Scoundrel With A Noble Heart (sequel of Disgraceful)

Chapter 68

Falling Into Temptation

"Bella, if I had known, I wouldn't have dared to ruin you!"

His genuine remorse earned a frown from her.
"You cannot ruin me, Matthew. No man can ruin a woman."
She slid down the desk and stood in front of him, looking up to him with a firm, steady gaze.
"I chose you to be my first man, not the other way around."

"What are you saying? Bella, we should be getting married very soon!"

"Never in a million years!"
She spurned the proposal with a chuckle. Stung, he looked at her in disbelief.
"What do you mean?! Bella, I've taken your honor!"

"Nonsense. I don't believe that a woman's honor is in a small layer inside her body. Virginity is a ridiculous concept created by men to degrade women, to deceive women into believing her worth can be measured by a mere bodily part. A useless one, I might add. Jeez, it's not even an organ."

"I don't understand. If you don't want to get married then why- why we..."

"It has nothing to do with marriage. You should know, much as I don't like the idea of matrimony, I haven't the slightest desire to die a virgin."

The absurdity of her words had him stupefied.
"I don't get it."

"Matthew, I haven't the slightest desire to sacrifice my liberty and independence for a man, or for anyone. I don't want to spend my life within the confines of marriage and let the best in life pass me by. I want to go places, I want to see the world. I want to enjoy all that life has to offer."

Her firm statement rendered him speechless. He was perplexed by her unusual ways of thinking. He believed a man should be responsible for what he had done, and he believed that a man is obligated to give his woman not only security and welfare, but also respectability. Something his father had failed to do with his mother. Though his mother always told him that it wasn't his father's fault that they ended up in disgrace and poverty, still he considered his father irresponsible for making his mother an outcast, and his own child a bastard. And though it never crossed his mind before, if he ever needed a woman's permanent companionship, he'd prefer a traditional marriage. He couldn't think of another way for a man and a woman to be happy together.

"Yuck! I've got a dirty bum!"
Arabella's squeal jolted him out of his thoughts. Turning her head to look behind to her dust-stained, perfectly rounded bottom, she exclaimed,
"I need a bath! Let's go back to the inn!"

He shook his head, baffled by her misplaced sense of priority.
"Bella, you certainly have a bigger problem than a dirty bum. You've just lost your maidenhead, and now you are unfit for any other man."

She turned to him and his heart skipped a beat when she stepped over to him with a meaningful look in her eyes.
"I don't want another man. All I want is you."

Then she leaned in to kiss him, tracing the seam of his lips with her soft tongue until he opened for her. Her tongue slipped in and teased his palate, but when he returned her kiss with equal fire, she tore her mouth from his and pulled away,
"But now, there's nothing I want more than a hot bath, so let's go back to the inn."

And she returned to the other room, leaving him hard and wanting her more than he'd ever wanted anything in his life.

*****

The sky had turned a gloomy gray and the wind blew in strong gusts when Matthew and Arabella stepped out onto the weedy lawns and crossed the moderate distance to the street. Accidentally he caught her flinching when they stepped over a low stone fence that bordered the property land.

"Bella, are you alright? Can you walk?" He stopped and touched her arm. She laughed at the question.
"Of course I can walk. I'm perfectly fine, I just feel a bit sore."