“What about you?” she asked.
He arched a brow. “Are you trying to tempt me, Miss Monroe?”
“I hope I do tempt you,” she said.
He caught her hand and gently dragged it down his body until she cupped the hardness of him. “You do,” he promised. “But when I resolve this, I want it to be buried in your body. And I only want to do that when I have the time to do it properly.”
“In the midst of a country party, that could be challenging.”
He shrugged as he released her hand. “I’m very good at challenges.” For a moment they lay like that and then he glanced up behind him, toward the house that was hidden over the hill. “Much as I would like to lie here with you all day, it’s getting later in the morning. Soon the others will rise.”
She moaned as she buried her head in his shoulder. “I don’t want to go back to reality.”
He laughed as he smoothed a hand over her hair. “Neither do I, I promise you. But we must.”
She nodded slowly and then lifted her head with a smile for him. “Thank you for the fantasy, though.”
“Thank you,” he replied before he kissed her once more.
She wanted to sink into it. To surrender to it and to him. But he didn’t allow it. With a groan, he pulled back and then got to his feet. She watched him straighten himself before he offered her a hand to help her up. She took it and did her best to fix her dress. Beneath it her drawers were slightly cockeyed, but she wasn’t about to fix those.
“Walk with me,” he said as they started up the hill to where his horse had gone to graze. He caught the reins as they passed the animal and together they climbed up the hill.
She sighed as the house appeared in the distance. Reality loomed, as it always would. Now she began to think of consequences and futures and loss and everything else.
“You said you got bad news last night,” she said. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
He sent her a side look. “You just did.”
She shook her head. “You pretend with everyone else, Baldwin, please don’t pretend with me.”
She saw the air go out of him, his shoulders slumped, and for a moment the weight he carried was so obvious. “It was just bad news about the debts I told you about.”
She frowned. “The ones you had not been able to discover.”
He nodded. “Yes. Someone has…bought them all.”
They were almost to the house now, and she stopped on the path to face him. “One person bought them all? Who?”
“That was the bad news—I do not know.” He sighed and looked toward the house. “It cannot be for any good reason, though.”
She tended to agree, but saying so would not relieve him. Instead she reached out and touched his arm. “You do not know anything for certain yet. Have faith, Baldwin. You are too good not to have the best of things happen for you.”
He stared down at her, and for a moment she thought he might kiss her. She wanted him to, even though she stole a glance up at the house where anyone could be watching. He did the same and sighed.
“Thank you,” he said. “You were exactly what I needed to clear my mind.”
“If I did so even a little, then I’m glad,” she said. With a sigh, she stepped away. “I must go inside. The morning is getting late, and any moment my cousin will wake and come barreling into the sitting room to demand I assist her.”
His brow wrinkled. “The sitting room?”
Helena shrugged. “She wanted the bed all to herself. I sleep on the settee.”
His jaw set and she saw the flash of anger that crossed his face. Intense and entirely on her behalf. “That little—”
Her eyes widened and she shook her head. “Don’t. It isn’t worth it.”
“I knew I should have given you your own chamber,” he said. “I thought the beautiful view would please you and—”
