“What do we do?” Edmund whispered. “Should we go back?”
Mary burst into giggles at the thought of slipping her hand into Edmund’s and running out into the garden with him. They would not go far; her impulse would not be too naughty, but she already knew for certain that it would not end well. She had come to learn that Walter was not the sort of man that should be messed about.
“I would love to run off,” she leaned in to tell Edmund. As she did, their foreheads almost touched, bringing back all the same sensations as before. “But I feel we might get locked up in jail if we did.”
Edmund agreed with mock seriousness. “Yes, you are right. Walter is not to be played about with. Let us go back in there. I will share one more drink with him, then I think I shall leave.”
Mary’s throat constricted with panic. “You will come back soon?” she asked breathlessly, not even caring how that sounded. Maybe she should have been trying to keep herself in check, but it was hard with him confusing her, making her feelings swell.
Edmund placed one of his hands over hers for just a second. He tried his hardest to ignore all the feelings that filled him, but they did not wish to be pushed down. “I will be back; you do not have to worry about that.”
Edmund knew that he would always come back. Now that he had opened his heart to Mary, and she had come inside, he knew that he would not let her go now. Not for anything.
Chapter 12
“I will come back soon ...” Edmund said to Mary as they stood by the bookshelf once more. The dusty book that she dropped lay between their feet as a reminder of the chemistry that they shared. One brush of her hand, and Mary was tipped over the edge. “I will come back and take you away from all of this because I have realised that I am utterly in love with you.”
“You are?” Mary asked just as breathlessly. It was so lovely to hear those words; they filled her with such an intense and powerful warmth. “But how can you know for sure that you love me? We have not spent that much time together.”
“You know that you love me, do you not?” he asked while placing a hand ever so gently on her hip. His deep green eyes penetrated hers and made her lungs constrict. At that moment, she felt like he could see into her soul like he knew her better than she knew herself. “We have all the time in the world to get to know one another better, but I do not need to know more to understand that what I am feeling deep inside is love.”
With his spare hand, he grabbed onto Mary’s hand, and he rested his forehead against hers. They breathed one another in; they inhaled each other, and at that moment, Mary felt that they were becoming one. A union more powerful than any marriage could ever give them.
“Yes,” she whimpered back. “I do love you too. I think I have done so ever since the very first moment I laid eyes on you.”
“Well,” Edmund replied in that teasing manner, with his head cocked to one side ever so slightly and his left eyebrow raised. “Not from the very first moment you saw me.”
He edged his lips closer to Mary’s, which only made her pulse race even faster. There was something about this incredibly handsome man that made her entire body react powerfully to him. She did not even know how to explain how he made her feel, only that it was a sensation that she never wanted to end.
“No,” she whispered back. “Not from the very first moment. But from every second after that.”
As soon as she had realised that arrogance was not Edmund’s strongest trait, she had started to see him for who he really was. Giving him a second chance was the absolute best thing she could have done. She did not have much to thank Walter for, but pushing her into yet another meeting was certainly one. If she had stuck to her initial assumption about Edmund, she would never have been given the chance to feel this incredible love.
He moved closer still, amping up the anticipation that tore through Mary. She lifted herself onto her tiptoes, feeling much bolder as she pursed her lips out towards Edmund. There was only one way that this would end; they were going to kiss, and both of them knew it, so why delay the inevitable? Mary wanted to give into temptation this time; she wanted to cave to the magnetism between them and judging by the happy expression on Edmund’s face, he did too.
“I love you,” she murmured again, allowing her breath to tickle his lips. “I do not think I will ever tire of saying it.”
She wanted to stand on the top of her house and to yell it for all of London to hear. She wished that everyone could know just how much she loved this man, and how he belonged to her. She wanted the whole world to know that she had found the man of her dreams. Despite all the odds being stacked against her, her father had found the perfect man for her.
“And I shall never tire of hearing it.”
Then their lips connected, and happiness burst in mini-explosions all over Mary’s body. Edmund’s lips made her feel so wonderful they were worth ruining her reputation for. She did not care about anything else other than him. Her arms snaked tighter around him, and she held him so close it was as if their bodies had fused together.
It was the best sensation in the world ...
“Miss Roberts?”
“Huh?” Mary muttered as she thought she heard her name being called by someone who was not Edmund. The last thing that she wanted to do was pull away from the amazing moment with the most wonderful man on the planet, but there was something else trying to grab her attention, and she could not help giving it. “What?”
Her body could no longer resist; she pried her eyes wide open and let the brightness of daylight enter her vision. It was unwelcome and unwanted. She did not want to leave Edmund at all, even if he was only a figment of her imagination in her dreams.
“Are you quite alright, Miss Roberts?” Daisy asked again. “I do not like to wake you, only you were talking quite loudly in your sleep.”
Mary bolted into a sitting position, and cool humiliation flooded her. She knew what she had been dreaming and could not imagine what on earth she had been saying aloud. “I, erm, I was?” she asked while rubbing her head hard. “I am terribly sorry; I must have been having a deep sleep.”
Daisy did not break from the routine of clearing up Mary’s room as she talked. She did not want the young Lady to be embarrassed by her sleep talking which was why she would never let her friend know what she had been saying.
“Of course,” she replied evasively. “You do not need to be sorry; I just wanted to check that you are alright.”