Virgin Unwrapped by Christine Merrill Read Free Book Online Page A

might live in comfort. You will have anything you wish for.”
    “Except my family,” she reminded him.
    “Is that truly so important?”
    It should not be. When had she ever been their favorite? And when had her needs mattered more than theirs? “I am all they have,” she said at last, hoping that he could understand.
    “You have me,” he said, and his eyes blazed. Her body answered the look with its own heat. “You always will. But I cannot stay here. Especially not after last night. You chose him, publicly. Then, you took me into your bed.”
    “I could not deny you,” she argued.
    “And you cannot have us both. Allow me some pride at least. Either break from him, or let me go until you do. I will not stay here. For I cannot stay away from you. If it is discovered it will disgrace us both.”
    “I will not let you go.” And then, she did something foolish, displaying her desperation. She threw her arms about his neck and kissed him, dragging him back into a curtained alcove beside the ballroom doors. Despite his objections, he yielded, and kissed her in return.
    “Don’t leave me,” she buried her face against his coat, twining her arms around his neck. “I cannot go on without you.”
    Robert laughed, and it was a cold, hollow sound against the stone of the alcove walls. “You would leave me no honor at all, would you? If you do not end this engagement, do you expect me to stand quietly by while you marry another? That is likely to end with me cuckolding my best friend.”
    “It will be over soon,” she whispered back. “But I cannot cry off just yet. I simply cannot. It would kill my parents. Have I not brought enough grief upon them?”
    “What have you ever done to them?” he asked.
    “I lived,” she said. “It was enough.”
    Robert took her hand, and looked seriously into her eyes. “The grief has gone on far too long. It is a part of them, now. Nothing you do is likely to change that. Do you want to end up as they are?”
    “No,” she admitted.
    “Then marry me,” he whispered. “We could run away tonight.”
    She moaned with all the frustration and anguish in her heart. “Could you not wait a few days, until I make a graceful way out of this?”
    “I am tired of waiting.”
    She needed more time. What could she do to make him change his mind? She sank to the bench that was set into the wall beside him and pressed her face into his stomach and fumbled for the buttons that closed his trousers. He reached for her hands to stay her, but she evaded them, thrusting fingers into the opening she’d made and seizing him, staring up into his eyes as she stroked. “You cannot leave me. Please. Tell me what you wish, and I will give it to you.”
    “I wish to marry you,” he said softly. “So that we could be together.”
    It was not what she wanted to hear. So she blotted it out, closing her eyes and tightening her fingers. “And we will be. In time. But what do you want, right now?”
    “I will take nothing more from you,” he said through gritted teeth, as though he were trying to ignore the feel of her hand, moving upon him. “I should not have last night. It was wrong. Look at where it has got us.”
    “Now you are the one who is too frightened to act,” she said. It was both exhilarating and terrifying to be here, alone with him, like this. “It was right. You know it was. You felt what I felt. We are meant to be together.” She spoke softly, slowly, and watched words and actions have their effect upon him. He relaxed, leaning his back into the wall; eyes closed head back, breathing slowly.
    She undid another button and watched in the dim light as he sprang forth, ready and eager for her touch. She stroked the length of him, her hand gliding over the head of him and down the smooth shaft. “Do not spout words about your honor,” she whispered. “It is not a thing I can understand. For a woman, honor means having to deny oneself the pleasure I feel, when I am with you. The