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He’d said that to her before, and she’d certainly thought he felt that way the first night he’d propositioned her. Hadn’t she also thought that she would regret this? “Yeah, well,” she said with a thudding heart and an aching throat. “It doesn’t have to be.”
“No?” His question was dangerously soft. “What is it like for you, Finn?”
Oh, she was tempted to storm out of the room. She wanted to shout at him and then walk brusquely across the floor and pull the door shut behind her with a satisfying slam. But Finn’s heart had always been her downfall. It was too big, and too soft.
And Caradoc Moore had just buried his father.
Whatever else she felt, there was sympathy too.
That, and that alone, kept her in his room. But she pulled her jeans on before going near him again. When she sat down on the edge of the bed, it was with a much calmer appearance than she was feeling.
“I’m the opposite of you,” she said with a quiet strength. “I’ve only slept with three men. All of them I loved. Or I thought I loved.” Her smile was beautiful.
“And me,” he added stonily.
“Yes. But you’re different for me, too.”
He didn’t want to analyse why that quick explanation caused him to feel anger. “So you are a romantic?”
She pulled a thoughtful face. “You are the one who lives in a strangely rarefied world. The way I am is, I think, the way most women are. Most men, too. I think for most people, sex is about more than just how amazing one body can make another feel. That’s not special, Caradoc. That’s biology.”
“That’s boring,” he clarified, without allowing her words to sink in.
“No, it isn’t, trust me. For all that you are the most … well …” she cleared her throat. “I obviously love being with you.” Her cheeks flushed and she looked away. “You can make me feel like no one ever has.” She forced herself to finish the admission. “But…”
“But?” He pushed, when she went strangely silent.
She shrugged. “It’s a very hollow way to live.” She put a hand on his chest. “Not for me, because I know this is temporary. I’ve never met anyone who makes me feel like this. Like you said, sex is sex, and it never has been for me. Until I met you, I never would have thought I’d do something like this.”
“Like what?”
“Sleep with a guy I just met.”
“You’ve never had a one night stand,” he said, as though she were some kind of strange creature.
“I’ve told you that. Three guys. All boyfriends.”
“That’s not my thing,” he said with a shrug.
“I gathered as much.” She stood up again, pleased that she wasn’t leaving him in the grip of temper she’d felt only minutes earlier. “I’m going to go back to my room now.”
“Are you?” He grabbed her wrist and padded his finger over the sensitive flesh. “What if I asked you to stay?”
She leaned down and pressed a kiss against his forehead. “I’d say no.”
No. The word was a frustrating end to an even more frustrating conversation. “Why?” He asked the question when she was halfway out the door.
Finn’s smile was mesmerising. “Because I’ve been coming here every night since the first night we arrived, and honestly? I’m tired, Caradoc. It’s another way I’m just completely not like you. I can’t function on this amount of sleep. I’m exhausted. I’m going to my own room, and I am going to pass out for the next six hours.”
He nodded, and watched her go, but his dissatisfaction was a force within him. If Seraphina was sleeping, then he certainly wasn’t. Her accusations and disapproval swirled through his mind, and for the first time in his life, Caradoc worried, albeit briefly, that he had behaved in a way that wasn’t right. That wasn’t suitable.
It was only a small thought; and he dismissed it easily enough.
Caradoc Moore wasn’t yet ready to see his own faults.
Somewhere in the early hours of the morning, having shut his eyes for a grand total of one hour, Caradoc stirred and reached for Finn. It was the first time he realised that he had become used to her. How long had it been? Only a few nights. Five, he counted back. Five nights, and she was already the first thought on his mind when he stirred.
It brought a frown to his face, for she was nowhere in sight nor reach, and he wanted her with a whole new level of desire.
