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She lay on her stomach beside him, her eyes closed and a serenely soft smile on her lips. Lips he had claimed as his own again and again, because kissing her was quickly becoming his favourite thing to do. The breathless ghost of her lips against as time itself felt like it paused, before she melted into him completely.
She. Lizzy Elmsworth.
He delicately ran his fingers down her spine, carefully tracing every ridge, memorising every freckle, wanting to commit every part of her to memory.
Her. Lizzy Elmsworth.
Despite his one minded focus on Nan, he remembered meeting her with clarity. She was standing on the side of their group of friends at Runnymede after he had proposed to Nan. Everyone was either grinning or looking surprised by the turn of events – except for Lizzy. She seemed... wary. As if she was seeing something the others had missed.
Perhaps he should have paid more attention to that wariness.
What had intrigued him more, however, was her eyes. They were striking and near impossible to look away from. As Nan introduced them and he took her hand in his, it was as if her eyes looked right into his soul. Like she was reading all his thoughts.
He shook the flitting feeling off as he got swept into the emotional storm that was his relationships with Nan, Guy and his mother, and Lizzy disappeared back to New York for a time. She was out of sight and, for a while, out of mind.
She. Lizzy Elmsworth. Sensational Lizzy Elmsworth.
It took Lizzy embedding herself into his life to realise that he loved the idea of Nan, not who she turned out to be.
But Lizzy was different. There were no roles to play, no secrets kept from him. He didn’t just desire her, he knew her, and he didn’t remember a time when he enjoyed learning someone so much. She was funny and strong, passionate to her core. Her mind was sharp, her heart impossibly generous, there was a fire in her soul. He yearned to be with her every day. He loved her, truly and madly.
Her. Lizzy Elmsworth.
She passed all of these attributes onto him as well. She made him a person he was prouder of. She breathed life into him when he felt like he was struggling to stay afloat.
“What’s on your mind, Theo?” her voice whispered as she peered at him through one eye, a smirk forming on the corner of her lips. If he could open his eyes each morning to her glinting gaze and that teasing smile, he’d never ask for more. Not in all of England.
He leaned forward and kissed reverently along her delicate shoulders before breathlessly whispering against her skin;
“You...”
Lizzy burrowed further into the bed as he continued his trail of kisses down her spine, claiming every inch as his own.
“Me...” she whispered back, the desire unmistakable in her voice.
“ You... my passionate, perceptive, smart, bold, Lizzy.”
She let out a sensual sigh, her fist gripping the sheet beneath her. He loved making her feel seen. He knew she loved being seen, just as he did. He couldn’t comprehend how anyone could see her as less than she was.
Her own mother, her friends at times, that scum of the Earth Seadown.
She was sensational. She should be treasured, now and always.
“My desire for you is all consuming.” he said against her skin as he started to move back up her spine. “You are a light, Lizzy... and perhaps the first thing I have done right in this life.”
She turned beneath him, rolling onto her back to face him as he braced his hands on either side of her head. Her fingers came to rest delicately on his jaw, grounding him.
Her perfect eyes roamed his face, like she too was trying to catalogue every part of this moment and every part of him.
“What’s on your mind, Lizzy?” He fired back at her, a teasing smirk now forming on his face.
“You .” she said, lips brushing his. “My broody...” - kiss - “romantic...” - kiss - “warm, honourable Theo.”
His name rolled off her tongue like it belonged there.
He had always believed he needed someone who would love him despite his title, someone who wouldn’t care for his status as a duke, but with Lizzy he realised it was about being loved for all of it. His goodness, his flaws, the seemingly inescapable weight of the duty he carried with his name. She did that for him.
But how was he to have her when she was to be married in just a few short days? To someone entirely unworthy of her love? To someone more concerned about appearances and his job than making she his wife was cherished in the way she deserved.
Lizzy reached up, her fingers along the crease between his brow, trying to soften the worry etched there. She then rolled them over, her head resting above his heart like the rhythm of it was a comfort.
“Just be here with me now, Theo. Nowhere else but here.”
He wrapped his arms tightly around her, kissed the top her head and did as she asked. He let this moment together consume them - all thoughts of the future could wait, just for a little while.