“Very chivalrous,” added Aaron.
To which Clara gave them both a huff and flounced off to bed. Lilah and Aaron shared a moment of amusement—silently, of course—but that was all before Lilah turned toward the parlor. “I should clean up some before bed.”
“No, you shouldn’t,” he said as he gathered her arm. “I now have a well-run household thanks to you. The servants will care for that in the morning.”
She knew it was true, and besides, she enjoyed the touch of his hand on hers and the warmth of his gaze on her face.
“You didn’t enjoy tonight, did you?” he asked.
“Not true. I did,” but her tone indicated how diffident she felt about the whole thing. “They are all old friends. It was hard to find my footing with them.” At least it had been hard until he showed up.
“You will. Or you will find your own friends. I think you were beautiful tonight. Everyone felt at ease around you. And you got Mr. Sesay to explain about his favorite magistrate.”
The boorish barrister? “I simply let him talk and talk and talk.” She frowned. “Why is that important?”
“Because Mr. Sesay is normally close-mouthed, but he felt comfortable with you. And so he talked to you.”
She couldn’t fathom it. “He talked ceaselessly.”
“About unimportant things. But eventually, he opened up to you. He told you about the case he is working and why it might succeed with one magistrate and not another.”
“And that’s important?”
He shrugged. “It shows you have a talent for making people comfortable.” He touched her face and stroked across her jaw. “And comfortable people confide things. It’s a valuable talent.”
Maybe to him. To her, it felt like she was the repository of their thoughts with no one listening to her own.
“How was your day before the party?”
“Very good, actually.”
He leaned against the balustrade. “Really? Tell me.”
She wanted to. She wanted to ease back into a chair and share her life and her thoughts with him over a good glass of wine. But more than that, she wanted to kiss him. She wanted to feel his hands on her body as he showed her how much he wanted her.
“I’d rather…” Her voice trailed away. She couldn’t say aloud what she wanted. She couldn’t put in words how desperately she wanted to kiss him.
He must have understood. They’d played this dance every night for the last two weeks. His hand rose to her cheek as he stroked his finger down along her jaw.
“Clara picked her favorite single gentlemen tonight expressly for the purpose of interesting you in one of them. Did none of them catch your fancy?”
“How could they with you here?”
“I stayed away, Lilah. As long as I could stomach it. I gave you time to find one and fall desperately in love.”
She arched her brows. “In three hours?”
He shrugged. “I spent the whole time pacing my office, counting the seconds.”
She chuckled at the image. “It will take much longer than that to forget you.”
His expression sobered. “I want you to have everything you deserve, Lilah.”
“What about everything I want?”
He dipped his chin. “That, too.”
She smiled, finally feeling the rightness of this decision. “I want you, Aaron. In my bed, in my life. If only for tonight.”