She should pull away. She should demand he release her and march back to the rose garden where safety lay in being seen. She didn’t.
He led her deeper into the maze, moving with the surety of long familiarity. They moved through a gap between two hedges that looked like a solid wall until she was standing directly in front of it. “Through here.” He pushed branches aside, holding them back with a protective arm so they wouldn’t scratch her face. He pulled her after him into the darkness.
She ducked under his arm, her shoulder brushing his chest—a contact that sent a bolt of heat through her.
“One hundred!” Martha’s voice was faint and far away, barely audible through the thick walls of the hedge. The game had begun.
They emerged into an alcove completely hidden from the rest of the maze. Dappled sunlight filtered through the leaves overhead. “No one knows this place.” Dominic released her hand and stepped back, finally putting distance between them. “I made this path when I was twelve. I cut through the hedge with a knife I had stolen from the kitchen.”
Nell stared at him, her pulse hammering against her ribs. Her hand still hummed from the warmth of his touch. “You brought me here.” She struggled to find a steady note, her words wavering. “Why?”
“Because Martha would have found you.” He stood between her and the entrance, his broad shoulders blocking the only way out. He kept his glacial eyes fixed on her face, unblinking and intense. “And I didn’t want the game to end.”
“The game.” She echoed him, her throat tightening as the reality of their isolation settled over her.
“Come here.” He stepped back, a sharp nod directing her toward the center of the alcove.
She should refuse. Should demand he take her back to the garden, to her children, to the safe and sensible life she’d built. She should… Instead, she moved toward him on legs that felt like they might buckle.
He circled behind her, a sudden surge of heat radiating against her back. His hands found her shoulders, positioning her so she was facing the dense, green wall of the hedge. “No one can find us here.” His mouth brushed her ear, his breath stirring the fine hairs at her temple. “Not Martha. Not Daphne. No one.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel safe?” She intended the remark to cut, but it emerged as a breathless rasp as she stared into the leaves.
“No.” His teeth grazed her earlobe in a sharp, sudden spark of contact. “It’s supposed to make you honest.”
“Honest about what?” Her eyes fluttered closed, her head tilting instinctively away from the heat of him.
“About what you want.” His hands slid down her arms, his touch light yet possessive. “When no one is watching.”
Her mouth went dry.
“You wore yellow.” His fingers traced the edge of her neckline, skimming the sensitive skin of her bare shoulders. “You look like sunlight. Like everything I shouldn’t want.”
“Stop.” Nell tried to force some steel into her tone, but the word broke in the middle. Her hands hovered uselessly at her sides, fingers twitching against her skirts.
“Stop what?” Dominic stepped in front of her and leaned in until his shadow swallowed her whole.
“Whatever you are doing to me,” she whispered, stepping back until the hedge pressed firm against her spine.
“I haven’t even started.” His hands found her waist, fingers pressing into the soft fabric as he pulled her closer. “But I want to. God, Nell. I want to worship you.”
“This is madness.” She looked away from his piercing gaze, her lungs forgetting how to breathe.
“Yes.” His eyes burned into hers, reflecting the dappled sunlight.
“I hate you.” She spat the words, though her fingers betrayed her by curling into the fine fabric of his coat.
“I know.” A jagged line of pain flickered across his face.
“You called me nothing.” The words spilled out, hot and bitter, as she tried to shove against his chest. “Nothing of consequence.”
His teeth locked, the scar whitening against his tan. “Because I have felt like nothing my whole life. And when you looked at me like I was just a man, not a monster—” He stopped, swallowing hard as he searched her expression. “I panicked. I ruin everything.”
She stared up at him, her anger faltering at the raw honesty in his tone.
“Tell me you don’t want me.” He cupped her face, his thumbs stroking her cheekbones with unexpected tenderness. “Tell me, and I shall take you back. I shall never touch you again.”
She opened her mouth to say it, her lips trembling. The words wouldn’t come.
