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Her eyes widened. “Lord Locksley?”
Rhys’s mouth hovered inches from hers so that she could feel the warmth of his breath on her skin. “Yes.”
“What do you wish to know?” she murmured.
“Do you plan to marry him?”
“I do not plan to remain alone for the rest of my life. I am only six-and-twenty.”
“That is not an answer.”
She stiffened, her spine elegantly straight. “I will eventually remarry. Perhaps several years from now.”
“To the marquess.”
“If he is unencumbered when I am ready, he is a suitable candidate.”
“Then why isn’t he your lover now?”
She flushed and shifted her eyes away from his. Placing a finger under her chin with firm pressure, he directed her attention back to him.
“He doesn’t rouse me.”
“Your body? Your intellect? Your heart?”
“All of them,” she said hoarsely. “You’re the only man to ever arouse me so completely.”
“I assure you, the feeling is mutual.”
He eased her from his lap and guided her deeper into the gardens. When he reached the section he always came to, he released her hands and sank onto the thick carpeted grass, with his hand behind his head. She lowered herself, too, and curled her legs beneath her, regarding him steadily. Then she removed the delicate facemask, revealing her features.
“It is lovely here.”
“Sometimes I lie here and stare at the sky, my mind unburdened, and I just watch the stars. There is no beauty like the night.”
Georgiana leaned back until she, too, was lying, staring up at the vastness of the sky.
“I’m scared,” she whispered.
He slid his hand along the prickly surface of the grass and laced their fingers together. “Why?”
“Because this feels perfect. Our affair will be etched forever in my heart.”
His fingers tightened on hers. “Perhaps it does not have to end.”
The garden was silent, the darkness comforting, the starlit night tranquil. She remained silent, and he did not push her.
“How long do you imagine we could have an affair?” she asked softly. “Weeks, months?”
“Years.”
She laughed shakily. “Even after I’m married?”
She drove every sane thought from his head with that pronouncement. How naive she was to think he would allow another man in her body once they were lovers. “You would dishonor your vows?”
“Never.” She squeezed one of his fingers. “The duke had a mistress, and I hated the very notion. I would never hurt my husband by being unfaithful.”
The man had been a fool. Georgiana was all that was wonderful, kind, intelligent, and as sensual as sin.
“I realized his needs were being satisfied elsewhere about three months after he stopped visiting my chamber.”
Rhys tugged her closer, and she came willingly, shifting her body slightly, so her head rested on his chest.
“I was warned all gentlemen secured their heir and a spare, and then they would have mistresses. Though I expected it, it hurt deep down inside. I felt…inadequate. After a time, we only saw each other for dinner parties, balls, and when I hosted his political dinners. I felt so alone and then ashamed for even having such a thought. I had so much when others had so little, so I tried to be content, but there was always that feeling of something more that I needed. It was quite frustrating never having that desire assuaged.”
Rhys frowned as he recalled the loneliness that would sometimes strike at his gut even when he was with his family. It was as if something was missing, a disconnection in his life he’d hardly understood. It was those nights he would take to The Asylum and find a woman to ride for a couple hours, hoping to slake the burning need for that elusive something. It didn’t escape his notice that that yawning chasm hadn’t been there since before he’d found her son. He stroked his thumb over her fingers in a soothing motion.
She turned his hand over, noting the fine scars on the insides of his fingers. “Your hands are rough.” Then she pressed a kiss on his knuckles. “I ache to know more about your life. Where is your childhood home? Why…why aren’t you married? How did you become The Broker?”
He stilled, wondering how much to share. The dangerous thing was that he wanted her to know everything, even if it would repulse her more. “For a while, we lived in the stews.”
She froze and tried to move, but he trailed his fingers over her flat stomach and pressed gently. His duchess’s breath hitched at the intimate caress, but she stayed still. “How is that possible?”
“My father…he was cruel to my mother. He was in the shipping business and was very wealthy. Her father, the viscount, needed money for his flagging estates and sold her to the man who wanted the connection to a title. My father had no love in his heart for her or for me. He hurt her, beat her, and he was within his rights according to the law. He had several mistresses, and he shamed her with them.”
“Oh, Rhys, I am so sorry.”
“It had become unbearable living with him. He was beating her, and I intervened. He turned his dissatisfaction on me, but I did not mind for it spared my mother.”
“How old were you?”
“Twelve.”
Her hands tightened on his.
“The very next day, she packed what little we could take, and we ran. She went home, and her brother, who now has the title, turned her away.”
His duchess gasped.
“He told her of duty and that to leave her husband she would shame the family. We were both bruised horribly. Lydia was a baby, and Mother was with child, but it did not matter to the viscount. She reminded him it was her marriage, and that her sacrifice was why he was living with such wealth, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. We left, but we didn’t return to her hell. My mother sold what jewelry and silver she ran with and rented the cheapest
rooms she could find. She was heavy with child and could find no employment. The money from the jewelry didn’t last long, and I had to start taking care of my family.”
“I cannot imagine it,” she whispered. “You were a child, and to shoulder such responsibilities.”
“I found work at the docks, and somehow I made it work. I was quiet, I listened, and I learned, and I absorbed the world around me. I traded my first secret to the butcher. His brother was pilfering, and his wife had a lover. I learned the value of watching people, holding my tongue when needed, and knowing where to see the thread and follow on the connection. I quickly learned when I traded information for money, that the money ran out quickly. It was better to trade for another favor. My reputation soon grew, and after a time, I got requests from all sorts of people—lords, ladies, the criminal class, the government.”
“And duchesses,” she murmured.
“And duchesses.”
“Tell me about your first kiss, the first time you kissed a girl.”
Pleasure burned through him at her desire to know him deeper. “My first kiss was at fifteen with a gentleman of your society who thought I was too pretty to be left alone.”
She gasped and twisted around so she was now atop his chest. “Truly?”
“Hmm, he was the first lord I entangled in my web. He paid heavily for his secret to be buried. Several acres of land, if I recall correctly.”
His duchess chuckled, her laugh soft, carefree, inviting. The outside world, their difference in station seemed far away as they talked and share bits about their lives they’d never shared with anyone before. If only he could damn society and everyone in it and keep her. God’s blood. It was such a pity he couldn’t find the right words to convince her this could be more than an affair.
…
Lady Sheffield’s midnight ball was a wonderful crush, and Georgiana had been about to escape to the gardens until she espied her lover. She had not expected Rhys to attend Lady Sheffield’s ball with Lydia. Georgiana had been wrapped in his arms last week, and he’d not mentioned he would attend with his sister. Why hadn’t he told her? Since their time at The Asylum over three weeks past, she had met him several times at an elegantly appointed townhouse in Piccadilly. It was operated by a skeleton staff who only came by during the day, and the night belonged to them. She learned so many delightfully intriguing things about Rhys. He was intelligent, shrewd, selfless, and perplexingly possessed a ruthless heart but one of the kindest she had ever known.
