Jane Feather - Vixen

Chloe, unaware of the fleeting thought, smiled and drew her hand in a lazy caress across his stomach. "And a fallen gentleman, I would have said, since, in my experience, it takes two."

Hugo stroked her hair. "Well, perhaps we should expand your experience and see what difference the blessing of the church makes."

He spoke so softly that for a minute Chloe didn't understand what he'd said. Then she did. She sat bolt upright. "Are you going to marry me?"

"Someone has to," he said with an air of solemnity. "You're not safe in Society unmarried… or do I mean Society isn't safe?"

"But… but you said Society would think you were taking advantage of your guardianship." She frowned down at him, still unsure that he really meant what he was saying.

"Society can think what the hell it pleases," Hugo responded. "The question is: Do you wish to marry your guardian, lass?"

"But you know I do. I've been saying so this age. Only you wouldn't listen."

"No, a lamentable failing," he agreed, his eyes smiling. "I've had the most foolish tendency not to listen to you. However, I begin to understand that you always mean what you say, and that, in general, you know what's best for you."

"And for you," she flashed.

"Conceited minx." He caught her head and drew her face down to his. "I've known what's best for me for a long time, sweetheart, I just needed to be convinced that it was best for you too."

Chloe dropped her mouth to his, her body moving over his, fitting herself to his curves and hollows, reaching a hand down to guide him within her. Pushing backward, she sat on her heels, moving her body around him, her eyes languorous, her hair tumbling over her shoulders.

"I do know what's best for you." she said with a smug smile. "I'll prove it to you."

"Be my guest, lass." Hugo linked his hands behind his head and watched her face, enjoying his own passivity as much as Chloe was.

"I suppose," she said, running her flat palms over the ridged muscles of his abdomen, "I suppose you'll want to keep control of my fortune."

"Oh, I'm sure we can come to some satisfactory compromise," Hugo said, the green eyes sparking.

"But…" Her hand moved behind her, sliding between his thighs. "But I don't imagine you'll compromise over my wardrobe?" Her fingers moved wickedly, deftly.

"No…" He closed his eyes on an exhalation of joy. "That's one area in which you patently don't know what's best for you, so there'll be no compromises."

"Not even when I do this?" She put her head on one side, regarding him with narrowed eyes as her fingers pursued their intimate course.

"No, you crafty little fox." Gathering her against him, he rolled with her until she was lying beneath him. "I can be cozened just so far." He laughed down at her rather startled expression and kissed the tip of her nose. "But don't let that stop you from trying, lass."

"As if it would… as if anything could," she said softly, no longer mischievous. She touched his mouth with the tip of a finger. "I love you."

"And I you, little one. With every breath I breathe."

Holding her gaze with his own, he moved within her until it seemed her breath was his and his hers, until their blood flowed as one, and the future purged of the past was born of the transcendent glory of their fusion.