He let go of her hand and instead reached out to cup her cheek. His fingers caressed her skin far more gently than she deserved considering what he’d just told her.
“We can’t do this anymore, can we?” he asked.
She bit back a sob. “No. No, I think it hurts us both too much.”
He leaned in, his mouth a breath from hers. “Then we must make tonight special. A better goodbye than our last one.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, tears escaping no matter how she fought them. Then she opened them and looked at him. “Yes,” she whispered, and cupped his face to draw him to her lips.
He kissed her, gently, sweetly, as he backed her toward the bed once more. And as they fell together, she pushed away all her pain, all her awareness that this night had now transformed into a goodbye. She would have plenty of time later to deal with that reality. For now she just wanted to have this last moment with him.
This last moment with the man she loved more than anything in this world.
Chapter Eleven
“The Marquess and Marchioness of Folworth to see you, my lord.”
Stenfax lifted his head from the line of figures he had been staring at, unseeing, for several hours to find his butler Xavier at the door. He shook his head.
“Of course. Show them to the parlor.”
The servant bowed and backed from the room, leaving Stenfax to collect himself. And collect himself he would have to do. It had been three days since he last saw Elise and he hadn’t been sleeping, he’d hardly eaten.
How had he survived three years like this? He could hardly remember.
He kept wanting to go to Vivien’s. To find Elise there and just have one more night. It took every fiber of his being not to do just that.
“It’s over,” he reminded himself before he got up and walked to the parlor where his friends awaited him.
He stepped inside and found Folly and Marina standing together at the fire. They turned in unison as he shut the door, and Folly tilted his head. “Christ, you look like hell.”
Marina slapped his arm. “Folly!”
“It’s true,” Folly said with a shrug. “I imagine he knows it.”
“But I always appreciate the reminder,” Stenfax said in a dry tone as he motioned to the settee. “Would you like tea?”
They both shook their heads and everyone sat, Folly and Marina on the settee, Stenfax in a chair across from them. “It’s nice to see you,” he said. “Regardless of my appearance. I had actually forgotten we had planned this meeting today. My apologies.”
Marina leaned forward. She was a beautiful woman, with sharp green eyes that flitted over his face and read him in an instant. “You wanted to know about the Duke of Kirkford. Thenewduke, I suppose.”
“Yes,” he said with a short nod. “I already know everything I ever wanted to know about the last one.”
Both Folly and Marina frowned. Folly was the one who spoke. “I assume this means the rumors of your…reconnectingto Elise are true?”
Stenfax stiffened. Folly had been a friend for years, and he trusted Marina implicitly. But he couldn’t spill everything in his heart to them any more than he was able to do so with Gray. All three of them were too involved. Too biased.
“It was nothing,” he lied. “A brief dalliance with an old flame. It’s…it’s over now.”
Marina pressed her lips together and it was clear she didn’t fully believe him. “And yet you still wish to know about the new duke.”
Stenfax shifted. He should probably say no. He should probablymeanno. After all, if he and Elise were over, he had no cause to involve himself in her life. She intended to take a protector, after all, and it would be that man’s position to defend her if she needed it.
And yet he didn’t say no.
“I was merely curious about him,” Stenfax said. “Especially after that scene when he dragged Elise to the ball despite her still being in mourning.”
Marina flinched. “Ah yes. That was a dreadful night. The gossips are still chewing over that. They’ll work the marrow from that bone for a long time to come.”
