“Nicholas,” she whispered, lifting her hand to his cheek to caress the soft whiskers along his hard jaw.
He turned his lips into her palm and kissed it gently. “Yes?”
She drew in a long breath, trying to settle and focus herself. Trying to keep all her hopes and dreams and feelings from her voice so she wouldn’t complicate things between them. “What happens now?”
That question echoed through Nicholas’s mind, and he sucked in a deep breath as he pondered it. A few hours ago he would have called this a surrender. Only to happen once. Not to make him forget what he wanted for his future and what had been done in the past.
But now, after hearing her story, he questioned everything he’d always believed and been told. There was no denying Aurora’s bravery. He’d been to a few bawdy houses in his day. The kind she’d ended up in wasn’t a good place. Frightening was an understatement, he thought meant to minimize how terrified she’d been.
There was also no arguing against her loyalty. She had been friends with this woman, Imogen, for a long time, it seemed, but not many would go as far as she had. Most would only cluck their tongues and shake their heads sadly and faintly wonder whatever had happened to a friend in such a situation. He could count on his hand the number who might swing into action and try to save a friend. Even fewer were those who would risk their own life and reputation in the process.
When Aurora spoke to him, it had made his mind turn back to all those years ago. To the night he’d been told she threw him over. He’d been so young then. So uncertain of himself and if he was worthy of a woman so high above his station. It had been easy to believe her father that he’d been wrong about her intentions and walk away to mitigate any further hurt.
Now years had given him far more confidence and experience in reading people. And he questioned everything he’d been told that long-ago night.
“Nicholas?” Her voice broke, and he shook away the thoughts and focused on her. Those brown eyes shimmered with tears and her fingers trembled against his jaw. “What do you want?”
She repeated the question and his gut clenched because the answer was so perfectly clear. Just as it always had been. The question and the answer always the same.
And yet he didn’t fully trust that answer with her. Not yet. So he met her gaze. “What doyouwant, Aurora?”
She lifted up on her knees and leaned in, then her mouth found his. “This,” she whispered as he sprawled back on the bed and she moved across him, her soft body molding to his and bringing him back to attention with just the slightest of touch. “For as long as we can.”
He slid his fingers into her hair and held her closer as he kissed her. Deeper. Deeper, until she moaned and wiggled against him. When at last they broke apart, her breath was short as she added, “Is that unfair?”
He nodded. “But it’s unfair that it’s what I want too. For as long as we can.”
He pulled her back to him and kissed her again as she straddled his lap and aligned their bodies. And as she took him deep inside once more, starting over the dance from earlier in the night, he pushed away all his questions and worries and uncertainties. There would be plenty of time for those later.
Chapter 12
Nicholas stood on the terrace, Fortescue at his side. He let a rare bright and sunny morning warm his face. Perhaps he would have also stood outside if it were rainy and cold in the hopes the shock would wake him. After all, he’d spent a long and very passionate night in Aurora’s arms. She’d only slipped away just before dawn. Her whispered promises that this wasn’t over still rang in his ears.
He opened his eyes and looked down over the garden with a sigh. He sipped his tea and drew in a long breath. As he let it out, he recognized that for the first time in a very long time he felt…lighter. Freer.
“Boy,” he said, glancing down at the bullmastiff, who thumped his thick tail against the stone. “I think we’re in trouble.”
The dog huffed out a sigh, though Nicholas wasn’t certain if it was a sound of agreement or derision.
“There is my handsome brother.”
He looked over his shoulder to find Selina slipping from the house. She had a bright smile on her face, but in her eyes he saw concern, and shook his head. Selina was a bulldog and it was obvious she had something to say.
“Good morning,” he replied, and his smile was genuine as she bussed his cheek and moved to the small table where the pot of tea and a few scones had been placed by the staff.
“This is a cozy little breakfast,” she said as she popped a corner from one of his scones and ate it. “May I join you?”
He laughed at her cheek and motioned to the table. “It looks as though you already have. Please sit with me.”
She did and poured herself tea. They shared the plate of scones, and for a little while it was very comfortable. They spoke of her husband, since he had always been a good friend to Nicholas. Both smiled as they noted how besotted their brother Morgan was with his bride, Lizzie. And she baby-talked Fortescue and gave him treats she’d hidden somewhere in the folds of her fine gown.
But all the while he saw Selina calculating. Trying to decide when to strike. Old habits, perhaps. She had, after all, been a thief until just a few months before. It was her nature to watch and ready herself.
Eventually she dabbed her mouth with the corner of her napkin and said, “Although I don’t normally enjoy such things, last night’s ball was quite nice, I must admit.”
“Yes,” Nicholas agreed. “Very nice. It was kind of Katherine to put on such a show for my benefit.”
“Mmmm,” Selina murmured noncommittally. “And yet you didn’t stay to enjoy it. You slipped out to follow Lady Lovell, after all.”
