Mags leaned forward to give the cabbie Jimmy’s address. “I have to change, but he gave me a key and said his housekeeper would make sure I got home, sweet man,” she explained, settling back against the seat with a long, noisy exhalation. “Golly, my little puppies are tired. But wasn’t that fun? Should we go back next time? Viv, why didn’t you want to stay? You could’ve had any dance partner you wanted in that skimpy little thing!”
“Not sure I like the sound of that,” Leo muttered.
“Can I borrow it for the next ball, do you think?” Mags added eagerly.
After the last panicked hour of her life, the question felt so absurd that Vivian began laughing. Between gasps, she told them what she could—with the cabbie still up front, likely listening to everything they were saying, she didn’t want to say too much. But she could tell them about stumbling into a private party and the host who had taken exception to her being there. Mags’s eyes grew wide as she described running from the two bruisers, and Leo whistled appreciatively as she explained about swapping clothes with another girl.
“One of them looked right at me and didn’t say a thing,” she finished. There were tears in her eyes, and she wasn’t sure which emotion they were from. She still couldn’t believe she had gotten away with it.“And then I found you and, well, I decided I’d better not stick around and see if they wised up. Better to hightail it out of there with all my rhinestones intact.”
There was more she needed to tell Leo, but that could wait. It had to, with the cabbie up there. And it had to because she didn’t want to think about it. Not yet. Maybe not ever. As she spoke, one of his hands slid under the hem of the coat, his fingers stroking her thigh. She shivered, from the heat of his touch and from the comfort of being there, being safe, with him.
“Holy moly,” Mags exclaimed with wide eyes as the cab stopped in front of Jimmy’s sleek brownstone. “I can’t wait to go back next time.”
“Might be without us,” Leo said with a wry glance at Vivian. “Sounds like poor Viv had a lot of excitement for one night.”
“Shame,” Mags said, sliding across the seat. “Well, maybe I can find someone else to take me. Night!”
They waited until she disappeared inside before Leo gave the cabbie Vivian’s address. She let him handle it, sagging back against the seat, exhausted as the excitement and panic of the last few hours drained out of her. As they pulled away from the curb, it was hard to believe that the quiet neighborhood around them was in the same world as the Hamilton Lodge Ball. Hard to believe that any of it had happened.
Had any of the last week happened? If she stared at the sky, she could almost convince herself that everything else, every fear and worry and stolen moment of joy, was just a dream.
She wanted, so badly, for all of it to be a dream.
The hum of the cab’s motor. The shift of the seat as Leo slid closer. The brush of skin on skin as his hand slipped underneath the coat, turning her toward him so that his mouth could find hers, careless of the driver only a few feet away.
“My brave girl,” he breathed against her lips in between kisses, his voice and his hands both shaking. “I should have known you can always handle yourself. But I’ll need to hold you close—” His hands slidaround to her back, leaving a trail of heat across her bare skin. “Just to be certain that you’re safe.”
“I don’t mind that at all,” Vivian whispered back. If he kept kissing her, she could tell herself he was right, that she could handle whatever came her way. She could tell herself she was safe, and she always would be.
If he kept touching her, she could keep pretending that nothing else was real.
Vivian usually had rules for herself. She didn’t drink more than she could handle. She didn’t let her neighbors see her coming and going from the Nightingale. She didn’t get carried away with men or women.
Rules were important when you needed to stay in control to survive.
But if nothing was real, then her rules didn’t matter. She barely let Leo go so that he could pay the cabbie and she could unlock the door to her building. They stumbled upstairs, Vivian thankful that this year there was only one flight between her and the privacy of a locked door. She fumbled with her keys while Leo’s hands found their way once more under the stolen coat she was still wearing.
“Come here,” he growled as soon as the door was shut and locked behind them.
Vivian, still giddy with relief, shivered as the fabric of his suit jacket slid against her skin. She didn’t object as he pushed the coat down her arms and let it fall to the floor while his mouth found hers again. It took barely a heartbeat for his kisses to go from teasing to something more serious, and Vivian gasped as he bent to scoop her up in his arms.
“We should probably get you off that ankle,” he suggested.
“Probably,” Vivian whispered, before letting out a squeak as he tossed her on the bed. She sat up immediately, though, pulling him to her as soon as he shed his own coat and yanked his arms out of his suspenders. She tried to kiss him again, but he slipped away from her mouth to press taunting, nibbling kisses against her neck and the bare expanse of her shoulders.
“I like this outfit,” she gasped, her head falling back. Something was wrong, she knew—something she needed to tell him. But she didn’t want to think about anything except the weight of his body against hers.
“I do too,” he said with a laugh, one hand sliding behind her back so he could ease her down onto the bed.
A jolt like an electric shock shot through Vivian, and her mind stuttered, wondering if she should put a stop to things before they got carried away. But maybe, just this once—
“You didn’t tell me what you found out,” Leo murmured against her collarbone. “What was Rokesby up to? Have we got him?”
The question hit her like a slap, sending her dizzy thoughts tumbling to the ground. The heat racing through her body was suddenly gone, chased away by cold fear and the awful truth that the night hadn’t gotten her any closer to answers. The weight of Leo’s body, so exciting a moment before, suddenly felt like it was suffocating her. She put her hands against his chest and pushed him away from her.
As soon as she did, Leo sat back on his heels, his frown as worried as it was confused. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you or—”
“No,” she said, her voice hoarse as she scooted away from him.
