“Just do it. Sarah isn’t here. She’s probably sleeping, and I’ll need this corset loosened before I sleep.”
He swallowed looking down at the tie at her lower back. He reached out his hesitant hand and plucked the tail of the bow and pulled. Fire lashed up his back and licked at his fingers as he loosened the ribbon. His flesh felt scalding.
“I won’t miss these things,” she mused as the stiff fabric fell away and she shut the door in his face.
Was he lusting for her? Since when did he lust after anyone? It was another curse, lust. It gave birth to regret. Damn him! He should go, but he knew he wouldn’t. It was as if he no longer possessed any control of himself.
He waited until the door opened again and she stepped out. Yes, he should have left and gone to bed. His belly flipped at the sight of her in hose that were as tight as her own skin, and her heavier top with his name sewn across the front. His heart fluttered, his muscles twitched with an unfamiliar need. In fact, there wasn’t a part of him that didn’t hurt. His fingers itched to touch her—just one touch. He remembered her warning about doing so without her permission. If she didn’t like it, he wouldn’t do it. But his fingers still itched.
“You never told me why you wear a shirt that bears my name,” he said, trying to ignore her shapely legs—and the rest of her as she walked on a few steps without him.
“It’s a college—university in New Hampshire.”
“NewHampshire?” he asked, catching up.
“In the future America. But I didn’t attend Dartmouth. I just like the color.”
He took a good look at her again and smiled, obviously liking what he saw. “It suits you.”
“Does it?” she asked with a shy smile.
“It reminds me of the delicate flower petals of a musk mallow.”
“Oh?” She let out a small, husky laugh, making his legs feel weak. “I remind you of something delicate?”
“Yes,” he answered, then looked away when she began to turn to him.
“I’m not.”
“To me you are.”
“Even though I disarmed you?” she asked, her voice going soft.
“You also didn’t put your hand to me when you could have. When you should have.”
She wrinkled her brow at him. “And that makes me delicate?”
“Yes. You’re like a robin. They are fierce little birds that will fight off a hawk, but they can be felled by the smallest pebble.”
She gave him a playful, warning look on the way back to the dance hall. “I’m not sure I like your analogy.”
He thought about it for a moment. “Alright then, you’re like an ant. They can carry fifty times their weight, but one step can crush them.”
He tried not to break into a smile while she stared at him as if he were the most simple-minded dolt to ever live. Finally, she looked away and he released what he’d been holding back.
She slipped her gaze to him and caught him. Without hesitation, she turned to face him fully and took in what he offered her. What he hadn’t offered to anyone but Harper since he was a boy. What he’d planned on never offering to anyone again, a full-on, genuine smile and even a short burst of laughter when she swatted his arm and set his feet running the rest of the way.
Chapter Twelve
“Do we needmusic? I don’t want to disturb Harper. I could wake one of the musicians.” Gray entered the hall first and stopped running, turning to her.
“I hadn’t thought of music,” she said, catching her breath, “but maybe it would be better with a little music.”
“Very well, wait here.” He hurried back out of the dance room and ran to the main hall. He stopped the first servant he saw and told him to awaken Alexander Pepperton, the castle violinist, and tell him he should go to his lord’s dance hall at once—and bring his violin.
When he returned to Miss Darling, he was barely out of breath from running. It took more of his strength to lay his eyes on her stretching with her ankle resting on one of the high bars along the walls.
She saw him and stopped practicing.