And bounding ahead of her, ears flopping and tongue lolling, was Dolly.
The beast made a delighted beeline for Nic, launching herself into his shins and nearly knocking him off balance.
“Easy, you little menace,” Nic muttered, grinning as he crouched to ruffle her silken fur. “You’re lucky I like you more than half the people I work with.”
Helen reached him just as he stood. She didn’t speak. Just tipped her face up and kissed him—sweet, lingering, sun-warm.
He blinked, hands splayed across her hips. “You kiss all the sweaty tradesmen loitering around your dance hall?”
She reached up, brushing a lock of hair from his brow and tucking it behind his ear. “Only the ones who look like trouble and still show up after work,” she said, smiling at him like she hadn’t seen him in weeks, and the look in her eyes made his ribs go slack.
His lips curved upward, ready with another joke—but when Helen laughed, really laughed, it stopped him cold. Not because it was loud or graceful or particularly rare. But because it washers. And for a moment, it was like he’d built a thousand things—arches, beams, staircases—and none of them had ever landed quite as solid as that sound in his heart’s lake.
He gazed at her.
The fading sun caught the curve of her cheek. She was still smiling, tugging her hair off her neck, completely unaware of what she’d just done to him.
He swallowed. Tilted his head. Tried to shrug it off like heat.
But it wasn’t just his mood that had shifted. It was his footing.
They walked slowly together down the garden path, brushing shoulders now and then. Dolly scampered ahead, nose in the hedges.
“You’re in a good mood,” he said lightly.
“I danced for three hours and didn’t mess up once,” she replied. “Plus, you’re here.”
He gave her a look. “Careful. Say something sweet like that again and I’ll start getting ideas.”
“I thought you already had ideas.”
“Terrible ones. But they involve you, so I consider them worth the risk.”
Helen’s fingers slipped between his, her eyes glinting. She gave a little tug, not even looking back.
Nic followed, boots crunching over gravel, her pace just ahead of his, her laugh still lingering in the air like sunlight.
He didn’t argue. Didn’t tease.
Just kept walking, hand squeezing hers.
The path opened into reeds and still light. The lake caught the late sun in ripples, gold running like oil over the water. Dolly charged ahead and leapt in without hesitation, a splash followed by rhythmic paddling and sharp snorts as she chased her own reflection.
Helen dropped to sit in the grass by the bank, pulling off her shoes and dipping her toes in. Nic stood a beat longer, watchingthe shape of her back, the way her bodice clung to the small of her waist.
He sat beside her and brushed her hand with his. She laced their fingers together.
He turned his head to kiss her.
It started soft—just mouths meeting in the hush of golden light. But then Helen leaned in, bold and sure, and her fingers slid to his jaw, then into his hair, tugging lightly like she already knew exactly how he liked to be touched.
Her lips tasted of honey and butter and sunlight on water. He didn’t mean to make a sound, but he did—a quiet breath that caught in his throat.
She kissed him again, slower now, like she meant it. Like she wanted it as much as he did.
His pulse kicked. A low ache curled at the base of his spine, hunger rising sharp and sweet. He shifted closer, hand sliding around her back, ready to deepen it, to pull her fully into him and lose himself in the heat of her—
Crunch.
