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The soiree was to be held in the ground-floor ballroom. When Harris finally pronounced him elegant enough, Raven knocked on Indy’s door. He hadn’t seen her since the previous night’s glorious madness.
He’d been reliving every word, every glance, every kiss... when he was supposed to be solidifying all of the details for the raid.
Everything was in place. Sir Malcolm and his team had arrived and were waiting for Raven’s signal. He’d told them the number and location of the guards on the outside of Le Triton’s property. Now his job was to elicit the invitation from Le Triton to visit his fortress.
With Raven striking from the inside, and the team of agents from the outside, they could retrieve the stone and bring down Le Triton in the process.
Raven had a pistol concealed beneath his coat, and Miss Mina’s unusual timepiece in his waistcoat pocket.
Indy’s door opened and a lady’s maid emerged. “She’s nearly ready, Your Grace,” the maid said with a curtsy. “She bids you wait inside.”
The maid left and Raven entered Indy’s chamber.
“One moment,” Indy called from behind a carved wooden screen.
Various rustling noises emerged from behind the screen and the floral-vanilla-pepper scent of her perfume lingered in the air.
He adjusted the diamonds at his cuffs and rearranged the chain of his pocket watch, unaccountably nervous. He was never nervous.
Nerves implied the ability to envision potentially disastrous outcomes. He never doubted or questioned his abilities. He plunged headfirst into the unknown with the confidence that he would win against all odds.
He contemplated offering to help her with any hooks and then gave himself a stern mental shake. Tonight would be all business.
Le Triton would take one look at the Wish Diamond sparkling against Indy’s luxurious bosom and be willing to do anything to purchase the necklace. Raven still didn’t like involving her, but she’d insisted, and he had to trust her.
She’d asked him to meet her halfway, and he was fully there.
That must be why his nerves were jangling a discordant tune, why he’d been on edge all day.
If Indy appeared from behind the screen with fresh hurt and pain behind her smile and buried in her eyes, he was going to hate himself even more.
You don’t regret even one kiss. One touch. You would do it all again in a heartbeat.
She walked out from behind the screen.
Time slowed. His heart forgot how to pump blood through his body.
Curves poured into a gown the color of mulberry wine. The purple diamond at her throat sparkling the same color as her eyes, glossy black hair piled atop her head and fixed with a jeweled clip.
“Raven.” She stuck out her chin. “Would you please stop staring at me as though I’ve sprouted a second head? I know it’s ridiculous.” She tugged at the ruffles at the neck of her gown. “I can’t abide voluminous sleeves and tiers of ruffles. Lucy latched on to me and she wouldn’t let go until I agreed to wear this purple silk monstrosity.”
It wasn’t the gown that made his brain feel like it had sprouted a layer of mushrooms like a damp log in a forest.
It was Indy.
The memory of her satiny smooth skin and her long hair tangling around her shoulders, brushing over his chest as she rose above him.
“Say something, please,” she urged. “If you don’t say something this instant I’m going to go and change back into one of my everyday gowns.”
He said the first thing that came to mind. “I wish I had something to give you.”
She tilted her head. “What did you say?”
“Men give women bouquets of flowers, don’t they? Or maybe flowers would have been too conventional? You would prefer something more unexpected, I’d wager. A rare relic from a curiosity shop. Or a heavy book about antiquities. The heavier the better.”
He was babbling. He never babbled.
The look on her face made his heart ache for all of the normal, everyday milestones in life that he’d given up when he became a secret agent. Courting Indy—properly courting her—would have been such a grand and unpredictable adventure.
