Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25

M arianne's ears were ringing and her heart was beating so fast and hard that she feared it might burst from her chest. She stared up at Sebastian, trying to decide if she was dreaming or asleep, if she was mad or sane when she heard him say those words.

"I am beginning to think I've stricken you mute," he said after what felt like an eternity passed. He no longer looked so certain as he always did, but worried .

He was worried she didn't return his feelings.

And that shook her back to reality and she gasped in a deep breath. "Are you saying those things out of pity?"

He drew back. "You think I, the ultimate rake, would tell you I loved you out of pity ? Rather than gnaw off my own arm to avoid ever being trapped by this?"

"I don't know."

"If I pitied you, I'd get you a nice cake, Marianne, I wouldn't declare my heart in the billiards room." He smiled. "I say I love you because it's true. I realize you doubt me, perhaps because you've been so mistreated over the years. Perhaps because I forced myself to keep you as a friend and nothing more until these feelings became too powerful to ignore. Perhaps because you don't return those feelings and you're too kind to outright reject me. But know that when I say I love you, it's because the sun does not rise for me until I see you. The stars don't shine. When I am more than a day without being near you, it's like someone has stolen my joy. And when I do see you, I cannot breathe for it."

The words were so beautiful, like poetry falling from the lips of a fallen angel. And they wrapped around her heart and suddenly she smiled. She couldn't stop smiling as she moved even closer.

"You think I don't return your feelings?" she said, and reached up to touch his cheek. "Sebastian, I think I've been in love with you from the very first moment I saw you all those years ago. I have loved you from afar and valued every stolen moment and conversation, guarding them and reviewing them like a miser with a ledger. Once you turned your regard on me, it felt like I was alive for the first time. That had nothing to do with Claudia's list and everything to do with you. I adore you. I love you."

His entire face lit up with relief and joy, excitement and a glimpse of a future she never could have imagined in her lonely life. He caught her by the waist and drew her to him, his mouth finding hers with passion, but oh, yes, with love. She lifted to him, her hands gripping at his shoulders, trying to find purchase but instead getting swept away.

He pushed her back toward the billiards table and she hit the edge, her legs parting to allow him a place to step between. Her skirts rustled and she sighed against his mouth as he leaned into her with a hungry moan.

They didn't have to speak in that heated moment. Her hands found his fall front, his shoved up her skirt, caressing her stocking-clad thighs as he moved her chemise out of the way.

The first thrust filled her and she ground against him with a shuddering sigh. She had missed this, missed him, missed the physical manifestation of her feelings. Now she recognized it was the same physical manifestation of his. He was gentle as he took, his love plain with how he held her, kissed her, moved through her and against her so that she could find pleasure.

And oh, she did. With every grinding thrust, sensation built between her legs and she gripped them tighter around his hips as the powerful waves of pleasure at last broke within her. She gasped out his name, her body rippling in waves around him. He watched her, drinking in her pleasure as she gave it over without hesitation. And only when she had gone limp beneath him did he thrust harder, seeking his own release as she took his mouth again and sucked his tongue.

"Fuck," he muttered against her lips, and she felt him spend, this time deep within her. And oh, how much better it was to have an encounter end like that, with them fully united in such a way.

He lowered her fully against the tabletop and then somehow managed to wedge himself next to her. She looked at him with a smile when she'd found her breath.

"So that's billiards?"

He tilted his head back and laughed, the sound warming her as much as his arms when he put them around her and tugged her in for another kiss.

"I think we'll have to try teaching you again later," he said.

"No, I'm crossing it off my list. This is billiards as far as I'm concerned," she said.

"Good, then we'll have to play regularly once we're wed," he said, and sat up a little to look down into her face. "If you'll have me. I probably should have asked you this before I got carried away, but that's what you do. Carry me away."

Tears stung her eyes as she looked into the handsome face of this man she had believed would never see her. And now he did. And he was all she saw. The beauty of him and then, even more powerfully, the life they would build together.

"I will," she said. "I will marry you, Sebastian, with a very happy heart."

He brought his mouth down to hers again and she lost herself because she knew he would always find her. And she would find him. Until her dying breath.