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“You’re awake.”
The realization of her feelings for this man was so new, Elizabeth was startled by the husky sound of Sterling’s voice.
She smiled shyly. “I am.”
Sterling glanced down at the boy resting against him. “Peggy brought him. He wanted to see you, and once he had, he wanted to stay with you.”
“If he is too much for you—”
“He isn’t,” Sterling instantly assured, and then grimaced. “Like you, he weighs nothing at all. But you are due to take your next dose of medicine, and you might prefer to have Christopher in bed beside you while I prepare it…?”
Elizabeth was torn as to how to answer that.
On the one hand, both man and boy might be more comfortable if Christopher was on the bed with her. Sterling was slumped down in the chair so as to be able to rest his head back against it, but because he was so tall, this meant his back was slouched down rather than supportive, his long legs stretched beneath the bed. She knew from experience that Christopher, if he did not have sufficient sleep, was likely to be out of sorts in the morning.
But on the other hand, Elizabeth was loath to disturb the two of them when they looked so at ease with each other.
“Mama?”
The decision was made for her by her son, Christopher obviously having been woken by their whispered conversation.
She smiled gratefully when Sterling stood holding Christopher before carefully placing the little boy beneath thebedcovers she’d pulled aside and then tucked about him. Reassured, Christopher instantly went back to sleep.
Her eyes widened when Sterling, after mixing the medicine in a glass and helping her to sit up slightly to drink it, then resumed sitting in the chair beside the bed.
“I would prefer not to leave you alone tonight,” he explained in a voice that brooked no argument to the arrangement when he saw the puzzlement in her expression.
Elizabeth didn’t have an argument to make. How could she have, when she felt safe having Sterling here with her?
“What about tomorrow?”
His eyes narrowed. “Tomorrow we will discuss what is the best course of action for you and your little family.”
It felt as if a thousand butterflies had taken flight and were trying to escape from her chest. “No matter what, I will not go back to living with my father-in-law.”
“No, you damn well won’t!” Sterling rose agitatedly to his feet, breathing heavily through his nose, shirt billowing about his muscular frame as he paced over to the window. “I apologize,” he murmured evenly several seconds later, turning to face her. “Peggy told me what happened, and I— Please believe that I will not allow Whitlow to ever lay a hand on you again in anger.”
She gave a shake of her head. “I do not believe he has ever needed the excuse of anger to hurt me.”
Pale green eyes narrowed. “We will talk of this again tomorrow. For now, you and Christopher need to rest. But be assured, I will remain here for the rest of the night. No one and nothing shall harm you,” he promised grimly.
Elizabeth believed him. The doctor’s second draft began to take effect, and she felt herself drifting off to sleep again, secure in the knowledge Sterling would protect her.
Sterling woke to the awareness of the candle having sputtered out some time during the night and the early morning light of a new day shining in the long windows, the curtains having been left undrawn.
He also realized that, sometime during the night, he must have removed himself from the discomfort of the chair because he was now lying in the bed behind Elizabeth. Not separate and apart from her above the bedcovers, but beneath them, lying on his side, with the long length of his body pressing against the warmth of her back, his arm draped about her waist. His shirt was unfastened at the throat, his pantaloons loosened at the waist for comfort.
To his consternation, he also realized his hard and pulsing cock, covered only by the linen of his drawers and ever sensitive to Elizabeth’s proximity, was currently lodged between the cheeks of her arse.
“There is no reason for you to move,” Elizabeth murmured as he was about to do just that, informing him that she was already awake and fully aware—she had to be!—of how and where Sterling’s cock was pressing against her.
“Christopher…?”
“Peggy collected him a half hour ago and took him to have his breakfast.”
Dear God, not only was he in bed with Elizabeth, but her maid had entered the room while he did so. “She saw me here?”
Elizabeth snorted. “You are not someone who is easy to overlook!”
