AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Melina, if you have any debt to me—have had any debt to me for passage or anything else—I release you from it.’
‘It’s not so simple. Not for me. I am in debt to you.’
‘No, Melina. You are not. Not any longer. It’s fully paid. You do not owe me anything. I am obliged to you.’
He saw her gentle disagreement in her eyes. He couldn’t take her again. If he did, he’d know she only lay with him out of repayment and duty. He would not go to her chamber. He’d already had his fill of a woman’s dutiful coupling.
He took another chair and lifted it, sitting it beside her, not so close the arms connected, but close enough she could reach to put her hand on his arm if she wished, or if they both leaned together, their lips could touch.
Before he sat, he undid the buttons of his waistcoat and pulled off his cravat. He lowered himself into the chair, taking the neckcloth and folding it carefully, then placing it on the floor at the side of him opposite her.
‘I should have lit a fire, though it’s too hot,’ he mused, ‘because it would make more sense than sitting here staring at a cold grate.’ He paused for a moment. ‘Do you play chess?’
‘No. I embroider. I embroider, and embroider, and embroider. When I am not mending or making clothing. Every night we sewed, or did some quiet chore if we weren’t sleepy when darkness fell.’
‘Sounds lively.’
‘Sometimes we did argue for entertainment, I suppose.’
He chuckled. ‘I have seen that happen in my own life.’
He wanted to take her to his bed. She’d go if he asked. But if he did, he’d suspect— No, he’d know she let him touch her in repayment and he did not want that. He didn’t want her saying yes because she owed him. For that, he could leave the house and quickly find another pleased to toss up her skirts for quick, uncaring moments, and most happy see the back of him while she tucked the coin away. But he wanted to be with Melina.
‘If you wish it—’ Her words rocked into the room and he knew without doubt what she meant. Perhaps she could read his thoughts, but even the coal boy would know what a man contemplated when he saw Melina in bed clothing.
‘I realise that.’ Sadness tinged his words, but he didn’t know if she could hear the emotion and wished he hadn’t felt it.
He looked at her. She didn’t accidentally open her dressing gown and lean in his direction when he spoke. The woman wasn’t a jade.
And he could pull her from the chair and roll them on to the carpet and never feel the floor.
‘Perhaps I—’ He looked at his hands, fingertips touching, resting on his lap. ‘I shouldn’t. I think I might like you, Melina. And one probably does take advantage of friends, and all, but I fear if I do, it will seem base. Not like before. Before, we hardly had spoken. We were strangers.’
‘Better with a stranger?’
‘I suppose.’
‘You only plan to speak to me tonight?’
He put his hand on the arm of the chair, palm up, inviting. ‘Yes. I’ve not spoken with a woman much in so long. I’m surprised I miss it. I never saw a woman and said to myself, Oh, she looks lovely. I might wish to spend hours talking with her. But perhaps I wanted that more than I knew.’
She didn’t move at first, but then put her hand in his. The touch, delicate and warm, pleased him more than a seductive rub. More than a teasing smile, or a planned accidental brush against his body.
‘I shouldn’t have spoken,’ he said softly.
‘No. I like your voice.’
‘Are you comfortable?’ he asked.
‘I suppose.’
Warrington watched the fireplace as if he could see flames. ‘You will not be amiss if you wish to go back to your room.’
She didn’t move. ‘It’s all so new to me. Everything. This world. I had heard stories. Hours and hours of them, telling us what this land was like. But I still didn’t know. All of it. I didn’t know.’
‘Tell me about your days on Melos.’
She began describing her mother, her sisters and her life.
He didn’t have to prod himself to pay attention or stay awake. Her voice, filled with a woman’s softness, entranced him more than any sound he’d ever heard. Even when she sat back in the chair and her pauses grew longer, and her eyes slipped shut, he kept watching her, soothed by her presence.
And a whisper inside himself warned never, ever to do this again. Never. He could not let his soul be shredded again by falling in love.
