He nodded then began, “Since I had the power to do it? I have helped others.”
“I am not surprised,” she returned. And she wasn’t. She’d seen the goodness in him. “I have been allowed so few choices, Tom. I have not even been allowed the truth.”
His gaze narrowed as anger crackled there. Not at her, but at her confession. “It is your fierceness in all of this, your determination that has made me want you so entirely.”
“It’s not simply my proposition?” she asked, stunned.
“No,” he said firmly. “It is your nature that sets me ablaze.”
“I set you ablaze, Tom?” she gasped, shocked.
“Oh yes,” he growled softly. “I am burning for you now. I could take you in the next room right now, Lady Elizabeth, place you upon a table, pull your skirts up, and have you in a trice.”
She swallowed, “Even with the company in the next room, Tom?”
“Even with the company,” he rumbled.
“Do such scandalous possibilities await us?”
“Us?” he echoed softly. “I thought you simply wished me to ruin you.”
“Well, how long does ruination take?” she teased though she felt as if she could scarcely draw breath.
“But a moment,” he replied.
“What if you went on ruining me until we were both tired of it?”
“Tired of you, Lady Elizabeth. Never.”
“Nor I you, Tom,” she confessed.
“I’ve promised you freedom,” he began.
“And what if you are what makes me free, Tom?” she cut in before she could stop herself.
He stilled. “I beg your pardon?”
She stared up at him, unable to explain how she felt such an affinity for him, as if he had opened a door to wondrous worlds and she wanted him by her side as she explored them. Always. Forever.
“Lady Elizabeth. I think we need to wait and see. You’ve experienced so—”
“Don’t wait too long, Tom,” she warned. “Waiting seems dangerous to me.”
“It is the safest thing we can do right now.”
“Safe, Tom? Is that what you wish?” she said sadly, her heart sinking. “To be safe? You did not strike me as a gentleman who wished to be safe.”
He arched a brow before he confessed, “Oh, Lady Elizabeth, I have learned the power of safety. Those who do not think it important know little of life at all.”
She flinched at that, “I have known but a little life under the oppression of my father. I am sure you have seen the horrors of the world, and I don’t wish to ever see those. I certainly shan’t diminish your experience, butsafety, Tom? I have known a great deal of it, and sometimes—”
“No,” he cut in. “You have not, Lady Elizabeth.”
“What?” she asked.
“You have not known safety,” he stated.
“I don’t understand.”