More than a little self-conscious, she climbed off his lap, grateful when her dress slid easily back to cover her ankles as she rose. “I need to be home before dawn. Bethany’s maid brings my chocolate in at sunrise.”
The sight of Zeke arranging himself inside his breeches and buttoning up his falls sent a melancholy through her.
He had made love to her, but there had been nodeclarationsof love. She hadn’t expected one, had she? And what would she have done if there had been one?
She could pretend this was all perfectly normal and that she hadn’t just experienced the best night of her entire life. She could pretend she hadn’t come hoping he would admit there was a place in his life for her.
Not as his wife, but as a person who he could… enjoy and possibly…love.
“You’ll not dissuade me from visiting your brother tomorrow.” Zeke glanced toward the clock and grimaced. “Or later today, rather.”
“That isn’t necessary.” She located her cloak and tugged it around her shoulders. “As I told you—”
“I’ll be visiting your brother later this morning.”
“No, please. Promise me you won’t. If you do, it’ll ruin this. It’ll tarnish what we’ve done. Promise me, Zeke. Please?” She was on the verge of tears. Extracting a marriage wasn’t why she’d come.
She’d much rather he invite her to come to him another night, or beg her to go driving to a secluded destination.
But there was no way she was about to become his responsibility.
“Please, Zeke?” She begged again.
He stared at her looking hard—looking torn. “Diana. If something were to happen to me, and you’ve conceived, you would be utterly ruined, not only within theTon, but… You, more than anyone, ought to wish to avoid that. And the child...” His jaw clenched. “I want you—”
“I want you too,” she interrupted. “But not as a husband.”
Ifshe were carrying a child, she’d deal with that later. But for now, she wasn’t about to go borrowing trouble.
He narrowed his eyes and then lifted that adorably arrogant chin of his. “You’ll change your mind.”
“Promise you won’t go to my brother tomorrow morning?”
After what seemed to drag on for an entire minute, he finally nodded. “I won’t go to him tomorrow morning.”
Diana walked back to him and wound her arms around his waist, resting her cheek where she could hear the beating of his heart. “Thank you.”
