They are beginning to know each other, their intimacy developing, and I chose this scene to take place just before the iceberg is hit...knowing that at that moment everything in their worlds would be changed forever...
Amelia stepped closer to Samuel until only the smallest
space separated them, praying her nervousness didn’t show through her enforced
bravado.
Purposefully, she met his impenetrable gaze. ‘I want you to stay in
America. Stay there and make a life for yourself. Let me live vicariously
through you. Let me know what it is to not have to worry about your reputation,
your past, convention and propriety. America is a new world. A place anyone can
make their fortune. You must go. For me. Please.’
Confusion shadowed his eyes. ‘What are you talking
about?’
She sought the right words, the right conviction to
make him understand how he had ignited a wish in her for more, just by speaking
about his possible escape. ‘Don’t you see?’ She shook her head. ‘Opportunities
like this don’t happen for people like us.’
‘Like us? What do you mean us?’
Heat warmed her cheeks that he might think she in any
way meant to insult him. She clutched his hand. ‘People who work hard every
day, Samuel. People who are the backbone of England. This is your chance to be
more than that. To be a risk-taker, a pioneer, a person in charge of his own
destiny.’
He slowly pulled his hand from hers and stepped back,
pushing the fallen hair from his brow, his eyes boring into hers. ‘And if all
that is possible for me, why is it not for you, too? What is there to keep you
in Bath? Are your commitments holding you captive any more than mine?’
Words battled on her tongue. Didn’t he realise how
free he could be? How the responsibilities holding him back could be assuaged
with regular money wired home, telegrams and letters. For her, everything was
different. Everything was tainted in violence. Rape. Reputation. She had to
stay on a regulated path. Keep her head down, work hard, pay her rent and
hopefully retain some friends along the way.
This entire world was a man’s, and Samuel was
entirely male without need for proof or struggle. He was rapidly becoming the
most different of men as any she had ever met. Kind, thoughtful, pensive and
passionate. A man who articulated his feelings, found amusement amid
responsibility. A man who made her smile, stand taller and made her dare to
dream that anything was possible.
If that wasn’t the measure of a true man, she might
as well give up hope of ever finding one. Finding a man with whom to share her
life had not occurred to her since the attack. Now Samuel had evoked all sorts
of emotions in her. Emotions that were terrifying. Yet, still, she wanted so
much for him.
She closed her eyes. ‘It’s not the same for me.’
A heavy, ensuing silence lingered, the pressure of
sharing more with him growing with each passing second. But she wouldn’t.
Couldn’t. How could she bear to see the disgust in his eyes if he should learn
of her being so soiled, so violated?
He gently touched his finger to her chin, and her
eyes popped open.
Yet, he didn’t step back or recoil as though he’d
overstepped an invisible mark. Instead, he placed his thumb beneath her chin,
holding her softly, yet firmly, so that he might look deep into her eyes.
Did he see her pain? Her shame?
‘Samuel…’ Heat infused her body from head to toe. She
could not think. She could not breathe. ‘You must understand.’
‘What must I understand?’
Tears pricked her eyes and she blinked, sending a
single tear slipping over her cheek. ‘I am not free like you. I’m a woman. We
don’t have the same liberties as men.’
‘Why don’t you? Am I really to believe you care what
others might think?’ His thumb traced the tear as it travelled to her jaw. ‘I
know you don’t have a family as I do, but you love your occupation. Still, I
know there is more to you than Pennington’s. Don’t you, too, want to discover
what else is possible?’
Hope sparked inside her and a little of the tension
left her shoulders. ‘So, you do want all the things I spoke of? Liberty?
Success?’
‘Of course, but it doesn’t mean I can act on my
wishes. I’ve already explained what awaits me back home. I’m not the sort of
man who turns his back on his family or his friends.’
He had no need to tell her such a thing, she
instinctively knew how reliable he was, how steadfast. ‘I see.’
‘Do you? Because… I have no idea why, but it’s
important to me that you understand the sort of man I am, Amelia. That you know
you can trust me, that I like you.’
She couldn’t stem her smile. ‘I like you, too.’
Their eyes locked, his filled with relief and then
something else. Longing.
‘Might I… kiss
you?’
Fear started a steady thrum deep in her chest and her
mouth drained dry. ‘What?’
He smiled softly, his eyes gentle. ‘Can I kiss you?’
Her heart picked up speed even as she nodded, even as
she slowly licked her lips. An overwhelming, uplifting anticipation passed
through every nerve in her body. How was he to know she had never willing let
anyone kiss her before? That nobody had ever asked her permission before taking
from her what he wanted?
‘Yes.’ She nodded. ‘You can.’
Desire mixed with admiration in his eyes, darkening
them to a midnight blue that was completely and utterly mesmerising. Slowly, he
inched forwards and Amelia’s eyelids drifted closed, his breath a soft whisper
against her mouth.
His lips were gentle at first, his hand moving from
her face to lay softly on her cheek. An alien stirring twisted deliciously low
in her stomach and she inched closer, pressing her mouth just a little more
firmly to his. She wanted him to know, to feel, that she wanted this. Wanted to
be in his arms, in his protection.
He eased back and whispered, ‘Amelia.’
Indescribable power rippled through her body making
her reach for him. She gripped his waist and pulled him back to her. This time,
it was her leading the connection, the intimacy.
She pressed her mouth to his, a soft whimper escaping
her as she kissed him, relishing in the new, unexpected sensations that
overtook her every emotion.
Then the moment was cruelly sliced by a sudden
shuddering vibrating through Amelia’s body and she pulled back, her gaze moving
past the staircase. ‘What was that?’
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