Page 43 of Captured By the Cold Duke
“Do you want to show me passion?” she whispered.
Again, Thomas nodded.
She was closer now, so close that she could reach out and touch him. His eyes were deep pools that she felt she could stare into for eternity, and she wanted to reach out and touch his chiseled jaw, to run her fingers through his hair.
“I want that, too,” she murmured. “I want you to show me passion.”
Thomas opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out. He was staring at her, but she couldn’t understand what the look meant. It was shock, yes, but also something else: something like disbelief.
“Don’t say that,” he muttered. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. “I want you, Thomas. I don’t want another man. I don’t want you to look the other way. I want you. This marriage. Us.”
But Thomas was shaking his head, and the disbelief in his eyes was growing.
“Is that really so hard to believe?” she whispered. Whatever reticence was in him, she knew she had to break it; to show him that she was sincere, after so long of pushing him away. “The way you saved Lady Chastity, how you stood up for me with Lord Rochford again and again… Thomas, is it really so hard to believe that of all the men I might want to experience romantic passion from, it might be the one who has always been there for me, even when I was a child?”
Her eyes were glistening with tears again, but this time they were tears of deep emotion and happiness.
“You have never wanted me,” Thomas choked out. “Growing up, you thought of me as you would an older brother. And when you were older, I was just an old friend of the family, not a serious romantic option.”
“But why would I think of you otherwise? You never presented yourself as anything other than that!” Cherie waved a hand dismissively. “You never courted me; you never flirted with me..”
“Well, I could hardly…” Thomas looked flustered and unsure of himself. “With my best friend’s sister! And what would Aidan have said? He would have called me out!”
“Thomas.” Cherie reached out her right hand and set it tentatively against her husband’s chest, right above his heart. A realization was beginning to dawn on her. “Did you have feelings for me all those years? The—the jealousy you spoke of, did it only begin recently? Please, answer me honestly. There is too much at stake for you to hide your real feelings from me any longer.”
“I—” Thomas licked his lips, and she could see the conflict that was raging behind his eyes.
But why? Why does he need to deny his feelings?
“Thomas, we are married,” she murmured, as her fingers dug into his chest. “We have an opportunity to be happy together. Why can’t we just try?”
“I want to try,” he murmured. “But you were the one who was so infuriated by the idea of marrying me.”
“I know,” she said softly. “But I don’t feel that way anymore. I’m here, Thomas, and I’m trying to tell you that my feelings have changed. I’m here. I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”
His right hand came to hers, covering it, so that they were both touching his heart. At the same time, his left hand slid down her arm. His fingers brushed against her skin, and then he cupped her elbow. His touch was soft, and it set her skin on fire. Then he gripped her elbow tighter and pulled her even closer to him. His face was now so close; his lips were inches from her; his eyes were burning into hers.
“I wouldn’t let you go anywhere,” he whispered.
And then he kissed her.
Sixteen
“Cherie…” the whisper of her name filled Cherie’s ears like a flood. It set all of her senses on fire. It was water and fire at the same time; all the elements that rage across the earth; all the elements that control human destiny.
Because that’s what this kiss felt like: like the most powerful forces on earth raging across the world, reshaping continents and landscapes, forming new lands; reshaping the landscape of her soul.
“Cherie… macherie…” His whispers came in between kisses, between moments of pure bliss, and they shivered through her. She had never really heard her name before, she realized. Not until Thomas had spoken it while he kissed her.
And she had never known herself, either. What her body was capable of feeling. Not just the physical sensations of being kissed, but the emotions that welled inside of her. This was purebliss; pure joy; the end of thought and the beginning of pure, unadulterated, unobstructed happiness.
This was what it felt like to be a woman, alive in a body. And she wanted it to never, ever end.
“Thomas,” she whispered back, as his kisses left her lips and went to her neck. She wanted to taste his name, as well, to feel the way it felt to shiver through the air and through both of them.
He responded enthusiastically, kissing her even more deeply, and she suspected that the sound of his name made him feel the same way hers had made her feel.
