Page 73 of One Night with a Rake

If he wished to speak of it, she’d listen, but she wouldn’t try to pry it out of him. Her favorite tutor had been fond of saying that every soul in the world bore a secret too deep for the telling. If you only knew it, the knowing would break your heart.

And it might break the heart of the one who shared it to know that you, too, were now burdened with the weight of it.

Some things were not meant to be spoken aloud. Like festering things in the earth, they were too terrible for sunlight. They were things each person must work out in fear and trembling for themselves until finally the demons were, if not cast out, at least stilled.

She’d never really understood that tutor till now.

“What will you do with me?” she asked in a small voice.

A crooked smiled lifted one corner of his mouth. “An interesting conundrum. A bound woman presents a number of fascinating possibilities.”

He began to undo the row of buttons that marched down the center of her bodice. Much as her nipples tingled at his fingers’ nearness, nothing had changed since last night.

He still hadn’t spoken a word of love to her. And however much her body wept for him, she couldn’t allow him to take her again if their joining was of no more import to him than if he’d been a stallion covering a mare.

“Please don’t,” she said.

She didn’t know whether to be glad or sad when his hand hovered between one button and the next. But in that slice of a moment, it occurred to her that she knew why Nate had not spoken of love.

“You’re sad that I’m not Anne,” she blurted out.

“No. I know full well who you are, Georgette.” He studied her face as if he were committing her to memory. “I’m the one I’m not sure of. All I know for certain is that I’m not the same man who loved Anne. He’s dead. I think he died in France. Or maybe he was dead before he went there and just hadn’t had the good sense to fall down yet.”

There it was again. That shadow. The specter of something unspeakable hung over them for a moment.

“I’m not a very good man, Georgette,” he said as he worked the knot that held her arms fast. “I’m sure that’s no news to you.”

She started to protest, but he covered her lips with two fingers.

“Let me get this out and then you can berate me all you like.” He finished untying her and rubbed her arms to make sure the circulation was restored. “You see, no matter how terrible a man is, sometimes he can’t help but lift his gaze above himself.”

The adoration in his dark blue eyes surprised her.

“I’m no angel,” she whispered.

“Thank God,” he said devoutly. “If you were, I’d never find the courage to tell you…that I have feelings for you.”

Her heart threatened to hammer its way out of her ribs. “How did you reach this astonishing conclusion?”

“With great difficulty.”

“Careful. You’ll turn my head with such flattery.”

He made a low growl of disgust in the back of his throat. “I’m doing this all wrong. What I mean is, you’re not like anyone else I’ve ever known. You don’t fit any of the rules.”

“I rather think you’re not overburdened with a need to follow them either. Else I wouldn’t find myself a prisoner in Cheapside.”

“I won’t keep you here if you want to leave.” Despite his words, he covered her body with his, careful to prop himself up on his elbows. She welcomed the weight of him.

“But I want you to stay,” Nathaniel said as he gazed down at her. “Always. I love you, Georgette.”

There were still questions, still gaps in the tenuous bridge he’d built between them, but she suddenly felt no need to ask him anything else. He was here. She was here. It was enough.

His mouth found hers and teased her lips till she opened to him. She answered him, groaning into his mouth, all her pent-up frustration melting into the wonder of his lips on hers.

His fingers tangled themselves in her hair. Then he pulled her head back so his mouth could trace the curve of her jaw and down her neck to the hollow at the base of her throat.

He loves me.