And he did. Edging slowly inside her with such considered and gentle tenderness that he took her breath away. Only this time, as the passion built and she lost her wits again, when Diana found herself once more on that unfamiliar precipice, he was right by her side as he always was. Telling her how much he loved her as he held her hand. And when she told him she loved him back, and would until her dying breath, they dived off the edge together.
Chapter Thirty-One
“I don’t want to talk about my skeletons anymore. I am sick to the back teeth of them. I want to know about yours.”
They hadn’t slept. Giles hadn’t wanted to waste a second on sleep when he was still resolute that she was leaving after breakfast.
He hadn’t broached the subject yet. Hadn’t wanted to spoil the precious, perfect last moments they had, even though time was very definitely running out and his delectable, passionate Hornet-Kicker wasn’t likely to leave without a fight. “Start with the brute in the alleyway.” Now that he was calm and had the wherewithal to recall all the jumbled things she had babbled before she plucked up the courage to tell him that she loved him. “Do I need to kill him the moment I return to town?”
She sighed, clearly weighing up whether or not to risk baring all of her soul, so he traced the tip of her naked breast to remind her that she had bared everything else and so had he.
“I had just turned seventeen and things at home were dire. My father was in a great deal of trouble. Of course, none of us knew quite what or who he was involved with but some dodgy characterskept hammering on our door. Every time someone came, he hid and told one of us to get rid of them. One of the most insistent was a debt collector. A greasy, meaty, leering fellow.”
Unconsciously she shuddered and pulled the covers up, her lithe body suddenly tense beneath his fingers. “If I was the unfortunate one to open the door, he would demand the money but then lean and whisper that he would forget the debt if I paid it in kind.”
Giles could tell by her expression that it wasn’t her work the lecher had wanted as payment but he held his tongue and masked his fury, sensing she needed to trust him with the truth in her own way. “One night, my father came to visit me at work. I worked in a tavern for a while back then, amongst so many other things to make ends meet. It was an awful job. It wasn’t so much the work I loathed but the customers, who would often try to take advantage so you had to be on your guard. Constantly. Not that my useless father cared. So long as he got my wages he never cared what dangers I put myself in. He had never visited me there before. Never visited me anywhere before as we never got on and only ever argued, so I should have listened to my instinct that he was up to no good. But I didn’t. I agreed to take the shilling he gave me to the pawnshop to pay one of his stupid debts. Except when I got there, the shop was closed and the moneylender was awaiting me in the shadows.”
“Your father sent you into a trap.” Giles decided there and then that if Alfred Merriwell ever turned up again he would flay the flesh from his despicable bones and feed it to the dogs. He’d even buy a pack of dogs to feed it to.
She nodded. “He grabbed me. Dragged me farther into the alley and tried to force himself on me. Told me not to struggle and do what I had been sent to do—as had been agreed. Thankfully,all the randy patrons back at the tavern had forced me to learn a trick or two, and as he bent double clutching his bruised jewels I ran for my life. When I tackled my father about it he denied it, obviously.”
“Obviously.”
“But I knew he had turned a corner and realized he had gone from being a feckless, good-for-nothing drain on our resources to a real danger to the three of us, so I started digging into his business. Then used the truth of his crimes as blackmail. Threatened to spill all to Bow Street or one of the crooks he had double-crossed if he ever dared put one of us at risk again. Must have done such a good job of scaring him that he left us within days and… well… you know the rest.”
“You rescued your sisters.” Because of course she had. “And thus the roots of the suspicious, rescuing Sentinel were born.”
She smiled at his perceptiveness. “My sisters don’t know any of that. I never told either of them about the incident in the alleyway or my hand in pushing out our father.”
“Why?”
She shrugged. “At the time Vee wore more rose-tinted spectacles than she does now and would never have believed him capable. I also felt guilty for landing Minerva with the burden of parenthood and plunging us into abject poverty.” Then she sighed. “And, I suppose, I did not trust either of them to realize that even three dirt-poor young girls all alone in a world full of predators were better off without him.”
“Thank you for entrusting me with it.” He kissed the tip of her nose and when that wasn’t anywhere near enough hauled her back into his arms one last time before he had to tell her she was mostdefinitely going home until his mess was over. “Have I mentioned that I love you, harridan?”
She laughed against his lips. “Talk is cheap, and actions speak louder than words. I dare you to make me swoon again.”
“A dare, is it? Then I accept, and gladly, because Giles Sinclair never shies away from a challenge.” He burrowed under the bedcovers in search of her sensitive breast while she giggled and he groaned when someone rapped on the door.
“Bugger off, Dalton! I said after breakfast!”
“It’s me. Vee. I know it’s early, Giles, but I have had an epiphany and when I couldn’t sleep I found Ffion in the ledgers and I am convinced it is significant, but I cannot find Diana anywhere.” Before he remembered he had unlocked the damn thing in his pitiful attempt to be gentlemanly, the door swung open and the youngest Merriwell squeaked in horror at the sight of them entwined together in his tangled sheets.
“Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!” She gaped in shock, squeezed her eyes closed, then spun around. “You’ve ruined my sister!”
“If it’s any consolation she’s ruined me right back.” Giles winced at a mortified Diana. “And you did tell me to be the fly in her ointment.”
Diana thumped him and buried her head under the covers while poor Vee buried hers in her hands. “I think your definition of a fly in the ointment differs significantly from mine.”
“Why don’t we meet you downstairs in the estate office? Give your sister and me time to put some clothes on.” The covered lump beside him groaned.
“Yes, why don’t I do that.” Vee did not need to be asked twice and broke into an actual run in her haste to get away.
“Well, that was awkward.”
Diana erupted from the blankets like a volcano. “You had to unlock the door, didn’t you!”
He smiled sheepishly. “In my defense, I was trying to be noble at the time. Then you seduced me with the whole disappearing nightgown trick and I confess I forgot about the door.”
