He collapsed over her, his sweat mingling with her own, his arms hard and strong around her, his mouth against hers as they panted together in sated bliss.
She allowed herself to relax into him, let her breath match his. This wouldn’t last. She knew it. But she was going to bloody well enjoy every moment until the last.
He left hours later, in the middle of the dark night, sneaking from her bed with whispered promises and heated kisses. And as her door closed, Selina snuggled into her covers, reveling in the beauty of what they’d shared. It had been perfect and lovely and unforgettable. It had changed her, but she could accept that change because it was for the better. She would never again be the Selina she’d been before that night.
She didn’t want to be.
She was about to lean over to snuff out the candle he’d lit to help him find all his scattered clothing when the door to the adjoining chamber came open. Vale stood there, leaning in the jamb, staring at her.
“Well, that took long enough,” she murmured.
Selina felt heat flood her cheeks and tucked the sheets higher around her breasts as she struggled to a seated position. “Please tell me you weren’t sitting in that room listening to us the whole time.”
One of Vale’s fine eyebrows arched. “Why? Are there things you told him that you wouldn’t want me to know?”
“I could ask you the same,” Selina returned. “Iknowyou spoke to him about me. Enough so that he had a lot of pointed questions about you. About me and our past.”
Vale’s brow lowered. “He had questions aboutmeafter I spoke to him?”
“Yes.” Selina let out an exasperated breath. “Which you shouldn’t have done at all, Vale.”
Vale speared her with a glare. “Well, he snuck into your chamber and found me there. What was I supposed to do? Blush and bow away and leave it at that?”
“Yes!” Selina pushed from the bed and grabbed for a dressing gown she’d draped across the back of her chair a few hours before. “That would be more fitting a servant.”
“I’m not your bloody servant,” Vale snapped.
Selina was brought up short by the sharpness of her partner’s words and pivoted to face her. She’d known Vale a long time. Even before they began working together. Vale had a bite to her. A hardness that could cut or maim if the other woman wished it to.
When it flashed, it was instant and heated. But it was always short-lived. Vale could erase the anger from her face with a blink, just as she had now that she had aimed that anger at Selina. It was gone from her face, leaving impassive boredom in its wake.
What Selina had never understood was whether Vale continued to stoke the anger in her chest in those moments or truly let it go.
“I’m sorry,” she said, reaching for Vale’s hand. Her friend allowed her to take it. “I’m not trying to imply you are my servant. Buthethinks you are. Everyone here does.”
“I suppose you are correct,” Vale said. “But you must know how dangerous he is if he’s turned his investigative mind to you and to me.”
Selina worried her lip. Yes, when she thought of Derrick, she thought dangerous. Just not in the way Vale thought it. But it wouldn’t do to reveal that to her partner. She had to be managed, manipulated. Good thing that was Selina’s specialty.
“That mind was easily turned away by my bedding him,” Selina said, and the fact that it was true stung. She’d bedded him because she wanted him. And yet part of her knew that it had also been to control him.
And she hated how that fact tainted those powerful moments between them.
“There may not be a way to fuck him every time he suspects something about us,” Vale said softly.
“But—”
“No!” Vale’s tone grew sharp again. “No buts, Selina. This is threatening us both. You were supposed to get that necklace tonight from Lady Winford, but you didn’t. I’ve never known you to miss your shot when you took it.”
Selina shifted. Christ, she didn’t want to have this conversation right now. Not when she was still warm and tingling from the night with Derrick. The pleasure faded with every moment she talked to Vale, replaced by cold, hard realities she didn’t want to face just yet.
“I mistimed the entry, that is all,” Selina said. Lied. After all, it had been her distraction that had kept her from her quarry as much as bad timing. “The maids haven’t gone into the room until ten-thirty for a few nights, so I assumed it was their pattern. Tonight they were in at ten-fifteen.”
Vale folded her arms, and Selina could tell she was wary of that explanation. “If you’re not careful, you’re going to end up transported. And friend or not, I’mnotgoing down with you.”
Selina flinched. “I’d never ask you to.”
Vale crossed the room to her and caught her hands. Her expression gentled at last. “If I’m hard on you, it’s because I’m worried. Let’s get Lady Winford’s necklace andgetout. Stop pretending there’s something in this world for you, in this family. Stop getting seduced by handsome investigators or some vision that you could ever be truly accepted by the duke and his wife.”
