He nodded. “Yes.”
“Very good, my lord,” she said, and pulled her chemise from the tangle inside her gown before she tugged it over her head. “Now if you will allow me to dress, I’ll be on my way.”
His nostrils flared slightly and for a moment she thought he might argue. He might continue this conversation or ask her to stay. Soothe things with his kiss and his hands and his body.
Instead he inclined his head. “As you like. Let me arrange for your transportation back home.”
He left then, shutting the door behind him none too gently. She huffed out a breath, but the anger she had expressed didn’t last. She tried to cling to it, but it was replaced by sadness. Defeat.
And also an intense determination to do whatever it took to obtain resolution to this matter. Even if it meant defying the man who had just spun her world off its axis.
CHAPTER 15
While Ripley’s boxing club was stuffed with rich fops during the morning and early afternoon hours, the late afternoons were closed to his membership and open to those who truly made their living at the sport. Today Esme stood outside of one of the raised rings, watching two young women spar. They were both much younger than she was, probably just barely eighteen, if not even younger. God, she could hardly remember those days. Hers had been so much different, raised in a world far removed from this one.
That world she didn’t belong in, even if she couldn’t stop thinking about one infuriating earl who haunted her dreams. It had been two days since she’d last seen him, since their argument where he had denied her his permission to spy on his sister’s engagement ball and his meeting with her cousin. Afterward, he’d sent her away with a promise to reach out to her when it was over. And a kiss. One searing kiss.
She jolted from her distracting thoughts and shouted out to the women in the ring, “Oy, keep those hands up. Never forget you’re in a fight.”
The two young women both adjusted their stances and continued.
“I could say the same to you.”
She turned to find Ripley coming toward her. His dark hair was mussed from his own training sessions with some of the other fighters scattered across the gym. He unwrapped his hands as he reached her.
“What do you mean?” she asked, refusing to meet her old friend’s dark eyes.
“You’re distracted. I’ve seen it for a while now. You don’t fight distracted, Esme. That’s how you end up dead.”
She shook her head. “I’m not in a fight,” she muttered.
He arched a brow. “You’re always in a fight, you know that. Better than most.”
She took in a long breath. He wasn’t wrong. Her life was a fight, she had grown accustomed to that. Finn had been a distraction to it. Her thoughts of him, those images and feelings that intruded in her dreams and her waking hours, that took the edge off of her. It had to stop.
Even if the idea stung.
“I know,” she said softly. “I know.”
He turned away and she watched him smile broadly as Jane approached. “There’s my Janie.”
Jane’s cheeks darkened in an uncommon blush. “If you keep promising to make me yours, be careful or I’ll take you up on it someday.”
Ripley chuckled as he strolled away and left the two women alone.
“Someday you’re going to have to make good on all those promises you two tease each other with,” Esme said with a false smile.
Jane looked over her shoulder at Ripley. He was standing at a different ring now, speaking to one of the fighters, but he glanced back at Jane and winked.
“Maybe someday,” Jane said. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to steal a little bit of that?” She handed over a towel. “But you realize he’s right, don’t you?”
“Oh good Lord, you two aren’t my guardians. I don’t need you parenting me.” Esme snatched the towel and began to tangle it between her hands.
“Don’t you?” Jane asked. “How do you figure that when you’re planning to be so reckless tonight?”
“Please don’t tell me you told Ripley about my plans to sneak into Finn’s home tonight and observe the ball. The last thing I need is for him to get involved, I’m sure he’d have a great deal to say about me fucking a man who is a member of his club, not to mention all the rest.”
“Ihave a great deal to say about it,” Jane said with a shake of her head. “That earl of yours isn’t wrong when he tells you that exposing yourself to Society is an enormous risk.”
