Except for the chilly weather of the late autumn, their journey to London was relatively smooth and pleasant. They rode on leisure pace, stopping by almost every new town they passed now and then for shopping and sightseeing.
One wintry day, they decided to put up in the nearest inn before the late afternoon because the weather had become too harsh to continue with the trip. When the carriage pulled off the front steps of the decent inn, they hurried inside, escaping from the incessant biting wind.
They got a warm welcome from the innkeeper and after several minutes of waiting, a staff came to show them the way to their room in the second floor. Ashton let Ava and Polly preceded him along the narrow corridor.
While they stood in front of the room, waiting for the staff opening the door for them, he surreptitiously ran a hand down her spine and muttered in her ear.
"All through the way I've been longing for you."
After his mother's death, as an adolescent he was carrying around a feeling of emptiness. He sought solace and fulfillment in his passion for art. Immersing himself in his painting was the only thing he could do to fill the emptiness and forget his pain, until that day.One fine morning, he was painting in his favorite place in the estate, a secluded garden behind a long, vine-covered wall. In the privacy of the garden every midmorning was the time he could savor a few peaceful hours of solitude. Suddenly a creaking sound from the old oak door claimed his attention, and he glanced up to see a red-haired woman standing at the doorway.In an instant the sheer magnetism of her unusual beauty caught him completely off guard. He came to a standstill, like when he caught a glimpse of a majestic nature and felt its beauty take his breath away.The woman wasn't classically beautif
He'd wished that memories of her would fade into blurred, scattered fragments as the past receded, but it wouldn't let him send it away.Underneath the darkened sky, he wandered aimlessly, roaming the quaint streets of the little town. Before long, his fingers had gone numb from the cold air, if only his heart could be deprived of feeling too.It was long past dinnertime when he returned to the hotel several hours later. A muffled sound of music and laughters came from the taproom, claiming his attention there. He stopped and glanced at the warm, inviting light from the taproom door. It seemed like he could use some whiskey.*****Ashton retired to his room near midnight, sober and still restless. He took several shots to help soothing his nerves, and left when he was still in a lucid state of mind. No matter how bad things got, he never drank himself
The sudden spontaneous kiss stopped him dead in his tracks. He fell into a daze, unable to think or react for a while. Clinging onto him, somehow she lost her balance and lurched back a few steps, bringing him with her. She laughed against his lips when her back hit the wall, and he braced his hand against the wall on either side of her shoulder. The sweet, silvery sound snapped him back to his mindfulness.He tore his mouth from her, starting back several steps. He was shaken by his own visceral response to her, which he found difficult to control or resist. Immediately he wiped his lips with his fingers as if to rub the taste of her off his lips.Her eyes dimmed at the gesture and a shadow crossed her face."It appears that my husband is not the only one who found me stale.""You know that it's not true."He said quickly."Things are not quite the same now, Amanda. I will be getting married soon."
Actually she had known who Amanda was, but she wanted to know what she was to him. She wanted to know what he would call her."Mrs. Chapman? I've known her long time ago. My estate bought dairies from her father's farm and she came to deliver them every morning.""So I see."She turned to get a clean towel set on the side table. Giving him a sharp look, she handed it to him. He took the towel and began to rub his hair. Painfully aware of her icy stare, he averted his eyes and moved away, pretending to search for his comb on the dresser."You don't usually converse with the likes of her."He just found the comb when she said that, and his hand immediately stilled at her remarks."What exactly do you mean by the likes of her?"He retorted, surprised to find himself quite vexed by the way she mentioned Amanda. She winced at his tone, but deliberately ignored it."We bot
"It's one thing I can't tell you. Some things are best kept secret."The words haunted him throughout the rest of the day. He never had any suspicion about it before, but now when the idea occured to him, her sudden disappearance seemed to make a whole lot sense.He'd heard rumors. The servants murmured about it for weeks. Her family said she went to France. It was rather curious. He wondered how her father could afford it, both financially and mentally. The old man was well-known all over the country for his frugal existence.He should have suspected about it earlier, the real reason behind her leaving. It never occurred to him before, because it seemed like her to come and go as she pleased. She was notoriously wanton, though he constantly disregarded that undesirable fact. There had never been a promise of fidelity between them, and when they were having an affair, he knew she was engaged in the same sort of relations
Her back instantly tensed at that, and he tried to see her expression in the frosted glass but he could only get an obscure view of her reflection. He wondered if he was only imagining it, but somehow he could hear her sharp intake of breath. His heart was beating painfully hard as he waited to hear a word pass her lips, but it was the long silence that voiced what he was afraid to hear."Good Lord." He hissed with a shaken voice as a cold, sickening feeling roiled his stomach. "Why didn't you let me know?"She turned around to face him, a suspicion of sorrow in her eyes. "I decided to keep it. If I ever let you or your family know, we both know what was likely to happen. I would have been forced to terminate it.""I would have never done that.""Even so, there was nothing you could do about it. At the time, you were still too young to deal with that."He couldn't deny it. Even n
With so much thoughts weighing on his mind, all he really wanted was a moment of solitude, but he had failed her last night, he couldn't let her down again tonight. Not after the heated tension between them not so long ago."Sure."He replied, knowing that to decline was not an option. The clicking sound of the door as it closed mocking him. Now that he was alone with her for the rest of the night, he knew exactly what to be expected. He'd never imagined that he could ever feel this way, but at the moment he had no appetite for that. The sight of the lush, welcoming bed in the middle of the room held no appeal. Moving away in an unconscious gesture of reluctance, he sauntered toward the side table and poured himself some wine.Watching him sipping his wine slowly as he rested his gaze somewhere away from her, Ava felt a cold touch of abandonment. Apparently he found the flame in the hea
When his passion was back under control, he began to move slowly within her. Waves after waves of pleasure rolled through his skin to his nerve endings, dispelling all troubles that had been eating away at his mind all day."Oh," She startled when an unexpected ripple of delight began to tingle from where their bodies fused into one. Before she could think of anything, the tingling sensation suddenly broke into wild, uncontrollable spasms. She cried out, shuddering all over as pleasure spilled over her in waves. Only then he gave way to his own pleasure. The release came crashing through and he lost utterly in its grip. He sank into a blank, peaceful oblivion where there was nothing but sheer bliss.She waited in silence as he rested his forehead on hers for several moments, bracing himself with his elbows on either side of her shoulders to keep his weight from crushing her. After a while, finally he withdrew from her and pushed himself up,