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“I don’t want to stop,” she answered honestly. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first day I met you.”
“Me too,” he said as he shuffled them closer to the wall, hiding in the shadows of the candlelight.
“I don’t want anyone else,” she said against his mouth, not even sure he could understand her. “I only want you.”
Should she have been so honest? She’d lost any perspective she’d gained over the past weeks as the truth tumbled from her lips.
He didn’t respond but the kiss slowly grew less heated, slower, until finally, he stopped all together, lifting his head. “Emily. Try to understand. I’d be selfish to take you for my own.”
“Selfish? But we both—”
He kissed her quiet. “I don’t have a future. Just a limited amount of time to see the people I love cared for. If I married you, I’d rob you of your future too.”
She gasped in a breath as sadness filled her chest. “Oh.”
“Understand, Emily. It’s because I care that I have to leave you for someone else.” And then he eased back, leaving her slumped against the wall, her heart aching even more in her chest.
Ace had made a terrible mistake.
Emily’s kiss hadn’t been virginal. It hadn’t even been sweet. It had been pure unadulterated fire.
And it had burned him to the core.
Had he pictured pleasant nights spent wrapped in loving arms of warmth and sympathy? Now those fantasies took on a new dimension. Emily wrapped around him, their breath and mouths mingled as they both chased pleasure—
He made his thoughts stop as he halted just outside the dining room. He had to go converse pleasantly with her brother.
He couldn’t be fantasizing about all the carnal pleasure Emily’s embrace surely held.
For a wild moment he dreamed of carrying her away. They could both disappear.
But his family.
And hers.
Boxby loved his sister with all the brotherly care that Ace felt for Mirabelle and Anna. To steal that away.
He couldn’t do it.
He let out a frustrated growl, combed back his hair, and then stepped into the dining room.
But Boxby no longer sat at the table. Instead, he stood at one end of the room near the buffet. Something was wrong. Had the baron seen Ace’s and Emily’s embrace?
“Smith,” Boxby called. “A missive has arrived here for you.”
“A missive for me?”
“It’s sealed by the Earl of Easton. Apparently, it was delivered to your residence with a message from the earl that this was of great importance, so your brother escorted the delivering footman here.” Boxby held out a sealed note.
His brother? Crossing the room in a few long strides, he took the letter from the baron and sliced open the seal, quickly scanning the contents.
He was needed at the Den of Sins. As soon as possible. Making multiple decisions in the span of a breath, Ace looked up at the baron. “Want to see the Den of Sins for yourself?”
Boxby’s brows lifted but then he gave a quick nod. “Yes.”
“Get your jacket.”
Within fifteen minutes, they’d made their way out the door and into Ace’s carriage as the vehicle sped across town. Boxby said little, for which Ace was grateful. Between memories of Emily and wonderings about his half-brother and the Den of Sins, his mind was full. What did his brother need from him?
