Page 96 of Cocky August Rake

Later, he fell asleep with one arm wrapped firmly around her waist.

In the very early hours of dawn, long after Lord Reginald had fallen into slumber, Rose remained awake. She listened to his breathing. Tenderly touched his hair, his jaw.

“Then you understand what it meant, when you came here. To me.”

And she knew, with all her heart, that she could not make what happened between them into a weapon. She could not lie beside him, take the most vulnerable thing he had ever given another person, and then name her price.

But it was time.

Rose carefully lifted his arm from her waist. He stirred, and for one reckless moment, she hoped he would wake and stop her.

He didn’t, of course.

She dressed in the darkness, moving quietly, clumsily, blinking away tears.

And by the time she reached the final button, her fingers were trembling.

Every part of her wanted to turn back. To slip beneath the blankets and let him draw her close again. To let him believe she had come to stay.

But she could not do what she had come here to do. Not after the tenderness he had shown her. Not after he had trusted her with the one part of himself he had never believed worth giving.

But she couldn’t sail away with him either.

The people who’d saved her life—her family—were waiting for her. Trusting her.

Rose looked back at Reginald one last time.

Then her gaze caught on something resting beside the charts upon his desk.

A black silk mask. One ribbon torn, the edge slightly bent.

Her mask.

The one she’d lost at the masquerade.

He had found it.

He had kept it.

Rose swallowed hard as another crack split through her heart. For one dangerous moment, she almost turned back.

Instead, she forced herself through the door and left him behind.

MISTAKES

When Reginald woke, morning light streamed through the stern windows, and for a few hazy moments, he lay still, listening to the soft slap of water against the hull.

He was at home on his ship. The Phantom Gale was afloat again.

And Rose… she was in his bed.

Contentment so deep it couldn’t be real settled through him. Then he reached for her.

But only found empty sheets.

“Rose?” His eyes flew open, searching, frantically. But the cabin was empty.

For one foolish moment, he told himself she had simply gone above to explore. She’d likely persuaded one of his men to row her back to the docks so she could return to The Domus, collect her belongings, and say farewell to the women.