“I don’t know,” she said honestly.“I don’t know anything right now.”
“You…” His brow furrowed.“You aren’t serious.”His thumb kept stroking her hand.Comforting.Steadying.Making it harder and harder to do what she must.
“There is something else,” she said.
He went still.“Yes?”
“I was trying to tell you earlier,” she said, voice trembling.“I was trying before we… Before all this.I needed to tell you something important.Something that may change everything.”
His hand tightened around hers.“I can confidently say there is nothing you can tell me that would change my?—”
She pressed her fingers to his lips to stop him from saying more.“No.You don’t know that.Let me say it.”
“Fine.Then tell me now.”
She opened her mouth.
And the words stuck in her throat, because desire, honesty, fear, guilt—all of them were crashing together inside her in a way she couldn’t untangle.
Nicholas’s brows knit.“Bea, what is it?”
“I—”
A knock shattered the moment.
Sharp.Sudden.Too loud.
She jolted.Nicholas cursed softly under his breath.
“That will be Godwin,” he said, already swinging his legs off the bed.“The butler.No one else would dare knock at a time like this.”
“Don’t let him in,” Bea pleaded.
“I won’t invite him for tea.But I do need to answer.I won’t let him see you, I promise.”Nicholas had already crossed to the wardrobe, pulled a dressing robe from a hook, and shrugged it over his shoulders.He tied the belt tightly, though it covered almost none of the evidence that he had just spent hours behaving in ways decidedly not appropriate for a gentleman.
She scrambled, clutching the sheet to her chest.“No, Nicholas, wait!”
Another knock.
“My lord?”the butler’s voice came, muffled.
Nicholas raked a hand through his hair and looked back at Bea.
“Stay there,” he said gently.“You’re safe.”
She pressed herself deeper into the covers, heart roaring in her ears.“Nicholas?—”
He cracked the door just enough to slip through, leaving only the faintest sliver of hallway visible.
The conversation was murmured, impossible to hear.Bea clutched the sheet tighter around herself, cold despite the residual warmth of the bed.Her stomach twisted with dread.
A moment later, the door shut again.Nicholas leaned his back against it, eyes closed briefly.
Her breath stopped.“What is it?”
He opened his eyes.
Regret.Resolve.A shadow she couldn’t name.
