“My brother is working to obtain a divorce for us as quickly as possible. I don’t know if telling him about this possible danger will make any difference.”
Suddenly, he reached his hand out to her, and unthinkingly, she took it, letting him draw her to her feet.
“I’d best get you safely home,” he said, as the tiny space became too small for the two of them, both trapped between the dresser and the bed.
They locked gazes for a moment, blazing heat sparked without warning, making Rose nearly gasp aloud. She lowered her eyes, hoping he couldn’t hear the way her heart was thumping.
“What will you do next?” she asked the threadbare carpet, noticing it for the first time.
“I need to speak with someone whom I can trust at the shipyard. I think I know who.”
“What if you’re wrong?” she asked, still avoiding his eyes.
“Then I’ll be dead, and you won’t have to worry about this any longer, nor whether you can legally marry Woodsom.”
She raised her gaze, horrified. “Don’t say that! You’ve already been dead to me once. I didn’t like it the first time.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice low. “That was a poor jape. I know I made mistakes. If I could go back and do it differently, I would.”
“Would you?” Rose stared at him.
“Yes,” Finn said adamantly, sounding sincere. “As soon as I began to work and put money aside, I meant to contact you, and then, like an ass, I got injured.”
She glanced down at his leg. “How did it happen?”
“Because I was stupid and incredibly careless. I let my mind wander, thinking of...” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, does it? The next thing I knew I was nearly crippled. It took months to heal and to walk again, and then only because of the strong shipbuilders union in England. They made sure I was taken care of. As I convalesced and more time passed, I began to rethink my coming home.”
“Why?”How could a few months have changed his mind about returning to her?
“As time stretched on and on, I assumed you thought me dead and that you were going forward with your life. Rightly so. I was still months away from getting enough money to book passage home, and on top of that, I was half lame. Quite frankly, given how we began, I thought you’d be better off without me.”
Given how they began ...
Rose frowned. They had begun their association with attraction and excitement that quickly became love and then even more quickly to becoming husband and wife. Yet they’d always stayed insular, only the two of them. Was that what Finn meant?
“I see,” she uttered. She didn’t understand exactly, but she appreciated the fact Finn wasn’t so cocksure of himself, thinking that his way had been the right way.
However, when he made a small movement toward her with that appealing look on his face, Rose didn’t like the softening feeling insider her.
Trapped, she couldn’t back up, with the mattress pressed into the backs of her legs.
“Truly, I am sorry,” Finn repeated as he took both of her hands in his then gently tugged her the last few inches toward him. “More sorry than I can ever express.”
Unable to bear the painful memories that arose when staring into his familiar gaze, she looked down. He was so close, the tips of his leather shoes disappeared under the hem of her dress.What was happening? Was she perhaps in one of the dreams she used to have almost nightly?
The feel of his hands, slightly rough, of his thumbs stroking across her knuckles brought Rose back to the present.This was real. He was real.
When they were chest to chest, she was forced to look up at him or continue to stare mutely at the buttons of his shirt. Swallowing, she glanced up.
Finn released her then, but only so he could encircle her slim waist with his own large, capable hands.
She closed her eyes at his touch. How often had she thought of this moment and cried, sobbing into her pillow, knowing she would never be close to this man again? Yet here they were, his breath blending with her own, his lips only a hand’s span from hers. How many times had she dreamt of exactly this?
Whereashisdreams had been scary and violent, hers had been heartbreaking. Tantalizing fantasies that taunted her night after night, precisely as he was teasing her now. Sometimes in her dreams, they were picnicking in Arlington or sitting on a bench on the Common. Once, while looking at his handsome face, feeling so grateful that he was finally with her again, she remembered clearly saying, “If this is only a dream, it will kill me.”
At that moment, she had awakened, absolutely devastated, with tears streaming down her cheeks, and foolishly vowed never to close her eyes again.
So why was it she dared not look at him?
