please Merry. Her smile was broader and her eyes brighter. She slipped her hands down her legs, the movements unintentionally seductive. She fixed her fingers around her toes. The youthful gesture touched his heart.
“You may sit on the bed while I explain. I am not going to hit you if that’s why you are hovering by the door, Varian. I have never once been afraid of you. I would not be in your bed in fear of your fury.”
He watched as her sapphire gaze raised to squarely meet his and then took on a faint wash of amusement. The tautness of his body held him at the door for moment, before he moved to sink on the bed beside her, close but careful not to touch her. He must do this right, in slow tenderness.
When she didn’t speak, he said, “Are you going to explain? I am too uncertain to be hopeful yet.”
Merry laughed, as she broke their separateness by touching his hand with a finger. Every nerve in his body felt as though it were beginning to blister. His heart filled with both his joy and his regret.
He didn’t want her this way, not in a manner so much less than she deserved, and he knew there was no change of course in this for either of them. Merry had chosen the wrong path, to be his mistress rather than his wife. Still, he wanted to do this in the manner she deserved.
“It is not often I unravel you enough to understand you, so let me take my time in this,” she said.
“You have been unraveling me since your first night on my ship,” he told her softly.
“Good, then we are even in yet another way.” After a pause. “You are a complicated man. You are villainous in reputation. However, you don’t ever behave in a villainous manner. The current fashion in London is all things Greek. You are elegant and fashionable in all things. But, you did not name this ship out of mockery of the current fashion. You, you insufferable man, named it from the bible. I would venture more precisely, 1 Corinthian ’s Chapter 13. Even more precisely, these passages: ‘Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interest, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.’”
He couldn’t speak. It was not possible to give voice into the beauty of her at this moment.
Merry laughed softly. “Do you know how much you flatter me with your silence? Would you like to know how I figured this out? It is why I am in your bed.”
Holding onto her with his gaze, cautioning himself to move slowly in this, his hands covered hers. He brought her fingers to his lips. After a light kiss, he took a breath and said, “I want it all.”
The pleasure of his fingers clasping hers was different, so much headier, than at any other time. She was just beginning to understand the startling strength of what he felt for her. The kiss, even in her fear and nervousness of what she would later do with him, had a calming affect that returned to her composure to finish.
Merry’s voice was one of airy sureness. “It might have made me less furious with you in Virginia if I had realized the words you spoke were not poetic verse, but a passage from the bible. ‘When the perfect comes the partial will pass away.’ I am not as obedient to my faith as you are, Varian. It took me awhile to recognize it. It put many things into less troubling perspective. I was wrong in my suspicions of you at Winderly. You were sincere in your heart in every word and with what you offered me. Your proposal was not a meaningless gesture to trick me into your bed. Just as the name of this ship is not meaningless to you. All the things you do hold the air of significance because they all have meaning. This ship and Morgan, so unlike the man you are, are tied to Rensdale and the death of your wife.”
“I
“You may sit on the bed while I explain. I am not going to hit you if that’s why you are hovering by the door, Varian. I have never once been afraid of you. I would not be in your bed in fear of your fury.”
He watched as her sapphire gaze raised to squarely meet his and then took on a faint wash of amusement. The tautness of his body held him at the door for moment, before he moved to sink on the bed beside her, close but careful not to touch her. He must do this right, in slow tenderness.
When she didn’t speak, he said, “Are you going to explain? I am too uncertain to be hopeful yet.”
Merry laughed, as she broke their separateness by touching his hand with a finger. Every nerve in his body felt as though it were beginning to blister. His heart filled with both his joy and his regret.
He didn’t want her this way, not in a manner so much less than she deserved, and he knew there was no change of course in this for either of them. Merry had chosen the wrong path, to be his mistress rather than his wife. Still, he wanted to do this in the manner she deserved.
“It is not often I unravel you enough to understand you, so let me take my time in this,” she said.
“You have been unraveling me since your first night on my ship,” he told her softly.
“Good, then we are even in yet another way.” After a pause. “You are a complicated man. You are villainous in reputation. However, you don’t ever behave in a villainous manner. The current fashion in London is all things Greek. You are elegant and fashionable in all things. But, you did not name this ship out of mockery of the current fashion. You, you insufferable man, named it from the bible. I would venture more precisely, 1 Corinthian ’s Chapter 13. Even more precisely, these passages: ‘Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interest, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.’”
He couldn’t speak. It was not possible to give voice into the beauty of her at this moment.
Merry laughed softly. “Do you know how much you flatter me with your silence? Would you like to know how I figured this out? It is why I am in your bed.”
Holding onto her with his gaze, cautioning himself to move slowly in this, his hands covered hers. He brought her fingers to his lips. After a light kiss, he took a breath and said, “I want it all.”
The pleasure of his fingers clasping hers was different, so much headier, than at any other time. She was just beginning to understand the startling strength of what he felt for her. The kiss, even in her fear and nervousness of what she would later do with him, had a calming affect that returned to her composure to finish.
Merry’s voice was one of airy sureness. “It might have made me less furious with you in Virginia if I had realized the words you spoke were not poetic verse, but a passage from the bible. ‘When the perfect comes the partial will pass away.’ I am not as obedient to my faith as you are, Varian. It took me awhile to recognize it. It put many things into less troubling perspective. I was wrong in my suspicions of you at Winderly. You were sincere in your heart in every word and with what you offered me. Your proposal was not a meaningless gesture to trick me into your bed. Just as the name of this ship is not meaningless to you. All the things you do hold the air of significance because they all have meaning. This ship and Morgan, so unlike the man you are, are tied to Rensdale and the death of your wife.”
“I
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