He motioned her over and she sat on the bed.
“Lay down,” he instructed, and Octavia did as he asked, then waited for what would come next.
The woman who had challenged him from the first time he spoke with her was suddenly timid as a mouse. It was easy to talk about taking a lover, but now that the moment had come, he feared that she might wish to run away.
Once more, Octavia had endeared herself to him, which she had been doing from the beginning. He just hoped that she wasn’t disappointed in his plans for tonight.
He reached down and pulled the coverlet over them, then pulled Octavia into his arms.
She was stiff, not at all relaxed and it was all he could do not to sigh.
He adjusted so that her head rested on his chest then ran a hand down her arm, comforting and soothing.
“Something you said tonight struck deep.”
“What was that?” she asked.
“People do not hold each other any longer. That comfort rarely exists.” The only time he had ever held a woman was after bed sport and it was only for a few moments before he left the bed and returned to his own.
“That is what I would like tonight, if you do not mind.”
“Holding?”
“Yes. I think it is something we both probably need more than my original intent in coming here.”
She tilted her head back to look at him.
“Let me hold you as you sleep, Octavia. I may need to do so more than you need to be held.”
The question lingered in her blue eyes, but then she smiled softly, and her muscles seemed to relax. “I would like that, Angelo.”
“Good.”
She snuggled back against him, head on his chest and arm over his stomach and a sense of contentment that he couldn’t remember experiencing before in his life settled about him.
And that was how he remained. She slumbered and he held her, not sleeping, but enjoying the softness without the need to seduce or be intimate.
It was disconcerting in its own way but comforting.
As the first light of the day began to filter through her chamber window, Angelo disengaged himself from Octavia and left her bed. As quietly as he could, he dressed and left her chamber, closing the door quietly behind him, not putting on his boots until he reached the back door.
He may have remained too long as it was nearly dawn and he could hear the tradesmen and vendors beginning their day. Therefore, he ducked his head and slipped out a back gate and crossed to the mews located not far away, walked through them, and emerged on the other side where he hailed a hackney to take him home.
Octavia may insist on no emotion, no love, and friendship only. The problem was Angelo feared that he may have fallen in love with her while she slept in his arms.
Chapter 18
Octavia woke the moment Angelo pulled away from her. She did not move, nor did she open her eyes, not certain what to say or do.
Last night had been blissful and even though she woke several times, she did not move away. That was the first time she’d ever slept with someone. Her entire life her bed had been solitary, shared only for moments of intimacy and then she would be alone again.
They may never become lovers and that was something she had to accept. He had wanted to hold her but was that truly because it was what he wanted, or had he changed his mind on intimacy.
She supposed that she would learn in time.
“Is it true what I read of you and Lord Bolton,” Lavinia stated, interrupting Octavia’s private musings. When what her sister said sank in, panic rose. Had someone seen him arrive at her home last night, or saw him leave? There was only one way to learn and that was to ask.
“Is what true?”
