She gasped. “What?”
“A man named Thomas Prachett. Many years ago, I accepted a loan from him. I needed the money to secure a place to live for Aunt Millie. In return, he demanded that I cheat in the mills.” Avery looked away, as if the words were distasteful to him. “When he decided he had need of me again, he used you to ensure my cooperation.”
Everything clicked into place in Leah’s head. “I thought I heard Mackenzie, the stable master, while I was being held in the cabin. Was he one of Prachett’s goons?”
Avery nodded.
She paused, enjoying the small circles Avery drew along her collarbone. “If I ever meet Mr. Prachett, I’m going to kick his nuts into his throat.”
Avery’s fingers paused. “You will not meet him. He is dead.”
Leah drew back in horror. “You didn’t kill him? Oh God, tell me you didn’t. He might have been a bastard, but I don’t want his blood on your hands.”
Avery’s quick head shake reassured her. “No, I did not. I did thrash the blighter, but he drew a dueling pistol. I ducked and the shot hit the bureau’s mirror. His Grace came to my aid, and his shot killed the man.”
Somewhat relieved, Leah settled her head against him again. “Good. It was self-defense then, not murder.” She laid a hand across his broad, muscled thigh. “But if you and Mrs. Comstock fixed part of the mirror, why can’t you come with me? I’m sure they’ll be looking for someone to blame for Prachett’s death, so it’d be best if you got out of here, right?”
He gathered her close to his chest, whispering into her hair. “It is not my choice to remain here, love. But the mirror is not large enough for me to pass through.”
Leah’s heart dropped through the floor. “You’re kidding.”
He held her tighter as she fought the tears. “I am sorry, Leah, more sorry than you know. But it is for the best. My aunt is worsening, and I cannot allow her to languish without care. You belong there, and I…” His voice dropped out. He cleared his throat as her tears soaked the cotton of his shirt. “I must remain here.”
She wanted to scream, to curse the Fates for being so damned cruel. She’d been through so much to find him, and now he was being ripped from her forever?
“I’ll stay with you.” She rose on her knees, cupping his face with both hands. “I’ll stay here with you and we’ll be together.”
“I may well be hanged for murder. I have no money, no home, nothing to care for you—”
“I don’t care!” She pounded his chest with her fists. “I don’t have anything if I don’t have you! Don’t you fucking get it? I love you!”
He took her lips in a desperate kiss, and she clung to him tightly, their mutual sorrow burning into passion. This would be the last time they’d be together, and she clung to each second as if she could burn it into her memory.
After all, those memories would have to last her a lifetime.
Thirty-One
Avery sensed his own desperate need to possess her in her passionate caresses. He knew what she was feeling because it was the same searing pain that beat in his chest.
His anger at their impossible position would do no good. His need to rail at God would gain him nothing. But he could give her his love, himself, to carry with her on her journey.
And he would.
He covered her body with his own, their mouths meeting and parting, delving deep and nipping lightly. Her hands roamed his body, playing along his broad shoulders, down the arms that held him suspended above her. Pulling his shirt upward, she arched her back.
“Please, Avery.” She pressed a kiss to his throat. “We don’t have much time.”
Her words were no less true than they were painful. Rising on his knees, he pulled his shirt over his head. Her fingers fumbled on his breeches.
“Let me, my love.”
She nodded, eyes darkening as he removed the last barrier and released his erection. He knelt beside her, hand delving beneath her skirts as her own soft fingers wrapped around his length.
“You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen,” she said as he lifted her skirt to reveal her soft, white thighs. “I love to touch you.”
His hand trailed across the dark blond hair that crested her most secret flesh. “There cannot be a woman as lovely as you are to me.” He looked into her eyes, and his next words came without his forethought. “I would love nothing more than to have you as my wife.”
Tears sprang into the corners of her eyes, and she shook her head vehemently. “Stop talking. Come here and love me.”
She held her arms out to him, and he covered her body with his own. His tongue explored her mouth as his hands explored her body, loosening the buttons of her gown to release her breasts from their confinement. She gasped as his hand covered her pebbled nipple through the thin barrier of her shift.
“Avery, please,” she begged as she wrapped her thighs around his hips. “I don’t want to wait. I want you inside me.”
Though his body roared to claim her, he resisted the urge. He must make this last; he must carve this moment into his very being. Ripping her shift away, he bared her breasts to his hungry gaze. Her stays forced the beautiful orbs higher, and he took advantage of their perfect frame.
He bent his head and captured the tip of her puckered nipple between his lips.
Her fingers tangled in his hair and her hips thrashed as he flicked the tight bud with his tongue. He clasped her soft, round buttocks with both hands as he loved her breasts. Her body was made for him, though she’d had lovers before him, and would in all likelihood marry someday…
Growling, he refused to think of the future. This was their moment, and it was their forever.
He covered her breasts with his kisses, and he ravaged her body with his touch. His fingers delved between her folds as he kissed the pale column of her throat, lightly sucking the pulse that fluttered there.
She was so wet, her silky skin parted easily to allow his fingers entry. One, then two, slid within her heat, and she gasped.
“Avery,” she moaned, raising her hips to force him deeper. “Don’t make me wait, please.”
Though he wished he could draw their encounter out for hours, days, their lifetime, he knew that he could not. Kneeling between her parted thighs, he lifted her hips to receive him.
Poised at her entrance, her wet heat beckoning him, he hesitated. Looking down into her wide eyes, as blue as a summer’s day, he smiled.
“You are mine, Leah. My own angel.”
And he slid home.
There was nothing like that moment. Even in the times they had come together before, he had never known such pleasure as sinking himself into her heat. Holding her close to his chest, he stilled himself for a moment, letting himself sink deep into the cradle of her body.
“Oh please,” she panted. “Please.”
He moved against her in a rhythm that felt as natural as breathing. Breathing her in, he smiled. Her scent would forever be burned in his mind, that sweet exotic perfume that he had never smelled before and never would again.
Their bodies strained together, soft cries and intimate touches building in intensity until Avery thought he’d die from the pleasure. Her heat thrummed through him, almost as if they were connected in more than body. She buried her face against his chest, pressing kisses wherever she could reach.
When her cries grew more desperate, and her movements more frantic, he reached between them and found the hidden place, the one that seemed to call out for his touch more than any other part of her exquisite body.