“I think you two must have gotten close, given that you…you chose to spend time with him at the Donville Masquerade. I cannot ignore the fact that even though you hide it, you might be communicating with him still. Sometimes you get a faraway look in your eyes. It’s the same one I see on Thomasina’s face and feel on my own.”
Juliana sighed. “You needn’t worry yourself, love. I’m being smart and careful.”
“I know you are.” Anne shifted. “But I also know that Ellis can pretend to be whatever a lady desires, whatever she needs in that moment. That is how he got so far with so many and never got caught at what he’s done.”
“Including you?” Juliana asked softly.
Anne frowned. “He sensed I didn’t want the life I was being forced into. He offered a different one. Full of adventure and fun. He wasn’t wrong. That is exactly the life I’ve found with Rook. I don’t hate him for what he did anymore…but I can’t trust him.”
Juliana nodded slowly. “I-I understand that.”
Anne squeezed her hand. “I just hope you aren’t being used and convincing yourself it’s something more if youarestill connected to him.”
Juliana frowned. She was in love with Ellis, she knew that as strongly as she had a few days ago when the realization had first hit. But she wasn’t a fool. Their bargain was, in a great many ways, still skewed in his favor. He got what he wanted from her when it came to assistance. And he certainly wasn’t sad about the physical pleasures they shared.
That he might be using her, playing her, even if she did sometimes catch a glimpse of the real man he was had occurred to her.
She released Anne’s hand with a smile she hoped appeased her wary sister. “I’ll consider it. Good night.”
“Good night,” Anne returned, but she still sounded concerned. She worried her lip as she turned and left Juliana at her door.
The door she opened with a sigh and stepped into her chamber. She moved to close it and gasped. Ellis was standing behind it, leaning against the wall, a finger pressed to his lips to shush her so she wouldn’t cry out in surprise.
She couldn’t help her smile, despite the conversation with her sister in the hallway, and shut her door quietly before she stepped into him, lips lifted for a kiss.
He didn’t deny her. His arms folded around her, hands splaying across her back possessively as he devoured her lips. She groaned at the sensation of his fingers against the silk of her gown, rubbing the soft fabric along her skin as he deepened the kiss even more.
She was lost to him. Lost forever. She never wanted to be found. She broke the kiss to look up at him and drink in the sight of him in the firelight.
He was so exquisitely beautiful, it was almost difficult to retain focus. His hair was slightly mussed and fell around his forehead in disorganized waves. His blue eyes were dark now, dilated with desire for her that still felt so strange to see and understand. He was not wearing a jacket, nor a cravat, and the top button of his shirt was undone, revealing a little chest hair that she wanted to glide her fingers through.
“Good evening,” he drawled with a smile that popped the dimple in his cheek and made him even more irresistible.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered as she lifted her hands to his shirt and slid the second button free.
He chuckled. “The exact same thing you seem to be doing,” he said. “I came here to just…” He leaned in and nuzzled his nose along the curve of her neck. “…breathe you in.”
She shivered as his lips traced her throat and dizzied her mind. “I missed you,” she admitted, even though that was a dangerous thing to do. “Three days is a very long time to only satisfy myself with smuggled letters.”
He drew back and gazed down at her, the tension in his stare sudden and dark. “You ought not put so much stake in me, angel,” he said softly, and lifted his hands to cover hers and keep her from unfastening the third button of his shirt.
“You keep trying to warn me off,” she said, leaning in to kiss his knuckles instead of unbuttoning him. “But you must know by now that I am entirely stubborn and accustomed to getting my way. I will have it, you know.”
He chuckled, but the sound was strained. “You are that. I wouldn’t have you any other way.”
She stepped away and smiled. “You may be the only one to feel that way, I fear. My sisters are becoming concerned about me.”
He shifted slightly. “Yes. I, er, heard some of your conversation with Anne in the hallway.”
Heat flooded her cheeks. “I see. Well, then you know what I’m dealing with.”
“She’s worried about you,” he said gently. “And she should be. We already know I’m no good bargain. I’m a thief in the night and I’ve taken so much I never should have touched.”
“I offered what you took,” she reminded him as she reached for him. She folded her fingers through his and they both stared at their clasped hands. “Enthusiastically. More than once. I can do it again if you’d like to revisit whether or not you have stolen something from me.”
He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. “You were sent here to test me. It is the only explanation. An angel from heaven sent to tempt the devil. And I think I’m failing.”
“Only if you judge the test by hell’s standards,” she whispered, and wished she could make him see himself through her eyes.
