Ours Is Just a Little Sorrow by Gwen Hayes

my throat. "I can't give you the things you want, Vi. Stability, a home, a husband, a family--none of that is
within my power."
    "I don't want a husband."
    "Yes, you do."
    "You barely know me, Gideon. You don't know what I want."
    He chuckled, low in his throat. The sound pulled at something in my center, loosening me from my moorings. He cupped my cheek, his palm warm and sure. I
felt hot and cold and full and empty all at the same time.
    "I know you, all right. I know you like I'm looking into a mirror at my own soul. I see the things you hide, and I feel the things you want. And you want
the husband and the house, Vi. But more than that, you want me."
    I inhaled sharply, like I'd come out of dream. He stared into my eyes, waiting. Waiting for me to invite further advance or turn him away. God help me, I
couldn't do either.
    "I may be a bad man, Violet, but I won't take what isn't freely offered."
    I couldn't say the words. I couldn't say
any
words. I stared at his mouth, letting time stretch taut between us. But Gideon was no gentleman. He
may not take me against my will, but he had no compunction about removing my will altogether. He brushed the hair completely off my shoulder and pressed a
kiss at the edge where my skin met the neckline of my bedclothes. "Tell me to go," he warned, his breath so hot on my neck. He zeroed in on my pulse point
and I gasped his name. "Tell me to go," he repeated, his voice tightened with barely repressed fervor.
    "I can't."
    "Then tell me to stay." He pulled back and the cool air misted my skin where his mouth had just been. "I can't tell you about love, but I can teach you
about passion. It's inside you. Right now it's screaming to me. I've heard it since the day I met you, Violet. Tell me to stay."
    "I can't," I cried. Trapped between a longing I didn't understand and the need to protect myself, my station. I couldn't win. "I'm not strong enough."
    His mouth twisted into a grin that was neither happy nor cruel. "Now you're lying. I've never met a stronger person than Miss Violet Merriweather." Gideon
stepped back. "I should leave."
    My future flashed before me. Gideon would not be in it. And neither would this tumultuous frenzy, this dance with danger that made my blood sing. If I
wanted a taste of passion, this was my chance. I grabbed his arm as he made to walk past me. "Stay."
    Without a word, Gideon swooped me into his arms and carried me to the bed. Once again, the storm in his eyes thrashed me about like a pebble in the rolling
sea. There was nothing for me to hold to that wouldn't send me under the waves. I wanted to drown in the way he made me feel until there was nothing left
of me to wring out.
    He didn't ask if I was sure, if I understood what was to happen. He trusted that I knew my own mind, my own body, and that made him even more irresistible
to me. That he assumed I had agency over my own decisions, not doubting that I knew what was best for myself, turned up the flame under my skin, so that
when he laid me down on the mattress I immediately reached back up and drew him into the first kiss ever initiated by me.
    Gideon didn't waste a second on surprise, but returned the press of my lips with his own ardor, ardor built up the long weeks we'd been denying this night.
Our tongues met in a sweet duel from which we would both perish and then be transformed. I needed him closer, needed to feel the rush of his skin beneath
my hands. I was too far gone to be shocked at my desire as I yanked his shirt from his trousers to get at the hot flesh beneath it. He sensed my urgency,
pushing my greedy hands away to pull the shirt over his head.
    Suddenly unsure, a moment of shyness made me pause with my hand a scant inch from his chest. I looked to Gideon for encouragement. He brought my hand to
his lips and kissed it before placing in over his heart. I flattened my palm against him, the dark curls crinkling under my palm, and closed my eyes,
letting the host of new sensations have their