Page 20 of Meet A Rogue At Midnight
He lightened his grip on her arm. “You have that effect on me.”
The line of her mouth firmed. He wanted to erase it with a melting kiss better than what he gave her his first night home.
“I have been here a handful of days. I couldn’t wait to leave. Yet, being with you is…is different.”
“Howdifferent?”
“Braithwaite. Miss Halsey. Are you coming?” Will Hastings waved from a table squeezed between two high-back pine settles.
Jonas began to maneuver around laughing patrons. Livvy’s hand on his sleeve stopped him.
“Tell me. How different?” The exposed half of her face tensed with anticipation.
He wasn’t good at baring his soul. Never had been. Emotions were best kept in check.
Staring into Livvy’s expectant,hopefuleyes, he’d swear the ground moved. His first time at sea was like this. Lightness in his stomach. The world unsteady. Yet, the ship had cut through uneven water, the sea’s vastness stretching before him. It could’ve swallowed him whole. Instead, it became the world he needed to reach beyond simple existence and thrive. Livvy Halsey was quickly becoming the same to him—her essence was his future, his life.
That future could never be his if he didn’t risk the first step with her.
“You are the kind of a woman a man could spend forever with, and forever still wouldn’t be enough time with you.” Shoulders squared, he smiled at her, the lightness filling him.
And by the glow in her eyes, it filled Livvy, too.
Patrons jostled around them. Her hand slid down his sleeve into his hand as if made for it. Mr. Meakin strummed notes on his fiddle, and calls for clearing the room for a dance were shouted to the rafters. Hastings called for them again.
“Come,” she said, giving his hand a gentle nudge. “We have the whole night ahead of us.”
He was tongue-tied as they scooted into the pine settles with the Hastings and Lady Rowena.
“What a squeeze.” Lady Rowena laughed above the noise.
Miss Hastings set both elbows on the table, blowing an errant curl falling across her eyes. “Dancing and games are sure to start soon.”
“What kind of games?” her brother asked, waving over a tavern maid.
Miss Hastings rested her chin in her palm. “Blind Man’s Bluff for one.” Her gaze wandered to the tall figure dressed as King Henry the Eighth and the Welsh archer beside him.
Lady Rowena’s shoulder bumped Miss Hastings. “Because you wanthimto find you.”
Miss Hastings turned a shade of pink which was a feat in their shadowed corner of the public room.
“Who ishim?” Will Hastings twisted around in his seat. “The man dressed as King Henry the Eighth?” He turned back, scowling at his sister.
A frizzy-haired woman wearing a white mask approached the table, five cups of mulled cider clutched in both hands.
“Here you go, luvs.” She leaned in and set mugs on the table, stopping herself mid-bend. “Well now, is that a Braithwaite lad come home?” She straightened and, hip cocked, set a hand on the settle’s back near Livvy’s head. “Bless me, it is.”
Five hands reached for their cups. Jonas took his, a smile creasing his face.
“Molly Fowler?”
“The very same,” she said in her throaty voice. “But it’s Mrs. Molly Bainbridge now.” She jerked her head at the bar where Mr. Bainbridge ran a hand over his bald pate, eyeing a daunting row of tankards in need of filling. “Married to that one which makes me proprietress to this grand place.”
“That would make sense with your costume.”
She showed goose down angel wings stitched into the back of her gown. “You mean an angel, masquerading as a serving wench.” She laughed heartily, her gaze landing on his gold earring. “And you must be the pirate in black velvet setting all the female hearts aflutter. Our new serving maid, the shepherdess, says she’ll not be the same for the sight of you.”
Jonas grinned into his mug of mulled wine. Mrs. Bainbridge winked at the seat crammed with Livvy, Lady Rowena, and Miss Hastings.
