When she'd nearly lost all hope for mankind, almost became convinced that good men, truly good men, were nothing more than an idea of the past, Taylor walked into her life and unexpectedly showed the French woman that what she had almost begun believed in was far from being a reality she was ready to exist in. When she had been near moments away that night from thinking that chivalry was truly dead, buried deeply within the pages of those old books she would read while she sat there in the bay window of the very place adamant to keep her captive, one man had dared to stand up for her honor and do what was right. In the end, she likely could have managed without Taylor's help, but that was hardly how this story of two wounded and wild spirits would begin. And how she was thankful for that night that would mark their very first chapter, for Taylor having been there so that she would get the chance to see with her own eyes that there were still men that believed in the ways of standing up for others, even if it wasn't the most popular decision. Even when she had been uncertain as to why he had come to her defense in those earliest moments, he proved to her that he wasn't like the other men she'd had the great displeasure of meeting - all of them having been by force of her father. They had all been made of nothing genuine or warm, their words hollowed as they did what they could to deceive her, tell her whatever it was that they thought she might want to hear. And she had been able to see through each and every one of those arrogant sons of nobleman, except for one. He had been the only one whose words had felt genuine. She'd searched those eyes of his so many times, her own bright with fierce suspicion and fiery warning that she was hardly interested in being made into some pretty little trophy wife for some pompous prick that thought money would be able to buy her and keep her content. Her words had been sharp like dangers and cold as the frozen zephyrs that raced across the Alaskan tundra. The dark-haired woman had given the Frenchman every reason to turn away and give up his relentless chase, refused him the smallest glimmer of warmth or interest from the very moment that he stepped into the mansion to stand beside Adelaide's wretched father. Despite every cold stare and disinterested word she gave him, the snake continued to try his charms, and that one summer afternoon in the garden, he'd separated himself from the rest of those suitors that the fierce young woman had turned away. It had been the way he'd promised her so much, somehow managing to get Adelaide to believe that what she saw in those eyes of his and heard in his words were true. To this day, she wonders if her mother hadn't been part of it all, if she hadn't been the one to coach Julien on what he needed to say and do, what would be needed to get past those thick walls Adelaide had built around herself.

None of that mattered, though. Not anymore. Taylor had shown her in those first days that he was nothing like them, like Julien. It couldn't be clearer that he was by no means self-centered and self-satifying. He wouldn't have taken that glass bottle of liquid to his arm if he hadn't been ready to so whatever was needed to show the drunken man that his forward actions would get him nothing beyond a black eye and a few bruises. She could see in his smile that warmth she hadn't found before in Paris, and what's more was that it had been genuine. Just as with the men before him, she searched for even the smallest reason that she shouldn't trust him, that she should have just thanked him and moved on with her life. But, unlike every man before him, she saw no shadows in those hunter green eyes she had come to adore except for the whispers of a past not too unlike her own. While she would never say that she fell for him in those very first moments like it was so often written in those many romance novels she'd mused through, she knew back then in those first moments that he was different from the rest of the world. She had wanted to know why, wanted to know what it was that sparked to life almost instantaneously that clear connection between them that led to every day thereafter. And, in every moment that they both shared and stole from behind the ever-wary eyes of the Englishman, he continued to captivate her and it was hardly long before she truly did begin to fall for him. It was not ad though tonight was the first night that she realized what those feelings she felt in her heart were. No, she'd known for a little while now that even when he was hardly trying to make her fall in love with him, she still found herself missing him when he wasn't with her and thinking of him before she fell asleep or in those first moments as she awoke to the weak sunlight breaking through the curtains of her bedroom. He was everything that she could ever want in a man, in someone that she would desire to share a future with. It was in the way that he was always himself and never tried to be something that he wasn't just to impress her. It was in the way that he was charming in that endearing and sweet with his roguish smirks and teasing words, leaving the dark-haired woman hoping that he might just look at her again. It was in the words that he spoke to her as they bore nothing less than the truth, the demons of his own past that he didn't try and hide from her as if to try and conceal his imperfections that allowed for her to finally tear down those walls and show him her own wounds, that she was also far from perfect. It was in how he'd told her so much about himself that allowed for Adelaide to give him that rare and fragile gift that was her trust. It was in how he held her under the stars, how he kissed her, how he chased her through the trees as they laughed on their secret adventure to the outskirts of Sacrosanct that planted in her heart that seed of love.

She had come to realize that what she'd craved more than anything in this world, Taylor embodied in a way like she never would have thought possible. That mischievous look he would cast her as they would speak of the adventures they could have, it was the very essence of that untamed freedom that burned like a flame within her glittering depths of sage. How they had talked of riding on his Harley to wherever the road would lead them without so much as a backwards glance, Taylor always reminding her of the promise he'd made her that morning she'd poured out those feelings she'd harbored for so long within the deepest parts of her heart to him... it was the reflection of that adventure she yearned for. And, how he'd taken her hands in his that morning, how he'd held her so gently in his arms as the moon and the stars filled the night sky above them... how he had kissed her so tenderly, with that unspoken want bound by the equally steady desire to be the gentleman that he made clear he believed Adelaide deserved, all the while refusing those male tendencies she was entirely certain she'd stirred in him many times before tonight that whispered endlessly of the passion she longed to feel as she set her gaze on everything her mother and father always told her she would never see. He was that adventure Adelaide wanted with every part of her, wild and reckless, unfaultering and constant. And yet, in the very same moment, he was so much more than that, giving to the dark-haired woman all that she had once been so sure she would never find and never want. He was that sanctuary where she could let her armor drop to the floor and fall into his arms without fear while those strong arms of his would wrap around her, the steady strength beside her should she ever find herself stumbling against the trials that would surely find her, the part of her heart and soul she hadn't even known was missing. He was the love that she hadn't spent a single moment in her life searching high and low for only to find it in perhaps the last place she would have ever thought to look. It had taken her breaking free of her parents' estate and separating herself an ocean and countless miles from the only place she'd ever known to find the key to that something she hadn't even thought she would want to unlock. Finding love had never been a part of Adelaide's plans when she stepped off the plane and into that first chapter of her new life, and yet it had found her anyway in the form of a roguishly handsome face and mischievous misfit of a man with a heart so big and so gentle yet just as guarded as her own. It found her in the surprise of an unforeseen yet near immediate bond brought to life between two wary hearts running from a darker place in hope of finding their light. Little did either of them ever anticipate that they would find that very light in each other, two once-strangers from entirelt different worlds colliding together against the odds. Glittering sage watch in impish delight as the way his lips quirk pull her back to the here and now, the moment that she wanted so much to lose herself in with Taylor. His words have her once soft smile shifting to match the sultry gaze with which she fixes him, sliding easily into his lap and reveling in the way that his body seemed to shift ever so slightly against her own, his lower parts betraying those thoughts that ran wild within his hunter green depths that looked right back into her.

They kiss, tongue brushing hungrily against one another like they'd never tasted anything so amazing, and for Adelaide this was a strong truth. Each embrace of their lips becomes deeper than the last as passion beings to threaten those last remaining fibers of the thread that kept those clothes upon the man and woman, that want for him rising to dangerous levels that had her almost worried that it would be her that took the unfair advantage tonight. Taylor pulls back only to tell the dark-haired woman everything that echoed within her own heart, and it was then that there was no more holding back the words that danced so often across her mind for a time now. She doesn't overthink this moment as she might have before, when she first met the roguishly handsome man, and as she pours out her own heart to him, placing so much more than her rust in him, she finds that taking that risk of making herself so vulnerable at the hands of another couldn't have been more worthwhile as he returns that four-letter word to her with the same fervor that she had spoken with it. Love. They had fallen in love. The one thing she believed that she would never have, and now... she had it, and with the only one that she would ever want to have it with. His groan awakens in her that need for him, that desperate want that had her body silently pleading for him. This was nothing like that night she'd made the biggest mistake of her life. There was no hesitancy, no uncertainty, no greed as those kisses become ever more passionate. He was holding nothing back now and she eagerly returns that same wild wanting as he began to undress her, starting with the blazer before making quick work of her silken black blouse. They break apart only long enough to remove the shirts from one another and her hands are rewarded with the feel of his bare chest, sending her lust for him ever higher. His lips trail along the line of her jaw and down the soft skin of her neck, pulling from parted lips a soft gasp of pleasure as he continues to allow his lips those administrations of her collarbone, those slender fingers curling just a little tighter into his hair as her hips continue to grind against him. His hand moves along her arms before finding that black lace bra, his thumbs brushing over the fabric of where those sensitive parts remained painfully hidden, though it hardly lasts long as his fingers pull her breast from its covering and he bends down to take it in his mouth, a moan of pleasure stealing away any words she might hope to offer him in encouragement as he moves to the other breast.

Even before now, they seemed to share something so deep and unspoken that they hardly needed words to tell the other what it was that they felt, what that wanted, and tonight would be no exception as she is rendered speechless beneath the pleasure that begins to overtake her. He reaches around and makes fast work of those metal clasps that constrained her, expression to Adelaide he knew what he was doing. She didn't want to think about anything else, anyone else. There was no past or future to her, only this night of passion that she felt certain would only be the first of many. Her breathing comes in quickened and nearly shaking breaths as her heart races beneath his touch, the feel of his skin against hers. His hands travel to her hips before they slide over the smooth fabric of those white dress slacks, caressing her thighs in roughened circles that only made her want him that much more."Taylor...", she calls his name quietly, lilted voice thick with wanting as she feels him unhinge the button of her pants before sliding them partway down her legs. Those strong hands move to her cheeks, kneading with intent as toned arms lift her ever so slightly as they shift now, Taylor lowering her onto the couch and he is hovering so close to her then before skillfully pulling at that article of clothing further, her slender frame arching ever so slightly to help him as she feels it leave her altogether. He gives her an almost devilish smirk that is met by her own sultry smile, sage eyes bright with desire. His tenor tones growl up to her softly, a subtle rasp of lust twisting around his words as hunter green eyes trail over her nearly naked curves. She moves to place a hand on the bulge of his bicep before she allows for it to trail slowly down his forearm."I agree", she purrs lustfully to the man that she loved. His next string over words has that sultry smile softening, sage eyes glowing with unbound passion."I know, my love. I love you, too", she whispers to him as he brings his lips a breath away from her own before again, they are kissing. She moans softly into his mouth as their tongues brush against each other, and it is this time that she smiles impishly while nipping gently at his bottom lip. A series of softer moans fall from her lips between each feverish kiss as his hand continues to caress her breast, but her mind seems to follow his other, that awareness bringing a wave of anticipation as his fingertips brush softly against her side, her hip, her inner thigh... And then, a sudden gasp of ecstasy is torn from her as his fingers play against her core, Adelaide's hips shifting in a wordless begging for that intimate touch as the pleasure comes over her in wild waves."Oh, Taylor...", she moans before her own hand trails along this bare chest, down and across the defined muscle of his stomach before she is reaching for the bulge in his jeans."Please...", she whimpers softly, begging for so much more as suddenly she plunges over the edge, at the very mercy of his hand, her other grasping at his forearm as she climaxes, a string of gasping moans announcing that pleasure unlike anything she'd ever experienced. How she wanted him. Now.

Hardly able to wait another moment, despite the trembling that racks her slender body as those waves of pleasure slowly begin to subside all the while leading her wanting so much more, she is leaning forward and into him. Propping herself up with her elbows as glittering sage eyed full of hunger meet his of hunter green for a moment, she pauses to give him that sultry look before she is pushing against him to ease the man back, bringing herself to a sitting position with her bare chest against the rippled plains of his stomach. Giving him a nearly wicked smile, she moves her hands to the hem of his pants and pulls the clothing down as best as she can from where she sat. And, unlike Taylor leaving that black lace thong on the dark-haired woman that she near desperately wanted to be freed of, she doesn't spare him the same as he had her as she removes those boxers in the same swift motion, exposing those sensitive parts to her. She grasps his clear arousal with a soft hand then, stroking him slowly and encouragingly as her lips taste the skin of his muscled torso while her free hand continues its administrations of his chiseled chest, her soft moans continuing on as she seeks to pleasure him in turn, though she hardly intended on bringing him to that same pinnacle that he had her. At least, not this way, not yet. Soft fingers move to those two lower parts, cradling the two gently before she begins to caress them carefully for a moment â€" entirely aware of just how delicate they could be â€" as her breaths come faster and grow heavier with wanting, her kisses stopping as she looks up at him, dark lashes blinking slowly over sage depths. There are no words that fall from those dusty rose-colored lips curved into that sultry smile she knew could bring him to his knees if she truly wished for such a thing. It could be seen in her eyes, as she continues to stroke his arousal once more, slowly yet purposefully and almost demandingly, that she wanted him to take her. It could be seen there within those sage depths, felt in those gentle yet passionate movements of her hand as she caresses his manhood, that she craved the man to a point that had her entire heart, body and soul aching for him like it never had another.