“It’s the water,” she breathed.
“It isn’t.” He kissed the corner of her jaw, light as silk. “You know it isn’t.”
Her hand lifted to his chest, fingertips splayed against his shirt. She tugged him closer.
“Aaron …” The way she said his name, soft and breathless, nearly shattered the last of his restraint.
He took the cloth again, running it slowly down the length of her arm, then across her collarbone, savoring each rise of her chest, each sigh he coaxed from her lips. His fingers trailed the path after, reverent, teasing, wanting.
She closed her eyes, tilting her head back, trust and desire laid bare before him.
He bent and kissed the hollow of her throat, and the sound it pulled from her made heat flood his veins.
“Please …” she whispered.
He swallowed hard. “Careful, sweetheart,” he murmured, his voice roughened. “If you beg, I won’t have the strength to deny you anything.”
And still he stayed. Still, he touched her with aching tenderness, bathing her inch by deliberate inch until she trembled not from the water, but from him.
Later, Aaron wrapped Louise in his warmest robe, carrying her to his bed despite her protests that she could walk. Her ankle had been properly bound, the swelling already reducing thanks to the heat of the bath.
“I should return to my room,” she said without conviction, burrowing deeper into his pillows.
“You should rest.” Aaron pulled the covers over her, unable to resist pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Sleep. I’ll wake you before dinner.”
“What will we tell everyone?”
“That you needed rest after your fall. Which is entirely true.” He smoothed her damp hair back from her face. “No one will question it.”
Louise caught his hand as he turned to go. “Today was perfect. Even with Buttercup’s chaos.”
“Especially with Buttercup’s chaos.” Aaron squeezed her fingers gently. “Though we might consider keeping him away from squirrels in future.”
Her laugh followed him from the room, warm and bright as summer sunshine. He stood in the corridor for a moment, his own clothes still damp from the pond rescue, his mind replaying every moment of the afternoon.
The kiss in the garden. Her skin beneath his hands. The trust in her eyes as she asked him to stay.
He was crossing lines he had sworn never to approach. Taking liberties that blurred the careful boundaries meant to protect her. But with each passing day, those boundaries seemed less like protection and more like prison walls keeping them from the happiness they both deserved.
Aaron returned to his study, but concentration proved impossible. His thoughts remained upstairs where Louise slept in his bed, wearing his robe, bearing the marks of his touch in places no one else would ever see.
He was falling. Had already fallen, if he were honest.
The only question now was whether he would find the courage to stop pretending otherwise.
CHAPTER 28
“Lady Louise! How delightful to see you. I hear Lord Sulton is still in Bath. He must be recovering remarkably well there,” Lady Tupperton blocked Louise’s path to the refreshment table with the determination of a general defending strategic ground.
The woman’s narrow face held the sharp anticipation of a hawk spotting prey.
Louise forced her shoulders to remain relaxed despite the tension coiling in her stomach. “Lady Tupperton. Lovely to see you as well. As for my brother, the waters have been most beneficial to his health.”
“Indeed? How curious that no one in Bath society has encountered him.” Lady Tupperton stepped closer, her perfume overwhelming in its intensity. “My dear friend Lady Mansfield writes me every week from the Pump Room, and she mentions everyone of consequence.”
Around them, Lord Pemberton’s drawing room hummed with conversation. Louise could see Lady Harbury across the room, resplendent in purple silk, engaged in an animated discussion with the Dowager Duchess of Raynsford. Lady Densham stood near the pianoforte, her severe expression suggesting she found the music lacking. Lady Merrow held court by the fireplace, but she might as well have been in another country for all the help she could provide.
“My brother prefers privacy during his convalescence.” Louise attempted to step around the woman, but Lady Tupperton shifted to maintain her blockade.
