“I’m so sorry.” A tear fell to her cheek. “I’m not experienced like the other women you’ve been with. I should have done more to pleasure you.” Another crystalline drop fell. “I couldn’t even manage to be ruined properly, and now it’s over.” The tears came faster, and she glanced away from him, a blush in her cheeks.
Well, damn.“Hush. It wasn’t you fault. Never think that.” The sight of her distress and tears brought him low. Concern tightened his chest. Brand wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “Please don’t cry. Sometimes these things are like this, especially first times.” He stroked her back, hoping to soothe and quiet her, and in the process, he realized he liked it. There was nothing carnal about the embrace. Shock moved through him, from the roots of his hair to his toes.
When was the last time he’d let himself connect with a woman like this? More to the point, why the deuce did it feel… nice?
“No, it was me. My mind was too cluttered with what everyone would think of me after I became a fallen woman.” Her words were muffled against his shoulder.
“Perhaps, but what do you think of you? That’s all that matters.”
“That I really want to be ruined.” She raised her head and met his gaze. “By you. There has to be more to life than keeping a house, reading a Bible, or trying to convert sinners.” Truth and longing reflected in her eyes. “Don’t you think?”
“Oh, yes.” Despite the situation, Brand chuckled. She was so adorable in her distress, and she’d alluded to a next time. His spirits rose. “By the by, Lizzy, you are now a sinner. What you let me do, where my hands and mouth have been… You’re more or less ruined even though we didn’t lie together.”
“I know.” Never had he seen a glummer expression from the woman in his arms. “I wish the sin had been… more amazing for the crime.”
He laughed outright at that. Genuine laughter that came from the gut and temporarily kept his own failings and shortcomings at bay. “You wonderful thing.” Holding her close once more, he said, “Just you wait. I’ll ruin you as much as your heart desires. You’ll see.” Content to remain with her pressed against him in scandalous repose, he sighed.
Though he might have lost the wager, the challenge of bedding Elizabeth remained.