Her cheeks were stained red; he hoped it wasn’t just from the wind, that it was because she felt the same restless heat that plagued him.
The dock swayed with the tide, edging them closer together, and he couldn’t resist placing his hand at her waist.
“You didn’t need to make me a part of this,” he rasped. “Tell me why you did.”
“You’ve watched over me one way or another since we were children. I used to think it was because my father wasn’t the protective sort, and you needed something to protect. It took me a long time to realize the reason you were paying such close attention was something entirely different.”
He couldn’t deny it. Not with the way she gazed at him, her eyes clear and calm, and her plump mouth parted.
Slowly, he brushed a knuckle down her cheek; her skin was softer than velvet. She trembled, and the surge of joy and relief at her reaction, at what they were admitting, made his hands shake.
He cupped her face. “You need protecting because you draw danger to you. Everything is drawn to you, Diana. Including me.”
“I wish we had more time.”
“I wish I could go with you.”
She gave a faint moan that collided with his. But now that he’d spoken the desire aloud, he couldn’t stop there.
“I wish neither of us were bound to our obligations. And no one else’s lives hinged on the choices we made.” His eyes traced her face. “And I wish I had the strength to let you go without it feeling like I’m being sliced open and losing the very best part of myself.”
Diana reeled him in by the lapels of his coat and pressed her lips to his.
He experienced the impact in every atom of his body.
Her mouth was cool at first, then deliciously hot as friction built between them. The faint scent of whisky lingered on her breath. It made him ravenous for her taste, which was beyond anything his fantasies had conjured over the years.
As his arms tightened around her, he teased her lips open with his tongue. She gave a feverish little groan and responded to his advance by sampling him, adding and releasing pressure. He would have praised her for it and commanded her to apply those clever lips in an array of obscene ways, but he couldn’t stop kissing her.
She savored his mouth with equal fervor. There was an underlying urgency in the way she hardly stopped for a breath; it echoed his own desperation. Her hands dove into his coat and began an exploration of his torso, which made him gasp, and he swore she laughed in the back of her throat.
A sharp whistle tore through the air.
It sounded suspiciously like the one Diana had deployed at the pub.
Ian broke the kiss but couldn’t bring himself to lose contact with her entirely.He pressed her face into his neck, terrified he’d blurt out the only thought that consumed him.
Ask me to come with you.
His pride wouldn’t allow him to beg; his common sense reminded him of the harm that could befall Diana if he joined her.
But his heart didn’t care what his pride or his sense wanted.
The whistle blew again, and Diana physically started. Her eyes roved his face with something like wonder, and something like pain, which was the expression he imagined he was wearing.
He couldn’t go with her. He needed to leave London himself. And he didn’t want her to witness what he’d have to become to protect her, and his promise to his father.
Wordlessly, he gestured to the ramp that led down to the wharf.
“I can go from here. It’s not that I wouldn’t prefer your company,” she added quickly. “But I’m struggling with my conscience at the moment.”
He was struggling with everything, but her honesty made him acquiesce. “I’ll bid you farewell from here. But I shall stay and watch for a while.”
“Thank you.” She placed a hand on his cheek. It was gone before he fully registered she’d touched him again, and in the next blink of his eye, she’d darted down the gangplank.
Her trim figure bobbed along the pier. As she swung up onto the boat with alacrity, it resurrected his suspicion until he reminded himself that she’d grown up in her father’s shipyard.
A horn blew, and the boat pulled away from the dock. Diana walked around and stood at the stern. Ian wanted to believe she was staring back at him, but it was impossible to tell in the darkness, with mist blanketing the river.
