Page 104 of All For You

I shifted and rubbed my temples. “I didn’t tell you in the car. Seemingly unrelated, we heard this morning that an anonymous donor gave a huge amount to the clubhouse. It means we’re all set. But it’s…bittersweet.”

Lizzy squeezed my hand. Had she guessed?

“That is such good news. But…you think it’s Seb?”

My heart was heavy, yet I’d known I had to put my pride aside and accept the donation for the sake of the kids. “Yes, I do.”

I sighed.

“There’s something else, isn’t there?” she asked anxiously, likely reading the uncertainty on my face. “We haven’t talked at all about you and Seb.”

“We don’t need to talk about this now,” I said. “I’ve got a beautiful woman in her bedroom, and we have all night.”

“We’ve got all the time in the world, Darcy. Tell me about how it went.”

I wanted to bare myself to her after all. She’d seen and heard all the ugliness I had to show.

“Do you know what I realized after talking to Seb?” I asked.

“What did you realize?” She put her lips to my forehead.

“Yes, I’d missed him—the old Seb, our friendship. Terribly. He’d changed, or maybe he hadn’t, but still… But when I talked to Seb, I should have felt something about…her. Sophia. But I didn’t. I had no visceral reaction to the thought of them together. Not even a twinge. I was simply glad I hadn’t married her. It turns out I didn’t know her at all, and we were so ill-suited. Clearly, I wasn’t good for her either, and she realized that before me. Of course, that doesn’t take away from the pain of the wedding day or the humiliation, but now that that’s all behind me, I realized I was most hurt abouthim. Sebastian meant more to me than she did. I realized for sure I’d never been in love with her, because for the first time in my life, I knew what love was.” I took her face in my hands and gazed into her eyes. My heart hammered into my throat. “Because I’d met you.”

“Oh, Darcy.” Her eyes filled, and she kissed me tenderly.

“I feel free because of you. Iamfree. Free to be us. Finally, you are mine.”

“I am yours.” Her voice cracked with emotion. “And you are mine.”

For a heartbeat, neither of us moved. Yes, we belonged to each other. We kissed passionately, with relief, showing ourselves, every turn of her mouth increasing my feelings forher. I inhaled her sweet scent, fresh but with a certain secret musk that was only for me.

Finally, she lifted her mouth from mine.

Standing beside the bed, facing each other in the dusk darkening her windows, she took off my clothes carefully, tantalizingly slowly, not ripping them off this time. But while she delicately pushed up my shirt, she trailed her fingers along my skin, through the hair on my chest, touching my nipples. She charted downward, pushed off my sweatpants, then brushed her fingers along the trail of hair that disappeared into my pants, over the seams of my boxers. She took off my boxers, but those same fingers brushed and taunted.

I was naked, and it was my turn now. I tortured her by doing the same, tracing her skin and teasing her until she rocked with pleasure, arching and coiling against me.

“Okay,” I said, setting my legs apart and bracing myself. “I’m ready for you to jump up on me this time.”

With a small chuckle, she leaped up and wrapped her legs around me. Tight.

Pressing her heels into my back, she skated her hands all over me, running her fingers through my hair, pressing the curves of her body up against me as though we didn’t have all night after all. I moaned with need for her, willing to show every emotion with her without embarrassment, because I knew it would only bring me closer to her. I felt so myself with Lizzy; every small movement was better with her because she’d accepted me as I was. Even in our short time together, because we’d been through so much.

She kissed me passionately, twirling her tongue around mine, devouring me. As though this were a race and I was competing with her, I turned my head to get better access to her mouth. Surrendering at first with a moan, she stroked her hand down my stomach in turn, as if to distract me. But nothing coulddistract me from wanting to make her feel good. I felt like the person I wanted to be with her, the most myself with her, like I had another way to see the world.

Why was everything better with her? I felt loved by her, chosen by her. If someone as wonderful as Lizzy had chosen me, then I must be okay. And she made me want to be a better man.

Overwhelmed, I stroked featherlight touches along the softness of her inner thighs, loving how sensitive she was, how expressive. She tried to press into my fingers, but I nipped at her ear.

“Wait until you feel my tongue on you,” I said.

She moaned. “Yes, do it.”

I would do anything for Lizzy. Learn to cook for her so she could keep on writing, drive her to every meeting, hear her read her new pages aloud from the end of the sofa, be there when she hit a roadblock with her writing again. I wanted to help her get used to staying at Pemberley, having her think of my home as hers too. Do anything I could to fix any of her family dramas in the future.

I traveled down her body to find where I could inflame her the most. Kneeling, I settled in between her legs, and she gasped.

I lifted my lips from her. “Tell me what you like most,” I said.