Forever Be Mine

Chapter 1-3

His eyes were twin pools reflecting the overcast sky above, and it made her dizzy to gaze into them. At that moment, she felt she and Carter were caught in a glass bubble, just the two of them, their hunger building like a wildfire. Everything outside the bubble was complicated, impossible, but right now, at this moment, breathing in his masculine scent and feeling his warm breath against her face, she could imagine what being with him would be like. If she was with him, even for a little while, perhaps she’d know peace, joy, love…

Tears clung to her lashes. Those dreaded emotions were bubbling back up inside her, and she couldn’t bury them, not when he was this close. It frayed her control and made her nerves raw.

“I can’t do that, Carter. I’m not…” She sucked in a sob. “I have to do what’s best for Matthew. Someone has to, and you know my parents. I just want—” She wiped at her eyes, hating how much keeping the truth from him hurt.

“Celia—”

“I want to be with you,” she finally admitted, her soul soaring the moment she allowed herself to savor that truth. She saw the growing pleasure and hope in his eyes, and she amended, “I want to be with you—for a little while. Before it has to end.”

Pain filled his eyes, but he didn’t argue with her. Instead, he nodded in understanding. He’d always understood her. It was one of the things that made this man so bloody perfect, so dangerously wonderful.

“Tell me what you want me to do,” he whispered as she sidled a step closer. His scent enveloped her again, drugging her with its comforting aroma. There was a hint of leather and sandalwood. She wished she could bottle it up and keep it with her forever.

She tilted her chin up. He gazed at her with eyes that promised her the world if she only asked. How could he do that? Be so perfect?

“Callum and I agreed that we need time before we make the announcement official. He misses Bryson, and I told my mother I’m going to visit Aunt Holly for a month. She lives in Tuscany during the summer. I was hoping… Would you come with me?”

Celia reached for his hands and clasped them in her own. They were always afraid to touch in public because there was usually someone watching her. But not now, not here in the servants’ quarters. A hundred years ago she would have feared being discovered with Carter and shamed by her association with a servant. It seemed times hadn’t changed much. There was still an expectation that men and women didn’t break the barriers of upstairs and downstairs.

He exhaled slowly, and she prayed he wouldn’t say no. “Celia, your father would never—”

She pressed a fingertip to his lips, silencing him. “He won’t know. Please, Carter.”

It was her dream, ever since she’d been a little girl. Her prince charming wasn’t a man with a title or a vast estate. He was just the man who loved her. This would be their last chance. Their only chance. He had to say yes.

“Please, if we can’t have anything else, give me this.”

He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers. He kissed her slowly, sweetly, as though he was trying to hold back his hunger, but she could taste it on his lips. She couldn’t help but smile a little, even though her face was wet with tears.

“Everything is going to be all right,” he murmured against her lips. “I promise.”

It had been so long since she’d come alive when she kissed someone. Hell, if she was honest, no one had ever kissed her like Carter had. A whisper of a thrill danced at the edges of her fingertips. She shivered in his arms, nervous and frightened, but she kept smiling. They hadn’t kissed since they were fourteen. So much had changed, and it was as though he was discovering her lips all over again. The kiss scorched her, reminded her what her heart and body had always whispered whenever he was near. That he was the only man for her.

As a teen, she’d often imagined herself like the fabled Guinevere and Carter as her Lancelot. Drawn together by love but kept apart by honor and duty. Now more than ever she felt that wild desperation, like the ill-fated queen, to have her moment with him before she accepted her fate.

When they broke apart, he stroked her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. She clasped his wrists with her hands, clinging to him.

“When do we leave?” he asked.

Celia bit her lip, then replied, “Tomorrow.”

A shadow passed across his face.

“What’s the matter?”

“It’s my father. I’ve taken over half of his duties running the Pembroke estate. He has so much to take care of. If I leave him for that long…” He closed his eyes for a brief moment. He rarely talked about his work, but Celia knew it was important to him. He helped keep the lands running, the manor house repaired, the taxes paid, the accounts balanced, and the work was almost always thankless. She knew he had other dreams, ones he kept hidden from the world. If only he could have been brave enough to share them with her…

“Tell Tristan, but no one else. He can help us. I know it.” She cupped his face and stood up on her tiptoes to feather her lips over his again.

The kiss, although light, sent bolts of hunger through her. He grasped her waist, dragging her to him as he deepened the kiss. Their passion sent her head spinning like she’d had too much brandy. When they finally broke apart, she was breathless and held a hand to her kiss-swollen lips.

Carter glanced out the window to where her cousin and Kat were still dancing. “You’re right. He will help us.” Tristan knew more than anyone else what it was like to love someone forbidden to him.

“I have to go,” Celia said, looking around. “I’ll meet you at the airport tomorrow morning. I’ll text you the flight information.” She squeezed his hand one more time, even though she ached to kiss him again. His eyes told her what she already knew. If they kissed again now, they might not be able to stop.

“See you soon.”

She bit her lip, still smiling, and slipped out the servants’ door and into the light to face the crowds.

Tomorrow she’d fly to Italy with Carter. For one month it would be just the two of them. She ignored the knot of tension in her chest at the thought of what would happen afterward. All that mattered now was that she had bought them a brief time in paradise, and she wasn’t going to allow herself to have any regrets.