He raised his arm against the doorframe and leaned in, as though my mortification pulled him to me. His shirt fell open with another breath, revealing lines of definition and strength, and my gaze clung to the spot I’d touched like a fly to honey. His voice came out husky as he said, “Thank you for tonight, and for earlier this evening. Yesterday evening as well.”
“Hmm?” My eyes found his lips. Graham Everett’s full, inviting lips.
He rubbed his jaw, and I slowly dragged my gaze up to meet his. They were uncertain, hesitant, but I could swear they bore a similar wanting.
“I enjoyed your company,” he said. “Dancing. Playing together instead of tempting each other’s wrath.”
Sleep beguiled me, my fuzzy mind blurring the lines of propriety. I pulled my own dressing gown tight, crossing my arms for some semblance of modesty, then lazily leaned toward him. My shoulder hit the inner doorframe. We were much, much too close. So close I heard the hitch in his breath.
“That sounds dangerously like kindness, Graham,” I whispered on a breath.
He shrugged, giving me a half grin. Then his gaze dropped tomylips. “That’s how I meant it, Anna.”
I smiled, laughing softly under my breath. I felt like a girl in a dream, all fluttery and floating, like a queen in her nightdress.
“I want to take you to the Marine Pavilion tomorrow. For that second look.” Graham swallowed hard. “In the morning, perhaps?”
“I daresay everyone will want to sleep well into the afternoon.”
He lifted his other shoulder, unperturbed. “Just us, then.”
My heart danced wildly in my chest, sending sparks throughout my stomach. How simply he’d said it. Just us.
I bit my lip, and his eyes watched the motion. I nodded once.
“Hurry, Graham,” Tabs whisper-shouted from down the hall. “Anna, won’t you come and tuck us in?”
Graham’s lips quirked, his eyes laughing into mine as he straightened. “Yes, won’t you, Anna?”
I dropped my jaw dramatically. “You scoundrel,” I seethed, laughing as I pushed him out of my way. “Good night, my darling,” I said to Tabs as I stepped toward my room.
Graham lingered, walking backward a few steps as if in a trance. Then he turned, and, like a dream, vanished into the night.
ChapterTwenty-Two
Graham
I want her.
As a friend, a confidant, a wife. I wanted to dine with her, dance with her.
I wanted to spend my nights with her in my drawing room, my study, in my bed.
I wanted all of her.
And I was finally unafraid to admit it.
I somehow managed to fall asleep with Tabs burrowed into my back, pushing me to the edge of my mattress, and I awoke with greater purpose than ever before.
I wanted to court Anna Lane.
An impossible feat, really, but I’d tackled the impossible before. And after our dance, after last night, I knew things between us had shifted. I could have sworn last night, she’d leaned in almost like she’d wantedme.
And that changed everything.
Anna wanted her relationships separate from her father’s wealth and connections. I could do that. If she’d take me as I was, knowing how we lived and what we lacked, I’d abandon the whole Brighton investment proposal. I could find anotherway to create a future, keep our earnings on an upward climb. One that did not involve her father’s interference.
We were secure. We had enough to live on, though the living I could provide would be nothing compared to Anna’s father’s. Perhaps I’d gone mad, but Anna hadn’t seemed to mind our lacking this past week. Slowly, carefully, over time I could create a more solid future. Things would only grow brighter from here.
