Page 107
“Give me your hand.” The nurse closed in on them, wafting the strong odor of vinegar and Cherry Pectoral. She seized Claud’s wrist.
Alan rose to his full height. “He’s on a mission of exploration. I’m going to guide him to the local comestibles.”
“Lord Alan.” Miss Milford froze. “The marquess needs to return to his room.”
“Eventually.” Alan nodded and winked at Claud. “Explorers aren’t exempt from the laws of nature. He does need sleep. When he’s tired, he’ll return.”
“Now,” said Miss Milford. “Or I will have to tell his grace.”
“His grace is entertaining.” Alan smiled. “The ball,” he added, as though clarification might be needed. “How did the marquess come to leave his room in the first place? I’m sure his grace will want to know.”
Miss Milford’s smooth cheeks went waxen. “Please. For the boy’s sake. And mine.”
Alan’s eyes locked with hers. Nina glanced at Claud. He was wadding the handkerchief in his hand.
White silk, blotched with red.
Nina’s vision tunneled. She reached out and gripped Alan’s arm. He was speaking to Miss Milford.
“Very well. He’ll return to his room. But not without a bonbon.”
Nina took this as her cue. She spun around and hurried from the gallery, plunging again into heat and noise, making for the refreshment room, grateful that the dazzlement overpowered thought. When she reentered the picture gallery, she heard Claud’s exhilarated voice before she saw him. He was going on and on about the Royal Aquarium of Mars, Alan’s questions punctuating the breakneck tumble of words.
She drew up to them, and they glanced at her with identical grins that made her heart balloon. It felt too big for her chest. Claud’s hands were empty. No sign of the wadded silk. No sign on Alan’s face that he’d seen the message written there in blood. She passed Claud the tiny plate of wafers, biscuits, and bonbons. At once, Miss Milford clamped his shoulder and propelled him down the hall.
Alan looked after the boy and the nurse. Nina blinked, and red dotted the darkness. As soon as she spoke of what she’d seen, she would break his heart.
“We did what we came here to do.”
Alan had turned to her, his gaze so heated she felt it like a touch on her skin. He waved his hand, waved away the pictures, the house, the world itself.
“Let’s forget all of it.” Irony tinged his voice, but his face was all urgency. “Tonight, let’s dream one of those dreams that’s a feeling. Happiness. No—bliss. Ecstasy.”
She stared into his eyes, quicksilver and brilliant. To dream the same dream—even for one night.
This man was in her blood. She grew more intoxicated with each beat of her heart.
She couldn’t fight it.
She was already in a dream as they walked from the blazing house into the night.
—
When Alan opened the door to his bedchamber, he stepped to the side and let her walk through ahead of him. The fire was low. Only one lamp burned. She kept her back to him, nerves so tightly laced that the click of the door made her flinch. She felt his presence all around her. The room itself smelled of him. She closed her eyes and saw red, the shade subtler than blood. As though poppies had dissolved behind her lids.
Let’s forget all of it.
“You understand I want you in my bed.” His deep voice was a murmur. “Not just to sleep.”
She heard a soft slap. He’d peeled off his gloves downstairs. That slap—he’d discarded some other article of clothing.
She turned instinctively, and he was there, his bare fingers hot on the base of her throat.
“You can say no.” His expression was dark.
She tilted up her face, offering her lips.
The force of his kiss pushed her gasp into his mouth. She followed it with her tongue, ravenous. Fear coursed through her. What if she couldn’t sate this hunger in a single night? God help her, she would try.
