Free Tessa's Redemption by Josie Dennis Page A

is…tawdry.”
    “Do not speak so,” he snapped.
    She straightened her shoulders. “Am I not allowed to speak my mind, then?”
    “You are.”
    “Then do not tell me what my feelings should be or how I should express them.”
    He hid his smile. For so long she seemed afraid to voice her opinions about anything, from hair ribbons at the milliner’s to what was served in their dining room to what acts they performed in their bed. This Tessa, asserting herself even after giving over complete sexual control to two men, was proving to be more than he even knew he wanted when she came to him last spring.
    “You have leave to say anything you wish in front of me, love.”
    Giving a nod, she settled back against the seat. “Good.”
    He was more determined than ever that Angel would not take her from him. Only now, it seemed to grow more difficult with each encounter to imagine a life without the other man in it as well.
    His mood soured, and he, too, fell silent as the carriage rolled on.
    * * * *
     

    Tessa sat at the small desk in the parlor, sheets of paper spread on the surface in front of her. Her little sister’s name was carefully written across the page, a girl who would never get this missive. Over the past months Tessa had written so many letters to her sister. She’d left the family to go to Alex’s estate two years ago, only to return to the family’s tiny home after her ruination. The baby had been a shock, one her father never acknowledged. Her mother had been the strong one during the quiet tragedy of the baby’s birth and death, yet Tessa could never contact her now. Not while she still lived in sin with Alex…and Angel.
    They knew she lived with Alex but still believed he was her cousin. They did not know about her betrothal to Angel nor the abrupt end to it.
    She wrote feverishly now, pouring out her heart to her sister in the letter. She didn’t confess all of the sinful acts she performed with the two gentlemen keeping her. Their visit to Angel’s office two days earlier had been amazing, but she could never admit that she’d reveled in everything they did to her. She couldn’t bear for her sister to know the true depths of her fall.
    It was vexing, for she didn’t feel like a fallen woman when Alex and Angel were loving her. In Alex’s arms she felt like the woman she was supposed to be. With every one of Angel’s kisses she felt a piece of her heart mend. It seemed like her heart and her body both reveled in the company of the two of them. She’d come to sense a tenderness in Alex she’d never seen before and a passionate side to Angel she’d never expected.
    “Tessa?” Alex said from the doorway.
    She stacked the pages and spread her hands on the desk. Turning, she smiled at her first lover. “Hello, Alex.”
    He stepped closer. He was dressed well today as always, handsome and smooth and so Alex. Her body gave a twitch, and she suddenly longed to feel his hands on her flesh.
    He closed the door and came near to her. She could smell his spicy scent now and imagined she could feel his heat from across the few feet separating them.
    “What are you about, love?” He eyed the sheets of paper and gave a shake of his head. “Writing another letter you will not permit me to see sent?”
    She nodded, then slowly and methodically tore the papers until no words written were whole. “My family cannot know more than where I reside now, Alex. I couldn’t bear it.”
    “Are you ashamed of what we share, Tessa?” His face was creased with worry lines as he stepped near. “What we now share with Angel?”
    She nibbled her lower lip. Oh, if only she could lie to him! “No, Alex.” She sighed. “I am not.”
    A smile teased his lips, but the worried frown only eased a bit. “I do not wish to see you upset, love. When you came to me after Angel…”
    “Don’t speak of it.”
    He let out a breath. “As you wish. And before that? Tessa, before that your tears stayed with me.”
    She