Free The Unthinkable by Monica Mccarty

gold in his hair. This amazing man could do anything.
    She wanted to hold on to this moment forever. The splendor, the vitality, the promise of young love seemed ripe with endless possibility. The magic of what they’d just shared filled her with happiness. At that moment, everything she ever wanted seemed to be at her fingertips.
    But a scurrilous thought burrowed into the hidden recesses of her mind, casting a dark shadow across their fun. Were the dragons only in her imagination or did they lurk somewhere beyond the veil of paradise, preying in the darkness ready to pounce on their happiness?
     
     
    “Oh, Lizzie, he’s perfect,” Genie said dreamily. She yawned, stretched out her arms above her head, and fell backward, sinking into the downy softness of her bed. The Prescotts had just finished receiving their afternoon callers and the two girls had retired to Genie’s room to converse in private. Genie would have liked nothing better than to take a nap, but this was the first opportunity she’d had to talk privately with Lizzie since returning from her momentous fishing escapade this morning.
    In fact, this was the first opportunity Genie had to consider what had happened this morning at all. She and Hastings had declared—and then made—love. It seemed impossible that Miss Eugenia Prescott, the proper parson’s daughter, could have done such a scandalous thing. How had it happened? Even now, she couldn’t explain it other than to say that at the precise moment of truth, she wanted to please him. The battle between her conscience versus love and passion had never really been a contest.
    The sheer magnitude of her physical response to him had been completely unexpected. Never could she have imagined the passion lying dormant inside her, awaiting only his touch to erupt. She’d never felt like that before, like she’d been swept up in the current of a powerful river of sensation, unable to break free. She’d needed his touch, needed the closeness of his body on hers.
    It had been amazing.
    But most of all, she’d loved watching the ecstasy transform his face as they made love. She, Genie Prescott, had made him lose control. For the first time, Genie knew the exquisite power of her womanhood.
    Nonetheless, she realized that it could not happen again until they were married. It was far too dangerous. If anyone should discover…
    The thought was too horrible to contemplate. She’d be shunned by polite society, shaming herself and her family in the process. She’d be ruined.
    Genie didn’t want to feel as though she’d made a mistake succumbing to temptation, but there was a tenacious, sensible voice in the back of her head that would not quiet. Hastings was young and inclined to lightheartedness. His joie de vivre was one of the things she loved about him, but it did not inspire constancy. Genie trusted him to do the right thing. A man of his rank and position, a true gentleman, would do so. And he had made his intentions known.
    She had to share her exciting news with her sister. But Lizzie, who had still not responded, was looking at her strangely.
    Sitting at the foot of the bed, Lizzie gave Genie a soul-searching stare; an unreadable expression on her face. Now that Genie thought about it, Lizzie had been acting odd since their return from the river this morning. Could she have guessed? Genie had been unable to prevent the blush when Lizzie asked her why she walked with such a strange gait on the way home.
    “No one is perfect, Genie. Not even the handsome son of a duke,” Lizzie said uneasily.
    Lizzie’s sudden reticence shocked her. Was this the same person who eagerly plotted their secret meetings with the adroitness of a born conspirator? It felt like the sisters had switched roles. Lizzie, the voice of caution and Genie the one running headstrong into… disaster? She chilled. Whatever made her think that, she wondered, burying the unwelcome premonition.
    Genie had heard the underlying concern in