Page 51
“We won’t know unless we look,” she sang cheerfully. “Think, Gareth. In the attic, that wagon ran toward the boarded-up wall. The statues were all pointing the same way, too.”
“No they weren’t…damn, it, Evaine. You’re right. I didn’t notice at the time but thinking back…” He trailed off. “Fine. As soon as the rain lets up and the ground dries out a bit, we can explore the north wing. I imagine it will be a cursory inspection.”
“I doubt that very much.”
He sighed and scrubbed his face. Evaine draped one arm around his shoulders. “You’re welcome. What would you do without me?”
“Sleep better at night.”
She laughed and bussed a kiss to his cheek.
“Since it is still raining, let’s finish up here,” Gareth said. They stayed together, doing a thorough inventory of the dining room they had skipped on their previous visit, finding a set of fine china and good silverware that would easily find a buyer.
After the dining room, they searched through the bedrooms again. She found an old trunk full of clothing that was half a century out of date.
“Probably my aunt’s,” Gareth said. “Mum’s taste wasn’t so…garish.” He eyed the vibrant-green plaid with miles of gold braid trim and bows cascading down from the bustle with disdain. The trunk was full of once-beautiful dresses that smelled heavily of mothballs. She placed them back inside and jotted it on the list of objects. Even if the entire thing only sold for five shillings, she wanted her share of the discovery’s sale.
“Look at this,” she said, extracting from the corner of a closet a long black lacquer pole with a silver handle in the shape of a wolf’s head. “A cane. You should use it. Looks like it was made for someone around your height.”
“My grandfather’s,” Gareth muttered.
“Did he limp?”
“No, my entire line is blessed with perversely good health. Barring my series of unlucky accidents since arriving here.” He twisted the top and withdrew a long, thin hidden sword. “He carried it more for protection than for stability.”
Evaine whistled. He closed the cane-sword and leaned on it, saying, “This does help me walk. I won’t mind having a weapon with me, either.”
“Yes, swords are notoriously effective against wraiths,” she deadpanned. He caught her about the waist and kissed her hard.
“Snip-snap,” he grinned, breaking the kiss long enough to use a common catchphrase for quick, witty retorts. Immediately he kissed her again. Evaine’s pulse soared. Her body responded to his touch, impatient and eager for more. She tamped it down. She hadn’t made any decisions yet about how far she wanted to take this. All she knew was that she liked Gareth, his bone-dry wit, his courage in facing down his personal demons, scars and all.
His title made any future together impossible. Yes, the world had changed. Commoners rubbed shoulders with aristocrats, whose grip on power and wealth had slipped. But she was still a nobody, and he was nobility. Moreover, he was determined not to have a family.
She wanted one. Eventually. She had a degree to complete first. Laws to change.
She therefore wouldn’t think about tomorrow. There was only today, this moment, with his lips searing a path down the side of her neck. She pulled him closer, daring to run her hands from his narrow waist up his spine to his broad shoulders. Felt, more than heard, his sharp inhalation. Aching need pooled in her breasts. Sank lower, pooling low in her belly.
“You don’t know the effect you have on me, Evaine,” he whispered. A profound sense of heady power seized her, while at the same time, making her weak at the knees.
“No less potent than the one you have on me, I trust.” She wasn’t sure how she was still capable of forming a complete sentence. Words tangled in her mind. Tripped over one another on the way past her tongue. Touch me, touch me—
He did. Dared to brush his thumb along the underside of her breast. Shamelessly, Evaine arched into him. Gareth cupped her with one hand, pressing her back one step, then another, until her legs hit the canvas-covered bed. He fisted the corner and yanked the protective cloth away. Together, laughing, they tumbled onto the bare mattress fully dressed, devouring one another haphazardly. At first, she was lying mostly on top of him, but he managed to roll her to her back and unfasten the first several buttons of her shirt with shocking alacrity.
She was going to have to decide, right now, how far to let this go. For the moment, she trusted him to stop whenever she asked, and that made her more inclined to travel a bit further around this road.
Chapter 25
Evaine
Gareth parted her shirt collar and dipped his tongue into the hollow of her throat. Evaine arched into his hot mouth, clutching him closer. Her damned skirts were tangled around his legs. The hard length of his cock pressed into her hip.
Slowly, she dragged her hand downward. He stilled. Suspended in time with bated breath, it took an eternity to move her hand down and squeeze that enticing ridge through the fine wool.
“Fuck, Evaine,” he groaned into the crook of her neck. His hips tilted to press into her touch. She could almost feel his reaction reverberating inside her own body.
When Gareth freed her breast from its prison of fabric and his tough-skinned palm squeezed her breast, she almost came from that alone. He rutted into her hand. Nipped her throat with his teeth. They had to stop.
She couldn’t bring herself to do it.
