He knew she was wrong about that. Cora had forgotten about him. Lady Evangeline Saltisford would as well.
“We come from two different worlds.”
Her lush lips parted, and for a long pause, she said nothing, merely searched his gaze. “Your brother is married to my sister. Our worlds are connected by that bridge.”
How he wished that were the truth. Because he was a fucking idiot.
“There will be no bridge you can cross to me when you are Lady Dullerton,” he pointed out. “Lady Adele may be accepted because of your father and my brother’s power. Your husband won’t allow you to consort with the likes of me. I expect our paths will not cross after this.”
She looked as stricken as he felt at the realization.
No more Evie in his life. No more golden curls, seductive scent, kind encouragement, sinful temptation. No more reading lessons or stolen kisses. The man he had become in her presence would once more cease to exist.
Which was just as well, for the Devil Winter who allowed a slip of a girl to know his true name and call him Theo was a Devil Winter who would bleed to death on the streets at the next attack from the Suttons. Or any enemy with a blade or a pistol.Hell, even Davy, the thieving little rascal Dom had taken in, could slit his throat in his sleep.
She had made him soft, Lady Evangeline Saltisford.
And another part of him astonishingly hard.
Damn, fuck, hell.
Still, epithets did nothing to quell his rampaging lust.
He inhaled slowly.
“Lord Denton shall not have complete command over my life after we are wed,” she said, with all the naïve assurance of a lady who believed her nonsense. “I will be able to continue our lessons if it pleases me.”
What manner of lessons, he wanted to ask. Reading or kissing? He suppressed the urge, telling himself she spoke of reading, naturally.
And then he bit out a bitter bark of laughter at the notion of her believing she could do as she pleased as Denton’s wife without the lord being the wiser. “My lady, I canassureyou that your husband will not allow any lessons between us.”
She frowned. “Then I need not tell him.”
He raised a brow. “You do not think he will know? Your servants will be his. Wherever you go, whatever you do, will be reported back to him. Suppose his servants inform him his wife is disappearing in the rookeries to teach a tremendous, uncouth beast how to read. Or worse. What would you do then?”
He would not describe theirotherlessons in greater detail aloud, for fear of the visceral reaction his body would have. Also, some foolish part of him—the part that had not learned a goddamn thing from the hell Cora had put him through—refused to acknowledge the fact that Lady Evie was suggesting she would marry Dullerton and continue her lessons—presumably the reading sort—with him.
“You are neither tremendous nor uncouth,” she said softly. “And certainly not a beast.”
Breaking him. That was what she was doing. Cutting him with her kindness. Making him weaker still.
He brushed it all aside, forcing himself not to think of the inevitable end of their time together. Or her looming union to Dullerton, which felt akin to a blade in his chest. “I am all those things, and it would be wise of you to remember that. I ain’t a nib. I’m the bastard son of a whore. You’re the daughter of a duke.”
“You are more than that, Theo. So much more. I wish you could see yourself as I do.”
Curse her.He summoned all the ugliness within, years spent in the rookeries fighting for his life, for that of his family. Cora’s betrayal. She’d had the opportunity to be his wife, and she’d chosen to be an earl’s mistress instead.
“I do not need your pity, milady,” he told her, maintaining his pride.
“I do not pity you. Nor do I see any reason why we cannot continue as we have. Indeed, after I am a married woman, I shall have more freedom than I have ever had.”
His lip curled. “You truly think to continue ourlessonsafter you are Lady Dullerton?”
Once more, he could not bring himself to directly mention the kisses they had shared, fearing his weakness for her would take hold.
“Lady Denton,” she corrected primly. “Yes. Why not?”
Devil could think of a whole bloody list of reasons why not. An endless fucking list ofwhy nots. “Has it occurred to you that I may no longer require your lessons?”
