An Unexpected Love by Serena Lindahl

Author:Serena Lindahl [Lindahl, Serena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-03-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 33

Malcolm

Every minute I spent with Jo increased my comprehension of my brother's attitude. I’d noticed her unique nature and the qualities which outshone the other debutantes when I’d first met her, but the relaxed atmosphere of the inn furthered my understanding. Unless I said something that caused her to retreat within herself, I realized that she was even more different here. She was free from the constant worries about etiquette, propriety, and the decorum our stations required.

An epiphany hit me like a blow to the head. This is how she would act as a wife when such things like propriety no longer mattered. It was a brutal reminder that society’s restrictive rules didn’t allow nobles to interact with their future spouses before marriage. Strict regulations, chaperones, and the imminent threat of scandal thoroughly trapped them into specific ways of acting and speaking. In addition, many reasons influenced a match, and compatibility was typically of least importance. Perhaps the inability to honestly know whom one would spend the rest of their life with was the primary reason numerous lords and ladies resorted to affairs, abuse, or separate rooms and stiff interactions.

I’d always believed that the love at first sight my parents had shared was one of a kind, but they might not have felt the same had they met as equals. Mama’s lack of a title likely freed her from the standard expectations and revealed the woman underneath.

Christian had also hinted at Jo’s desire. He’d spoken of it as an almost separate entity, like a force of nature. I’d considered him fanciful until I glimpsed it myself. Joela Kemp wasn’t a courtesan. She wasn’t trained in seduction, and she spent most of her life trying to hide her gender. Perhaps that’s why her passion simmered just under her skin’s surface when we were around her.

I’d worried that her desire had been specific to Christian, but her body spoke for her. The slight intake of her breath when I’d pulled her onto my lap, the subconscious pliancy of her body in my arms, and the way her flesh trembled all conspired to expose her reaction to my touch.

I also surmised that she wore nothing but a thin chemise under the magnificent dress, and I wondered if it was the extravagant and sheer garment I’d included on a whim. Layers of fabric hadn’t hidden the curves of her buttocks on my thighs. Realizing this, I’d had to distance myself and turn the topics to business and shipping before she discovered that a particular part of my body responded forcefully to her nearness.

Men and women alike might judge her for desiring both my brother and me, but I found the revelation entirely understandable. Christian and I possessed many similarities, and my brother had mentioned her repressed appetite. I examined her lust from a different perspective. If I had sustained celibacy for the past five years, I would also possess a greater hunger. By all accounts and her drunken admission at the manor, she also liked Benjamin.

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