Chapter Twenty-One
The carriage rolled past the first stretch of park walls, the city sounds dimming, the air turning greener, quieter.Somewhere outside, a horse whinnied.Hooves clipped.Distant laughter floated like something harmless.
Inside the carriage, everything felt…not harmless at all.First, Nicholas moved to sit next to her.Then he shifted again—just enough that his knee brushed hers.
Bea went very still.
Nicholas’s eyes dropped for a moment to the point of contact, then lifted again, dark, assessing.“You’re tense.”
“I am not.”
“You are,” he said softly.“It’s rare.”
Bea’s eyes flashed.“Stop talking.”
Nicholas blinked, delighted.“Is that an order?”
“Yes.”
He leaned forward slightly, elbows resting on his knees, expression the picture of attentive obedience.“As you wish.”
Bea narrowed her eyes.“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Pretend you can be obedient.”
Nicholas’s smile sharpened.“On the contrary, if you wanted obedience, you should have chosen another suitor.”
“You are not my suitor.I am not marrying anyone!”Bea snapped.
Nicholas’s gaze dipped to her mouth again, slow and deliberate.“Who said anything about marriage today?”he murmured.
Bea’s breath stalled.
Because suddenly she understood what he was doing—exactly what he had done in the coach yesterday.
He was taking the thing she refused to say out loud and laying it between them like a dare.
Fun.
Temptation.
A kiss without consequences.
But did she dare?Especially now that he clearly suspected she was connected to B.Adroit?
Bea’s fingers curled around her reticule so hard they ached.This wasn’t only about Nicholas.It was about drawings—and her revolt.She wouldn’t trade those things for a few moments of pleasure, no matter how tempting.
But was it possible to have both?
“Take care.”Nicholas’s voice lowered, velvet-smooth.“If you’re going to glare at me like that, you’ll set my coat on fire.”
Bea tipped her chin.“Then step away before you burn.”
Nicholas’s mouth curved.“You don’t want me to step away.”
Bea held his gaze—steady, unblinking.She exhaled once, slowly, and let the decision settle in her bones.“No,” she said softly.“I don’t.”
