Filed To Story: Alessia Mistaken as Mistress Book PDF Free
“
I want you to come back.” He stood and moved before her. “
I need you.”
A single tear trailed down her ivory cheek. He caught it with his thumb. Her skin was as soft and delicate as he remembered. Her pale lashes fluttered down and swept across her cheeks.
Ringlets escaped the white dust cap she wore. He reached for one, as he’d wanted to that long-ago day in the carriage, and stretched it to his nose.
Her lips parted. Her pulse fluttered in her throat.
Another tear followed the path of the first.
Nicholas leaned forward and touched his tongue to it. The drop tasted salty. This near, he could smell her hair, her skin, warm from the day and her tasks.
“Why are you crying?”
“Because I didn’t think I’d see you again. Because you don’t have it in your heart to hate me or hold what I did against me. Do you?”
He could never hate her. He couldn’t blame her for the secret she’d kept. “No.”
“Because you think you’re like my father when you’re the finest man I’ve ever known.”
She’d obviously not known many fine men. “You thought highly of Stephen.”
“Stephen was kind and generous. You are, too. But you’re also solid and trustworthy and industrious. You did all the things you were supposed to when your father died. And you kept on doing them. You gave up your own dreams to fulfill his.”
“I couldn’t understand why Stephen didn’t do the same,” he said. “But he was the smart one,” he added. “I always thought he’d made such poor choices, but now that
I look at it differently-him leaving the running of Halliday Iron to me made us a fortune. And he saw his plays produced and married the woman he loved.”
“Only because you made it possible for him,” she replied. “What about you? Do you have any dreams left to fulfill?”
“I think maybe I do.” He cupped her delicate cheek in his palm and brought her face up to his. She didn’t resist; she met his kiss full on.
He kissed her as gently as he knew how, with as much tenderness as he could show her, hoping to express how he felt when he didn’t understand it himself.
Alessia’s hands clasped his upper arms and moved to his shoulders, their warmth burning through his shirt. She curled her fingers into his hair and pressed her mouth more solidly to his, gentleness obviously not what she desired.
When he was with her, he could think of nothing but her nearness. He saw only the delicacy of her skin and the softly formed curves of her body. Her scent drove his other senses away. He didn’t care that she’d deceived him. He cared only that she desired to be in his arms as much as he wanted her there.
Nicholas held her close and rejoiced in the feelings she created in him.
“Alessia,” he said against her lips. Alessia had never loved Stephen. She had not been his wife. She had not been anyone’s wife.
Gently she eased away from his hold.
“Do you love someone else?” he asked, voicing his fear. Perhaps she was still in love with William’s father.
“No,” she said softly. “There is no one. No one except William in my life.” Alessia smiled, a sad sweet smile, and the sight caught in his chest. She lifted the hair from her neck and plucked the fabric of her bodice away from her chest.
He pictured her removing this dress-another damned black dress, the only thing about her that hadn’t changed. He imagined her ivory limbs and her lush breasts. The breeze from the window didn’t cool his fevered reaction. His heart slammed against his ribs.
“I really won’t be working here again?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Come back with me. Please.”
“Why do you want me to go back with you?”
“I’ve told you all the reasons.”
“You have?”
“I thought I did.”
She slanted an uncertain glance up at him. “What were they?”
The ringlets along her neck clung to her damp skin. “I want you with me, that’s why. I need you.”
She placed her hands against his shirtfront. “How do you know I wouldn’t just be pretending so you’d take care of me?”
He covered her hands with his. “I’d know.”
“How?”
“Do you have to pretend to like it when I kiss you?”
“No.”
“Were you pretending that night in my study?”
Her cheeks flushed prettily. “No.”
“Some things you just can’t fake,” he said.
“I’m tired of pretending,” she said. “I’m tired of lies.”
“No more pretending between us,” he promised.
She smoothed the fabric of his shirt across his chest, leaned into him and pressed her cheek where her hands had been. “Well, then, what’s the truth?” she asked.
“About what?”
“About why you want me to come back with you.”
“What do you think?”
“You’ve told me a dozen times how much you want me,” she said, leaning back in his arms to see his face. “That’s being honest.”
He knew she could feel the wild beating of his heart beneath her palms.
“But the truth for me is that-well, wanting me and needing me is not enough. I was foolish once, Nicholas. And I love William with all my heart, but I’ll not repeat my mistakes. I won’t do that to my son or myself.”
He stared at her for seconds, absorbing the words as well as the heat of her body. He’d told her he wanted her. He’d shown her he wanted her. He’d admitted the need to himself long ago. But until this moment he hadn’t realized why he needed her. Why everything about her drove him crazy and why he hadn’t been able to eat or sleep or work until he’d tracked her down.
“It’s not enough for me, either,” he realized aloud.
Her pale brows rose in that inquisitive arch he knew so well.