“Bianca.” He reached for her other cheek, holding her face as his thumbs massaged little circles on her cheeks. “Thank you for protecting me tonight.”
She held onto his wrists. “You’re welcome.”
He leaned down and kissed her, long and slow. “I want you to be my wife. I’m asking you to marry me.”
She squeezed his wrists, nibbling at her lip. “I have to tell you something first.”
He frowned. “What?”
She drew in a deep breath sliding her hands up his arms to his elbows. “Well,” she swallowed. “I believe I’ve fallen in love with you.”
He scrunched his brow, attempting to understand. She hadn’t consented to his proposal because she was in love with him? “I don’t understand.”
Even in the dark, color flushed her cheeks. “I didn’t know if that changed your desire to marry me. But I won’t run from my feelings. You should understand them before we go any further.”
His answer was to lean down and plunder her mouth with a long, hard kiss that left her breathless.
“My Brave Bianca,” he murmured against her lips. “I love you too.” Then he kissed her a few more times. “I love you so much that I ache from it.”
“Oh,” she breathed as he hooked an arm around her waist and brought her against his chest. She threaded her arms about his neck as he lowered them both to the bed, his weight pressing down on hers. “Really?”
“Really,” he whispered against her lips, tracing the curve of her waist. He stopped and lightly squeezed along her ribs, her waist, her hips. Her chemise was riding up her legs and she hooked one leg around his, bringing their pelvises together and making them groan.
“You…you love me?” Her breathless words were interrupted as he kissed her again and again.
“I do,” he answered. “Not only do you bring out the best me, my love, but you fill in my gaps in ways I never imagined.”
She curled her fingers into his hair. “You fill in mine too. I didn’t understand that it would be like that.”
He smiled against her lips. “Neither did I.”
“What next?” she asked, trailing her hands down his back.
He cleared his throat, cocking one shaggy eyebrow. “You could say yes.”
She giggled a little, scrubbing his hair with her hands. “Yes.”
He kissed her again. Slower and more tender than before as he slid his hands behind her back. “I love you, Bianca.”
“I love you too, Chris.” She sighed into his mouth. Then she traced his shoulders with her hands. “How do I get this thing off?”
He chuckled as he lifted off her and shrugged off his coat, cravat, and then shirt in quick succession.
She gasped out loud as his sculpted chest came into view. He really was like a statue. “My goodness. You’re so beautiful.”
He furrowed his brow. “Thank you, sweetheart, but I don’t hold a
candle to you. You are light in all the ways I’m dark.” And then he slowly lowered himself back on top of her.
She couldn’t help herself, she ran her hands all over his chest and back, feeling every powerful muscle, each finely carved ridge even as he kissed her neck and chest. “I don’t care what you say. You are positively divine.” She sighed. “I want to see more of you.”
He chuckled a bit as he lifted up again and removed his boots. She lifted up on her elbows to watch and when his feet were bare, he turned back to her, lifting one of her legs and kissing the inside of her ankle. “Your feet? That’s the more I get to see?”
He kissed a bit higher on her calf. “I want to see more of you first.”
“See me?” She gulped down a protest as his hand skimmed the hem of her chemise up her legs. He kissed a trail behind the fabric making her ache with need even as she began to tremble. When his lips had reached the inside of her thigh, she’d melted into the bed, her body a jumbled mess of need.
She ached for his touch between her legs and she was near begging when his mouth finally brushed her most intimate folds. Bianca bucked against the touch, a moan ripping from her lips. He pressed a hand flat on her belly, holding her in place as he repeated the touch.