Clarabelle had been one of the few that the dark-haired woman hadn't been wary of. After all, if her dear William had been so smitten by the beautiful and petite blue-eyed blonde with a smile warmly enough to chase away the cold of a passing winter breeze, there was little reason for her to hold much of any reservations. The girl had never looked at Adelaide with those questioning glances the girl had only just begun to notice and become aware of, if anything only ever encouraging the dark-haired girl to be proud of her unique and bright spirit. She'd been eight when Townsend first introduced young Adelaide to her pretty maiden not far from the brink of womanhood, the three of them having been quite the threesome on those summer afternoons as the older adolescents would amuse the little French girl in all her wild games that the children her age seemed to refuse. Even now, Adelaide could remember the way that Townsend had looked at Clarabelle, those pale blue eyes so bright and his smile was just so full of happiness. She could remember the autumn morning that she and her best friend in the entire world had been strolling beside the small creek that weaved through the fields of the estate. He'd told Adelaide that he was going to ask Clarabelle to marry him, that he'd already spoken to her parents and been given their blessing. He had been glowing the entire time that they had talked, the dark-haired girl only ever encouraging him the entire time, telling him that she thought of the maiden as sweet and beautiful. She'd even told him he would be a fool if Townsend let Clarabelle get away. The wedding had been beautiful when the day came, and Adelaide couldn't remember a time in all the years that she'd known the Englishman where he had looked so happy. They were so perfect together, William and Clarabelle. Happily married for those few years, there was hardly a moment where the Englishman wasn't talking about his beloved wife and the things that they wanted out of their new life together. Children, a little house in the countryside, it was all like a dream for Townsend and had Adelaide not loved the man like a brother, she could have easily been envious of the way that he just seemed to glow when he would talk about Clarabelle and everything they did together and wanted to do someday. But, as Adelaide quickly learned, the word "someday" was a dangerous thing to say as it was really only code for "never". When the sickness came, it was just so... sudden. It was like the life he'd had was honestly too good to last, and in only a short year, Adelaide had to watch as her closest companion in her life lost everything.

Before she had passed away, on one of the last days that Adelaide had seen the now frail and tired young woman, she could remember how eyes once so bright and beautiful seemed to be so faded. It had been like the illness stole away the life right from the windows to Clarabelle's soul. The young woman had given the young French girl a gentle smile on that very last day, taking her hand weakly in her own before she parted unto her the words that would remain with Adelaide for the rest of her days..."Life is so short, Adelaide. You have to live it like you won't get another tomorrow, like that sunrise will be the very last you will ever see. No matter what happens, no matter where it takes you, fight for everything that gives you happiness. Love with your whole heart. Laugh until you find yourself breathless. We only get one life, so please promise me that you'll live it to the fullest that you can"... Thinking of that moment when a fading soul once so strong and beautiful had given her those words of wisdom that had resonated so deeply within Adelaide, it both made her heart ache and fueled the flames of determination. It had been the hardest thing for her to watch a life slowly wilt away into nothingness, perhaps one of the only hardships that she had known which had not been her own troubles that found her more and more as the days, weeks, months came and went. The more she earned those sideways glances and quiet whispers no doubt about her peculiar ways for being someone of such "good breeding", the more those final words Clarabelle had said to the French woman meant, the truer they became. Perhaps they had even been a small yet still ever so significant part of the reason why Adelaide had become the fiercely defiant and wild creature she was. Watching the sickness claim a soul that had been nothing but kind and devoted, having to see each and every single day how it had broken a once strong and rebellious man into nothing but a tattered and lost ghost of who he'd been when his world was bright with color and his heart was full, it was unforgettable in the worst of ways and it had only further driven the young woman to believe that her life had to be more than what the was on the estate of her wretched father's. Life truly was much too short to live in empty complacency, and she'd sooner live a single day year of wonder and wild adventure than a thousand years of hollow contentment and calm.

The dark-haired woman didn't even know what she would do if life would dare to rob the man beside her of that brightness he held about him, stripped him of the strength as sickness would lay claim to his muscled body until he, too withered away. That was part of life in the end, living and dying. It was the natural order of things. But, it was when a spirit so young was stolen in such a cruel and agonizing away that just seemed so entirely unfair to the French woman. Their time on this earth was short enough as it was, even just daring to think that anything like what had happened to Clarabelle could happen to Taylor, rendering her absolutely helpless as she could do nothing but watch him die before her very eyes was more than what she needed to find that sense for wanting. And not just in the sense of that desire that flickered across her sage depths as they watched the roguishly charming and handsome man while she sat there on that couch. No, it went so much deeper within her than that. It was a want, a desire to be there beside him as he became the man that he wanted to be. It was the want and desire to ride with him on the back of that roaring machine over dirt country roads to places untouched and untarnished by the merciless and greedy hands of civilization as the need for more land to build on continued to grow. As she remembers the light that she had seen between Townsend and Clarabelle in those years that they'd lived and loved without hesitation or regret, she can't help but find in herself a want for the same. She wanted to share a world of adventure with Taylor. She wanted him to be there with her when that very last sunrise painted The Grand Canyon in liquid gold and when that very last sunset dipped down into the sea, coloring the sky in fire. She wanted him to be there with her to live this one and only life without any remorse or regret as they made their mark together, left behind them a trail of memories full of laughter... and love. It was something entirely new for Adelaide to want something like this, considering the fact that before she met Taylor, the story she yearned to write for the world to remember her by was a tale of only one heart as it braved against the trials and tribulations placed in its path, seized every moment like there would never be another. Now, sitting there so close to Taylor, that was no longer the story she wanted to write. And she would stop at nothing until the very last page had been written. There was no telling when a day would come one would have to be without the other, and the absolute last thing she would ever want was to regret never saying the words that words in her heart, to look. back and regret never knowing what could have been.

Pushing away those thoughts, instead simply wanting to make the most of their stolen night together as she allowed for those darker desires to rise in her, she can't help the impish smile that finds her lips in the wake of Taylor's smirk that always seemed to make the dark-haired woman ever bolder than the moment before it. Soft laughter falls from her then as she gives him a look that told him she couldn't agree more that Paris would have been in for more than it could handle it they'd grown up together. But oh, how she wonders then if just maybe she would have become fiercer even sooner and broken those chains so determined to hold her back. It was hard for her to think that she wouldn't have eloped with Taylor as they struggled to make ends meet, battled their way from city to city as they fled from the men she was unquestionably certain the nobleman would have sent after her to bring the spirited woman back to the confines of the estate she hoped never to step foot on ever again. It brought a fusion of excitement and fondness as she pictured the two of them scraping up enough money to buy their own way here to this new world an ocean away from the only one she'd ever known. It seemed silly to be thinking of how the past might have been if it could be re-written, but all the same she found herself incapable of not imagining how very different everything could have been for the two of them, between the two of them. Where would they be now? What would life have become if they'd been nothing but two rebellious runaways chasing after that never-promised tomorrow? His smirk softens into a smile as he nods gently, his next string of words bringing that gentle fondness to Adelaide's sage eyes still alive with that desire. She knew that he meant every word, her own affectionate expression saying without words that she would have loved to think that they could have had a life like the one they imagined as they sat there finishing their dinner. It shifts almost as quickly as it had appeared, once again changing into that bold and daring look."Anywhere, you say? Even to the edge of the world?", she asks him as dark lashes blink slowly over glittering sage, a coy and coquettish dancing upon her beautiful features as she sets the empty plate of hers might the coffee table, watching as he takes that drink from his glass.

Regarding him fondly as the man seems to practically glow with pride at her appraisal of his cooking, his smirk continuing to stir in the French woman the desire that contained the dance on her gaze, his tenor tones have Adelaide laughing softly yet again as he speaks of how already he seemed anxious for the night in their near future."Then perhaps I should just stay if you're so eager, mon amour", she purrs smoothly to him in those accented words. He tilts his head at her next string of silken words, hunter green eyes growing darker for a fleeting moment at his implication of being able to find a reason he might teach her. Oh, if only he knew just how much deeper he drove her desire for him in those more intimate ways when he would look at her that way. It was already clear she hardly worried about what Townsend could imagine she might be up to tonight as she shifts ever closer to the man he did not approve of. He would in time, she was certain of it. How? Well, she had her ways... She hardly misses the way that his body responds to even that slightest touch, her sultry smile hardly fading as sage eyes watch his own gaze drop to that button of her blazer that she then dares to undo before shifting to the last one, that article of clothing parting to show the fitted black blouse beneath it. Encouraging him further as she brushes her fingertips along the length of his shoulder and his neck, hunter green eyes seeming to drink her in as they lifted quickly to her own depths, searching them though she did nothing to hide the answer to what he was looking for, she moved her hand into his hair. She can see the movement of his throat as he swallows, nearly melting in her hand. Tenor tones come in an almost breathless whisper that has her smile becoming ever more sultry, the desire in her rising ever higher. She watches as he closes his eyes partially, a soft groan only encouraging the movement of her fingers combing through his hair."Hmmm. Well, I think I have something in mind that might be suitable...", she purrs as she leans just a little closer for a fleeting moment so that her breath brushes lightly against his ear.

Swiftly stealing away the plate and setting it on the table, she slides into his lap, Taylor's eyes widening at the sudden change only for the muscle in his chiseled jaw to clench. It takes only moments for her to feel the tension beneath her, her sultry expression accompanied by a single lifted brow. She can feel the way that his hands move slowly along the length of her thigh, her skin brought to life by his soft touch, her own heart beginning to race in her breast as she feels the tides of her desire starting to push her further still. As his hands come to rest on her hips, a contented sigh ushers through the man beneath her, and when she leans in to press her lips against his, it is feverishly returned, the taste of him something that she knew that she could never get enough of. When she pulls away, the fingers of one slender hand still buried in his hair as the other dares to venture down his neck... his collarbone... his chest... Slowly, her finger tips explore those familiar plains of his abdomen, a soft "mmm" humming from the dark-haired woman before her hands travels back up to rest over his chest where she can feel his heart thundering wildly. He chuckles softly at her words, his own hands now trailing up her waist, pulling a soft gasp escaping from gently parted lips as sage eyes remain fastened to hunter green. Tangling his own hands in her hair, tenor tones have her shuddering with want as he smirks, Adelaide practically melting into him as those depths take on an entirely new gleam beneath that sultry glow â€" a gleam that was almost pleading."Taylor...", she whispers breathlessly before he pulls her in, their lips meeting as she deepens each one a little more, her breathing coming in soft pants as her hand suddenly ventures back to his abdomen, only it doesn't stop there. It finds that button of his jeans again, and this time slender fingers make quick work as they undo it. She moans softly into his lips as she continues to kiss him deeply, softly, passionately."Taylor?", she says gently, lilted voice holding in it a question. It was a question that needed no other words, that just in his name he can hear that she is wanting to know if this was what he wanted, that it was what she wanted here and now, but in the same breathless call of his name, it tells him that she would not push any farther if he didn't want to â€" even if his body seemed to scream the same near desperate desire as her own.