Page 86 of A Sight to Behold
Nick nodded. “I was always meant to give it to my wife someday. It’s old; it belonged to my father’s mother and then to my mother.”
“I’d be honored to care for it and look after it in custody for your family until we pass it on to our son.” Nick’s eyes locked with hers. “I’ve never meant anything more earnestly, Nick. I love you from the bottom of my heart, and if you’ll have me, I’d like nothing more than to spend the rest of my life trying to live up to the goodness in your…” But then she choked, and tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Pippa, what’s the matter?” Nick brushed the tears off her cheeks with the balls of his thumbs.
“I wish you could have met my mother. She wouldn’t have let any of this happen. She would have welcomed you into the family as a person without regard for anybody’s station and she would have loved you because you love me exactly as I am.”
His eyes softened. “I’m sure you’re right, Pippa. I don’t care about society, Pippa. I only care about you.”
She nodded, unable to speak. “Then I’ll go back to scheme with the Langleys later?”
Nick gently took her hand and pushed the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly. It was old fashioned but classic, with an innate beauty only a natural diamond could possess.
“It’s beautiful, Nick. I’ll try to honor it.” She held her hand out and regarded the ring and the way it fit her finger and shimmered in the light.
Nick watched her with hungry eyes.
After all, she stood in his room, wearing his family’s heirloom as an engagement ring. And they’d done more than declare their love already.
Pippa reveled in Nick’s intense gaze on her hand and brought it to her bodice. She unhooked the first, second, third, and then all the hooks. Pippa felt a little like a blossom emerging from the sepals when her dress split in the middle and fell off her shoulders.
Her décolletage was exposed, and Nick bent down to kiss her collarbone. Then lower.
“You are so beautiful, Pippa.”
She tilted her head back, and Nick’s hands came to the back of her head, supporting her. He kissed her neck and returned to her jawline and then her mouth.
Pippa melted into his embrace and gave herself over, for the feeling was so strong that it made no sense to resist. She was his and wanted nothing more than for him to devour her.
She unbuttoned his shirt, and he stepped backward, another step and another until his legs touched the bed.
“I’m afraid my bed is not as comfortable as yours,” Nick said when Pippa pulled her fingers over his strong shoulders and peeled off his shirt. She kissed the broad expanse of his chest, and her hand drove along his body.
Nick unbuttoned his breeches and gave her access. She inserted her hands in the waistband and pushed his breeches down along with his underthings while he unwrapped her from the day dress she’d borrowed from Violet along with the sinful undergarments Violet possessed these days.
They let the fabric pool on the floor, and Pippa was in front of him in only her corset, garters, and stockings. Then, she unlaced the corset and dropped it on the floor.
Nick turned her around and pulled her stockings off one by one, replacing the warmth of the sheer fabric with the heat of his kisses. When Pippa was in the nude, Nick lay her on the bed. The linens were cool and crisp, plain white cotton. They’d serve their purpose wonderfully.
Pippa nestled into the sheets, and Nick bent over her, unhooking each garter and rolling it down her thigh, over her knee, and then off her foot. Then the other.
He kissed her belly as he pulled the garter off.
“Are you keeping these on?” Nick nudged the bridge of her glasses.
She beamed at him. “You gave me the gift of sight but the even greater one is looking at you.”
Then he climbed into bed and lay on her. The length of his manhood pressed onto Pippa’s center.
“I want to feel you,” Pippa said hoarsely, driving her hands through his hair. Her hand, with his family heirloom diamond ring, looked grown up. And she felt different. She’d blossomed and was ready to fight for love.
But first, she’d make love.
Chapter Forty
Pippa had spentmore time than was proper with Nick, but eventually she made it to the Langleys’ where she’d tell people she’d stayed as their guest while Bea remained at home administering the daily charcoal to absorb the mushroom poison and then the ipecac an hour before the ball.
“Are you certain he ate the chocolate eclair?” Pippa asked, Bea pacing the hall at the House of Langley. It was Friday evening, seven o’clock. Some of the guests had arrived and Violet was playing hostess. She was in her element. Meanwhile, the Earl of Langley greeted the Archbishop of Canterbury and led him personally to the drawing room, before he returned with a smile.
