Page 10 of A Rogues & Gentlemen Christmas

“Bah!” she said in disgust. “I know you. I know enough to see an honourable man. I am sorry, too, for being so rude to you at first, but I did not know you then. I think you are kind, Charlie. I think you like to take care of people, for you have taken care of me.”

Chance gave her a crooked smile. “I only baked you a potato.”

“Two potatoes,” she corrected, wagging a finger at him. “But it is not that. You have reassured me that I am safe. Over and over, you have promised to ’elp me, though I am certain I shall bring you trouble. You give me the seat closest to the fire, and your coat to keep me warm, and you only took one kiss and did not even try to ask for more.”

“I wanted to,” Chance said, and then snapped his mouth shut, wishing he’d not said so.

He did not wish to make her nervous, or for her to change her mind about him, but she only smiled.

“I know,” she said, lowering her lashes, her voice very quiet. “I wanted to as well, but… it is a dangerous game. We both know it, and so you stopped.”

His entire body prickled with awareness at her words, at knowing she felt it too, this pull of attraction, but he nodded, knowing she was correct. “Yes.”

Chance watched the way her eyelids drooped with fatigue. She couldn’t have slept much last night, cold and afraid and uncomfortable upstairs. He felt a brute for that, though he had not known she was there.

“You’re tired,” he said. “Go to sleep. I shan’t bother you.”

“What about you?” She looked around the room, as though a chair or another bed might present itself. “There’s nowhere to get comfortable.”

“The floor,” he said with a shrug. “I was a soldier. I’ve slept on worse, I assure you.”

She stared at him for a long moment and shook her head.

“No. It is silly. We share the same room, we may as well share the mattress. It is big enough and… I trust you, Charlie. I cannot be any more ruined than I am,” she added with a smile, though it was the kind of smile that made his heart hurt. She trusted Charlie, a man who didn’t exist for he had lied and given her a false name.

Chance nodded, unable to say a thing but watched as she lay down. He pulled his greatcoat up over her and she smiled her thanks. Once she was settled, Chance lay down beside her, careful to keep a space between them. Within a very short time, he heard her breathing change and could not resist the urge to sit up again and look down at her. The firelight gilded her face and hair, shimmering bronze on her thick, dark curls. They had come loose, many of the pins having fallen away, and Chance remembered the pretty daisy pin in his pocket. He must remember to give it back to her. Her eyelids fluttered, those sooty lashes so black, fanned against her fair skin. Despite himself, his gaze fell to her mouth. He had kissed her. All at once the sweetness of that kiss returned to him full force, and he lay down once more, shaken all over again by the memory.

Go to sleep, he told himself firmly, and closed his eyes.