If Love Were Enough by Suzanne Quill

you know your sister-in-law? Do you know she can be most forceful when she has her mind set?”
    Priscilla’s voice was soft when she spoke, “I know her well enough to know you are correct. Anne can be very focused when she has decided upon a purpose.”
    His eyes came back to her. “Well, it seems I am her current purpose through no desire, nor intent of my own. She would not leave her hands off me and when I gathered both of them up so that she could not handle my more private parts she dropped to her knees and used her mouth.”
    Brandon felt his skin flush from his chest to his ears. He never realized how difficult it would be to discuss matters such as these. There had never been a need.
    “Since I had already been aroused by my unexpected, surreptitious voyeur activities of you, it was almost beyond my control to refrain from responding to her flagrant fondling. But I did manage to push her away. I picked up my clothing and left her standing at the lake. She called after me saying she expected I would succumb to her charms, eventually.”
    “Did you not enjoy her ministrations, my lord?” Priscilla’s voice was cool, aloof. “I would expect she is very practiced and knows how to please a man, particularly one she desires.”
    Brandon caught her gaze again before answering. “Eventually one should learn, Priscilla, that pure physical gratification is somewhat lacking when compared to relationships that meet on other planes as well. I fear Lady Anne has not yet discovered this fact. Or, it may be, she has no desire to discern the difference.”
    Priscilla looked down, released her pendant, pulled a blade of grass from its home then rolled it between her fingers with intense study. “I am afraid, Brandon, I have no more to bring to such an interlude than my sister-in-law.”
    Brandon reached to stop the motion of her fingers, pleased when her gaze came back up to meet his. “Would you accost a man who did not want you, Priscilla? Would you have an affair with someone you did not have feelings for, you were not drawn to? I think not. You are not the kind of woman to tease and lead on. No, I think you may have limited experience in some ways, but I doubt you are so callous or cavalier you would act like Anne does. So tell me, now. It’s your turn. Why do you make me promise not to touch you? Why will you not let our affair become one of true consummation?”
    Priscilla turned her face away and her skin blushed, a delicate shade of rose pink. Brandon schooled his thoughts and body as best he could and waited for her tale.
    “I am most embarrassed to tell anyone, no less you, an experienced rake.”
    “I make no judgments, Priscilla. I believe we are becoming friends. I would be lying though, if I did not admit to wanting more between us. I have shared my embarrassment. Yours cannot be worse than mine.”
    “Oh, but it is.” Her eyes returned to his, filled with tears she fought to restrain.
    He squeezed her hand, still cautious about touching her, he released it to brush her cheek with the back of his fingers,
    “I was a failure as a wife,” Priscilla blurted out. “Yes, I could run Robert’s household. I managed the staff, even the interactions with his overseers, when he became more frail. But I never gave him the child he wanted, needed so very much.”
    A solitary tear tracked down her flushed cheek. “No matter what he taught me, or what we learned from his book, or what I suggested and tried, he never became aroused. We never consummated our marriage.”
    As though shamed, Priscilla turned her face away. “How can I,” she went on, her voice cracking, tears now streaming down her cheeks, “give to another what I failed to give to the one person I owed all to? He was my husband. He was kind to me, generous to a fault, I grew to love him, but love was not enough. I returned all he shared with nothing.”
    Brandon’s head swam with all the revelations Priscilla showered upon him. She was still a