Denying the truth didn’t stop the words. His body shook, shuddered, and he exhaled his held breath. The Seal. If the King had sent her to find it, that meant he didn’t trust Hugh. It was possible that the King suspected him. But that couldn’t be true. He’d been careful. Lives were at stake.
He’d beencareful.
Before he knew what he was doing he took steps to be next to her, to touch her. By placing his hand on her arm he could solidify whatever words they would now exchange. Not the stuff of nightmares, but reality.
‘It was only a game—or so I thought.’
He didn’t want to discuss games. ‘What seal?’
‘The game at the Tower of London was a test to find a fake seal. When I was the winner the King deemed me worthy of finding a true seal.’
There would be no coming back from what she was about to say—no remedy. He wouldn’t be able to hide his thoughts or reactions from her. If she looked for the Seal she would findhim. He couldn’t lie or hide the truth from her. Either way he would be found out for the traitor he was.
His past separated him from her; his present made it all the more unbearable. His lineage had been forced upon him, but the Seal was his own inspiration. His own blackened deed.
Alice, who was always so determined to right wrongs, to fix misdeeds, had been commanded—threatened—by the King to find a traitor. If she found the Seal—if she found him—she would know him as a traitor. And the only way for the King to right the wrong would be to execute him.
It wasn’t his death he worried about. It was the loss of that unreserved admiration in her eyes when she looked at him. She’d never tried to fixhimbefore. Now she would see him as an enemy.
He had thought himself, if not safe, at least secure that the King had sent only him. But he hadn’t. And right now he didn’t want to think about the King not trusting him. He only wanted to think of what Alice was about to say and how he would react.
‘What seal?’ he repeated.
‘A small one with a half thistle,’ she said in the dark.
Hugh kissed her.
Chapter Twelve
Arms that formed a cage embraced her. A male body that exuded the smell of snow and pine and steel and heat slammed against her own. Jarring her hip against the desk she searched.
Hugh.
Hugh holding her tightly, holding her as if she would fly away on the storm he held in his eyes. The scratch of his jaw, the intent of his lips demanding against hers.
Until she held him just as tightly, her fingers linking at his nape, entwining with his curls and the velvet of his collar.
She thrust her body up to meet his. So there was no dark, no desk, no room. Only him.
And there were no more demands but only coaxing as her lips softened against his and she opened for him. Opened as she had wanted to that day long ago. But she knew that it wouldn’t have happened like this then. It was the dark, the circumstances, the fact that they’d waited.
It was worth the wait. There was a sound—his, hers—as he pulled her more to him, as she pulled back. He yanked his lips away, slid them along her jaw, behind her ear. Her fingers kneaded him, bringing him closer, tighter. Wanting more.
And then there were words.
‘Alice...’
‘Please,’ she said, rubbing her cheek along his more abrasive one, moving her fingers along his shoulders, feeling his muscles tense along his arms, his back.
There was a hitch of his breath when she slid them along his lower back and up—up until she was fully pressed against him.
‘All this time...’ he said, his lips trailing down to her neck. ‘All my imaginings... I couldn’t know... I wouldn’t.’
She arched and gave him more access, and shivered as his kiss became harsher, hungrier at her collar. She hated her clothes then—hated his as her fingers clenched in the fine weave of his tunic. He was restless too as he yanked her to the other side, as if his lips, his hands, could have more access on her left than her right.
He gave a growl of need when his hands pressed down her back, down until he was cupping her, lifting her.
She gasped then, lost her grip on his tunic. Her weight fully upon him as he stepped forward to find the desk behind them.
