The Lady Confesses by Carole Mortimer

Author:Carole Mortimer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-12-06T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

‘There is no need to look quite so stricken, Elizabeth,’ Nathaniel murmured as he stood beside the fireplace, the force of their lovemaking, and the pain from his now aching ribs rendering him completely sober. He had righted his pantaloons in the past few minutes and pulled on his shirt to leave it hanging loosely over the top of them to hide his still-burgeoning arousal. No doubt it would remain that way for some time to come!

‘How can I not be stricken?’ Elizabeth had refastened her gown, but her curls were still in disarray and her face was now flushed with mortification. She could not even meet his gaze as she stood across the room from him. ‘What if Mrs Wilson had decided to come into the library to say goodnight to you?’

‘She did not,’ Nathaniel said soothingly.

‘But—’

‘There are enough things to worry about tonight, without troubling yourself over something that did not happen,’ he said wryly, reaching for his brandy glass and downing the contents in one swallow, welcoming the burning sensation down his throat before that warmth hit his stomach.

Elizabeth breathed in indignantly. ‘Of course I must trouble myself—what things…?’ she prompted warily as the rest of his comment obviously pierced that indignation.

Nathaniel eyed her with a touch of exasperation. ‘Such as how we are to continue here together in future.’

‘Continue?’

‘Really, Elizabeth…’ he sighed ‘…you are not usually so lacking in intelligence.’

‘I am not in the least lacking in intelligence now, my lord—’

‘Call me Nathaniel!’ he ordered as he moved forwards suddenly. Only to come to an abrupt halt as she instantly took a step away from him. His eyes narrowed. ‘Have I shocked you so much you are now frightened to even be near me?’

It was not Nathaniel whom Elizabeth was frightened of, but her own responses to him!

As for being shocked? How could she not be shocked at her own forwardness? How could she not wish to run away to her bedchamber and hide beneath the covers on her bed at the thought of the intimacies they had just shared? That she had allowed herself to indulge in?

For self-indulgence it had certainly been to give in to the desire she had known to not only touch Nathaniel with her hands, but with her lips and tongue… Elizabeth could still taste him now, that addictive, salty-sweet taste. Could still feel the velvet softness of his skin as it encased the long and throbbing length of his arousal, a living, moving entity almost beyond his control.

All of it so much…different, to what Elizabeth had imagined it might be. And all of her behaviour was so shocking to herself that she could not even look Nathaniel in the eye, but instead concentrated her gaze somewhere over his left shoulder. ‘I will tell Mrs Wilson first thing tomorrow that I must leave her employment—’

‘Why must you?’ he demanded.

Now Elizabeth did look at him, her heart faltering in her chest at the coldness of his expression as he looked down the length of his aristocratic nose at her.

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