mouth beneath his on a groan, his lips taking hers in a fierce, claiming kiss. “I don’t deserve your goodness or your daring. I don’t deserve a single, goddamn thing about you. I don’t deserve you, little dove.”
“Don’t say that.” Reverently, she traced the contours of his face. The slash of his jaw, the hollows of his cheeks, the high, proud bones above it. She absorbed the prickle of his whiskers, the comforting heat of him, the sensual curve of his lips. “Don’t ever say such nonsense again. I’ll not hear of it.”
“It must be said.” His voice was harsh, steeped in self-deprecation. “Everything I told you about myself was true, Clara. Everything you’ve heard about me, I’ve no doubt, is true and then some. I’m not a good man. I’ve done things in my life that I deeply regret. As my wife, scandal will always follow you. Some doors will never be opened to you because of me. My past will always dog me.”
“Hush,” she cried out, her heart hurting for him, for the complete vulnerability he revealed to her. “I don’t care about your past.”
“But you should, Clara.” He tone was passionless, relentless. “I’m giving you this chance now to leave me. I damn well should have given it to you before, but I wanted you too much. From the moment you stepped into my study in that godforsaken hat, I knew I’d do anything to have you. You were beautiful and innocent, so much the opposite of every woman I’d ever known, and I couldn’t bear the thought of any other man having you. I told your father I’d ruined you. I bargained for your dowry. I never intended for you to leave for Virginia.”
“Julian,” she tried to interrupt, wanting to tell him that none of it mattered. That she loved him. That she too would do anything to have him.
But he wasn’t finished. “No, you need to hear this. You need to listen and make your own choice. I tried to take your choice from you once, and I won’t do it again. I love and respect you far too much for that. If I’d been the kind of man who is worthy of you, I’d have sent you on your way that day in my study without touching you. I wouldn’t have dragged you into my sordid world, wouldn’t have put you in danger. But I did, and now we’re both paying for it. So for Christ’s sake, Clara, listen to me when I tell you again that I am no good for you. You should leave me. I won’t keep you from Virginia. I won’t keep your dowry. Say the words now, and I’ll let you walk out that door and on to the life you long for.”
She swallowed against the emotion brimming within her, framing his beloved face in her hands. “This is the life I long for, with you. I love you. I love you more than I ever imagined possible. You are the only man for me.”
“Clara, think this through. I’ll not stand in your way. I’m offering you what you’ve always wanted, the very objective that led you to my study that first night.” He paused, his countenance equal parts harsh and forbidding. “You can return to Virginia, free and unencumbered, with all your dowry at your disposal. I’ll not keep a ha’penny.”
“I’ve already thought it through, Julian.” She beamed up at him, happiness swelling within her like a hot air balloon, displacing all the tumult of the night. He loved her so much that he would set her free. Her strong, sensual, beautiful man. So many people had wronged him. She would not be yet another. “As I already told you, my home is with you. My place is at your side. Do you love me?”
“Hell yes I love you,” he all but growled. “Never doubt that. I love you so much that I can barely think straight.”
“Then that is all the answer you need.” She kissed him then, taking his mouth with hers for a change, sliding her tongue inside to invade and claim the same way he’d done to her. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Jesus.” He kissed her again, his eyes traveling over her face, her body, her lips. Almost as if he didn’t quite trust himself. As if he didn’t believe she was real. “I love you so bloody much. Do you mean it, little dove? Will you stay with me?”
She didn’t need to think. “Forever if you’ll have me.”
A low sound tore from him. “Of course I’ll have you. You’re the only woman I want. My only love. Now and forever. Last chance to run, darling.”
Not a chance, the silly man. How she loved him. She shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere. Now kiss me, if you please.”
“With pleasure.” His mouth descended, claiming and hungry. An almost frantic need took over them both. His tongue slid inside to duel with hers.
She wanted his bare, heated flesh, his body atop hers. A hollow ache pulsed between her thighs, wetness flooding there as he plundered. She raked her seeking fingers over his broad back, his strong shoulders. Her nails sank into his tight buttocks, and then she traveled over his lean waist to the knot on his robe, her fingers making short work of it.
He gripped her dressing down in both hands and tore it apart, heedless of the belt as he ravished her mouth. The silken robe fell to the floor, leaving her bare for him. His hands were everywhere. Kneading her breasts, thumbs working over her hard nipples, branding her curves.
“Mine,” he whispered reverently, dragging his mouth down her throat, nipping and licking and kissing as he went.
“Yes.” Her complete surrender was torn from her, so easy, so right. There was nothing else she wanted in the world than to be in her husband’s arms now in this moment, reveling in their love. “Take me, Julian. Make me yours forever.”
Julian’s fingers dipped into the folds of her sex, finding the pearl that made her mindless with want. “You’re so wet for me.” He sucked a nipple into his mouth, raked his teeth over the sensitive nub, gave her a gentle bite that had her crying out and her knees going weak. He caught her to him when she would have turned into an aspic, puddling to the floor. “Tell me what you want, my love.” He kissed the curve of her breast.
Desire surged through her, coiling in the center of her being, the very core of her where she longed for him most. “You, my love. Take me. Please.” She tore his robe off him at last, mindless in her need for him.
He took her in his arms, carrying her to his bed before depositing her gently in the center. In the next moment, he was atop her, his powerful body between her thighs, spreading them wide. He rained kisses over her skin, from breasts to thigh to the inside of her knee. Lower, to her calf. Higher to the jut of her hip bone. And then, when she thought she’d melt with desire, his dark head settled between her thighs.
“Mine,” he said again, the word a delicious brand against her most sensitive flesh. “Come for me, little dove.” And then he licked her, plumping the bud of her sex before tracing wetly over her seam. His tongue sank inside her in long, hot thrusts before he replaced it with his fingers. When he nipped at her pearl and worked it in slow slashes, he sank inside her so deep that she couldn’t contain herself. She cried out, finding her release, her body twisting and jerking into his.
“Yes, my love, just like that.” Lovingly, he ran his tongue over her, lapping up the wetness of her spend, savoring her in a way that made a fresh onslaught of desire make her weak.
And then he was over her, above her, his thighs between hers, spreading her wide. “Tell me what you want,” he commanded, his voice strained.
The hard tip of him nudged her folds. She reached between their bodies, grasping his velvety length and stroking. “You,” she said. “I want you, my darling husband.”
“Put me inside you.”
Clara guided him to the hungriest part of her, tipping her hips to welcome him at the same moment he pushed inside. The breath hissed from his lungs as he thrust into her, hard and sure. They rode the wave of pleasure as one, bodies slamming together, eager, desperate, longing. She reached her climax at the same moment he found his. He pulsed inside her, his seed a warm, delicious flood inside her sated body.
Slowly, they both descended back to earth together. He kissed her throat, took her lips, grazed her jaw. “I love you, Clara. I love you so bloody much it hurts.”
She held him to her, kissed him back with all the love in her heart. “And I love you,” she whispered. “I love you so.”
He stared into her eyes, beautiful and fierce and beloved. “Do you promise, little dove? You’ll not change your mind and long to go back to Virginia without me one day? I made you choose between the place you loved and me once, and I’ll not do it again.”
She kissed him lingeringly. “I promise. And if I ever do go back to Virginia, it will only be with you by my side.”
Julian pressed his forehead to hers and closed his eyes. “Thank you, my love. I’ll do my damnedest to see that you never regret choosing me.”
Clara smiled, heart bursting with love. “I have no fears on that account, my darling man. You’re quite stuck with this Virginia hoyden.”
He grinned. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
And then he kissed her again.