“Thensend her away,” Cooper hissed.
Seth and Cooper glared at each other across the table.
Cassandra huffed.
“Both of you, stop. Matthew, I’m not going anywhere.”
An all-night argument ensued after Adrian informed them that Cassandra was likely the intended target in all three attacks. Cooper insisted on sending Cassandra to Lincolnshire. Seth had agreed, but Cassandra staunchly refused. Seth couldn’t leave London, and Cassandra wouldn’t leave without him.
“With all of this talk, will we be safe at the wedding?” Cassandraasked Adrian.
“You needn’t fear anything, Miss Cooper. You’ll be a Hollingsworth soon. If not in name, in kin,” Adrian said, surprising Seth with the softness of his tone. “No harm will come to you.”
“I’m not afraid,” Cassandra replied, but her hand trembled. Seth squeezed her hand to reassure her, even though he was also afraid. How could he protect her when every person they passed on the street could be an assassin?
***
The next night as they laid in bed, Seth whispered, “After the wedding, maybe you should go to Lincolnshire.”
“Is that what you want?” Cassandra traced his scars over his nightshirt. “To send me away to a place where you’ll never see me? Never be able to hold me like this?” She pressed her lips to his. “Never kiss me like this?”
“You know that’s not what I want.” Seth returned her kiss. “You’ll be safer there.”
“I won’t be safe anywhere,” she said. “I wasn’t safe in Hampshire, either. What makes you think Lincolnshire will be different?”
He brought her hand to his mouth and placed a kiss on her palm, his gaze locked on hers. “I can’t lose you. I wouldn’t survive it.”
“I won’t live apart from you,” she whispered. “I love you too much.”
Rolling her onto her back, he kissed her, tongue stroking insistently over hers. With one hand at the small of her back, he pressed her body flush against his. He nestled between her legs and pressed downward.
“Seth,” she whispered. “The door is open.”
He kissed his way down her throat. “Close it.”
“You’re still hurt.” She gasped as his hand closed over her breast.
“I’m inagony,” he growled against her neck, deftly unhooking the buttons on her nightgown, mouth trailing over the exposed skin. Sheran her hands through his hair and across his back, holding him closer. It would be so easy to give in to him. She had little control left after weeks of restraint, and Seth had none. He was hard above her and as desire coursed through her, she bit her bottom lip.
“You drive memadwhen you do that.” He took her lip into his mouth and soothed it with his tongue. He snaked his hand between them, lifting her nightgown, gripping the back of her knee and trailinginward.
She grabbed his wrist.
“Not until we’re married,” she breathed. “Tomorrow.”
“Cassandra, that’s an eternity from now.” He traced her collarbone with his mouth and squeezed her hip.
“Seth, stop.” She kissed him once more and moved away from him. “I mean it.”
Seth put his head into the pillow, muffling a loud groan. He rolled off of her and onto his back. Gripping the bedclothes to keep himself from touching her, he urged, “Read to me. Somethingboring.”
With a smile, she liftedPractical Botany, Vol. 3.from the bedside table and opened a chapter at random. Before she finished the third page, Seth had fallen asleep. Placing the book down, Cassandra sighed. He fatigued so easily, a far cry from his previous vitality. The thought of him overtaxing himself put a sour taste in her mouth, but he had recovered enough for life to go back to normal after the wedding. He would return to Lord Bolderwood, to Mr. Sanderson’s factory, and start his busy career as a draftsman in a time of war.
Matthew knocked on the door frame, holding a bundled blanket at his side. Fresh from the factory, the smell of hot metal followed him into the room. “How’s the patient?”
She frowned. “Recovering.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”