His touch remained gentle, reverent, as if she might shatter beneath his hands.
“You taste like honey,” he murmured against her skin. “Warm, addictive, and impossible to forget.”
Louise’s breath stuttered.
He drew back only enough to study her, his thumb grazing her lower lip as if he couldn’t quite stop touching her. “You undo me far more easily than I like to admit.”
Only then did he begin to gather the scattered pins, securing curls with far more care than propriety required. His touch lingered at her temple, down the line of her neck.
“I should put distance between us,” he said quietly, though his fingers betrayed him by stroking once more. “And yet here I am, wanting more.”
When the last curl was settled, he lifted his gaze to hers.
“From now on,” he said quietly, smoothing the last wayward curl, “I’ll tell you everything about the search for George. No more secrets.”
Louise watched him in the dim candlelight, her body still humming from sensations she had never imagined possible. “And this? What happens with this?”
His hands stilled in her hair. “I can give you pleasure without ruining you, if you want it.” He swallowed hard. “Allow you moments of freedom from all that burden you carry.”
The promise sent heat through her again, but reality crashed back with brutal clarity.
Only temporary. Whatever existed between them would end the moment George was found.
“Once we locate your brother,” Aaron continued, adjusting her necklace with infinite care, “I’ll ensure your family’s protection. You and Emily will have security and a proper future. I swear it.”
Louise nodded, not trusting her voice. She would take these stolen moments of pleasure, these brief escapes fromresponsibility. She would savor them, knowing they were borrowed time, knowing that once George returned, she and Emily would leave Calborough House forever.
“The ballroom,” she managed. “They’ll wonder where we are.”
“You go first.” His thumb traced her cheekbone one last time. “I’ll follow in a few minutes.”
Louise smoothed her skirts, checking her reflection in the dark window. She looked different somehow, as if the knowledge of pleasure had marked her in ways visible to anyone who cared to look.
She slipped through the doors, immediately caught in the swirl of music and laughter that seemed jarring after the intimacy of the library.
“There you are.” Lady Merrow appeared at her elbow, sharp eyes taking in every detail of Louise’s appearance. “You missed the quadrille.”
“I needed some air.” Louise forced her voice to remain steady. “The crush was overwhelming.”
“Air.” Lady Merrow’s tone suggested she knew exactly what kind of air Louise had been breathing. “Well, you look refreshed. Positively glowing, in fact.”
Louise kept her expression carefully neutral, even as her body remembered every touch, every sensation Aaron had given her in that darkened library. “Everything is perfectly fine.”
But it wasn’t fine. It was glorious and terrible and completely impossible.
And for the first time in her life, Louise didn’t care.
CHAPTER 19
“May I speak with you?”
Aaron looked up from his morning correspondence to find Louise hovering in the doorway of his study.
After last night’s encounter in the library, he had expected awkwardness between them. Instead, she stood with purposeful determination, dressed in a practical morning gown that made her look like the responsible companion rather than the woman who had come apart in his arms mere hours ago.
“Of course.” He set down his pen, gesturing to the chair across from his desk. “Please, sit.”
She entered but remained standing, her fingers twisting together in a gesture he recognized as nervous energy rather than uncertainty.
