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“One night.”
“One adventure?” she asked with a small smile that he mimicked.
“One adventure.”
“When?”
“Is that a ‘yes?’”
“It certainly doesn’t sound like a ‘no’, does it?” she teased him, watching as he smiled.
“How about tonight? Come to my house under the cover of darkness. I would come here, but…” he gestured back to the house with a nod of his head. “You have a brother-in-law watching over you.”
Nick!
The mere thought made Sophia look through the trees, as if she could see the house from here. To come to Jeremy’s house, she would have to sneak out, or tell Nick she was going out. If she did the latter, he would wait for her return.
I shall have to sneak out.
“Very well,” she murmured, feeling the nerves make her voice tremble.
“Yes?” Jeremy sounded excited as Sophia moved off from him. She had to inch away from him now, so startled by the power he seemed to have over her body with the barest of touches, that she had to part from him.
“Yes. I will come to yours tonight.” She hurried to where her towel laid and wrapped it around her body, hiding herself from view. “Now go, before the Earl sees you.” With these final words, Sophia hurried off between the trees, heading back for the house.
She allowed herself to look back just once, where she caught sight of Jeremy watching her. His clothes were wet thanks to where her body had been pressed to his and there was such a smile on his face that Sophia could have wriggled with a kind of delight.
As she returned to the house, she had merely one thing on her mind.
What have I just agreed to?
* * *
Jeremy was restless as he waited in his sitting room. Every few minutes, he found himself moving to his feet and standing by the window, looking out across the pebbled driveway toward the street beyond. At this time of night, only the moonlight showed what moved back and forth.
There was the occasional carriage, and the odd person on foot, no doubt up to no good at these odd hours, but not one of the carriages turned into the driveway.
Perhaps she changed her mind.
The mere thought made Jeremy return to his seat, incessantly bouncing his knee up and down as he leaned forward with an empty glass in his hand. He had already downed one whisky to try to calm his nerves, but he didn’t want another. All he wanted was for Sophia to arrive.
All day he had not stopped thinking of the feeling of Sophia in his arm by the lakeside, with her body scarcely hidden beneath the chemise and her dark eyes turned up toward him. The thought that her husband had not showed her what lovemaking could truly be like made him anxious.
“Who would do that to their own wife?” he muttered aloud as he again stood to his feet, unable to settle. He shed his tailcoat and paced the room, turning his focus on the clock above his mantelpiece. Through the candlelight, he could see the time. It was nearly midnight.
Perhaps she is not coming.
He dropped into the nearest chair, abruptly numb at the thought. Ladies did not usually turn him down, but this moment wasn’t about that. The promise of sharing excitement with Sophia of all people offered a different kind of thrill. One he could not remember feeling before.
Do not think about what that means. Remember? That is the deal I made with myself long ago. When it comes to women, I do not overthink what I feel.
It was another of his rules. He was already bending one rule, he certainly wasn’t going to bend another.
The sound of a horse on the drive made Jeremy look up and hurry to the window, scrambling to his feet. On the other side of the glass, he could see there was no carriage coming down the drive, but a horse. Atop the saddle was a woman wrapped up so much in a pelisse with her hood pulled high that it was impossible to see her face.
Sophia!
Jeremy hastened from the room. He had already urged the butler to retire for the night, so it gave him the freedom to move about his own house unseen. When he reached the door and flung it open, he found the rider had already fastened her reins to part of the stone wall that formed the porch of his house. She turned slowly toward him and lifted her hood a little, her face basked in the glow of the orange candles from the hallway behind him.
