Page 42 of Surrendering to a Fiery Lady

“You have done this all day?” Ophelia asked, looking over the sheer number of papers and files. “No wonder you are exhausted.”

“It had to be done.” Elliot did not mind the work, for he had been stressing and despairing about his situation for so long, today had felt like a blessing. “Ophelia,” he softened his voice, “this is all because of you.”

“I’m sorry?” She looked up at him from the papers.

“All of this.” He gestured to the papers. “My ability to pay them back, the security that Grace and I find ourselves in. I cannot thank you enough for what you have done. You have quite rescued us both.”

“You do not need to thank me,” Ophelia said quietly. “You saved me, too, from a marriage I did not want.”

“I still feel as if I haven’t thanked you enough.” Elliot shook his head. “I feel guilty for taking your money. It’s burning me, here.” He balled a hand into a fist and placed it against his chest.

“You do not need to feel guilty.” Reaching toward him, Ophelia placed a hand over his fist. The moment she did so, that tight fist softened. He took her fingers with his own, sliding them together as they rested on his chest. “We helped each other.”

“You have helped me more,” Elliot whispered, drawing her further down to him. “Were you not the one who pulled me from the Thames?”

“Oh, yes. I had quite forgotten about that,” she jested with a smile.

“Forgotten it? Ha! I could not forget it.”

“Why? Because I pulled you heroically from the river?” she teased, angling her head toward him as she leaned down. That kiss was about to happen now, and it urged Elliot to shift closer to her.

“Because of that, and because of what happened afterward.”

“You mean the argument on the riverbank?” she said, with that mischievous smile still curling her lips.

“Ophelia?”

“Yes.”

“I meant the kiss.” He lifted his hand to cup the back of her head and pulled her down into his embrace.

Chapter 13

Ophelia was so lost in the kiss that when Elliot began to move to his feet, she didn’t realise it at first. His hand on her waist soon drew her to the edge of the desk, though, so that she no longer sat there with her legs angled away from him, but facing him, with her legs turned toward him.

When Elliot released her, he began to pepper kisses down her neck. Such a thrill passed through her that Ophelia leaned back, basking in his touch.

“Elliot?” she whispered, not wanting him to stop.

“Hmm?” he murmured, any word he might have been trying to utter muffled against her skin. Her breath hitched and she struggled for words as his lips passed down her collarbone. He placed soft kisses to the mound of her bosom, exposed above the neckline of her dress. The intimacy was overwhelming to her. “You were trying to say something, Ophelia?” he said teasingly, lifting himself up enough to reveal that mischievous smile.

“I was going to ask you,” she hesitated, still trying to breathe deeply after what he had done to make her heart race so fast.

“Ask me…?” he encouraged her. “I think I’ve left you quite distracted.” He bent toward her.

“Very,” she confessed, angling her head to his as he came near her again. “The things you spoke of before, that we don’t necessarily have to be in the bedchamber for…”

“Yes, what of them?” He chuckled deeply, moving his lips back to her neck. This time, he trailed his kisses up until he found a sweet spot just beneath her ear. When he playfully nipped her there, she gasped at the sensation, angling toward him.

“Would you show me them?” she asked, breathlessly.

“How could I refuse?” He lifted his head and moved his lips to hers.

As they kissed, Ophelia reached for him. She had so wanted this moment the night before. It may have been delayed, but this time, she was not going to let Elliot retreat from her so easily.

She didn’t want to think about the stepmother that had ordered her elsewhere, neither did she think of the mistress he’d told her of, thisCeleste.She thought only of the way he was kissing her and how his hands travelled down from her waist.

When Elliot’s fingers caressed her hips, she panted into his kiss, finding his mere touch excited her so much that a wetness began to pool between her legs. His fingers shifted, dragging up the skirt of her gown. It raised slowly, teasing the skin above where her stockings finished with their silky cover. When the gown was bundled around her hips, with just a thin stretch covering the most private part of her, he moved back from the embrace.

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