Page 8 of Lover
“I couldn’t sleep.”
Sympathy and worry contorted themselves into a hard knot and I looked away. “I often can’t either.”
A flick of movement at her collar, a twitch of her hand, as though she thought to reach out to me.This small motion sparked anew my hope, but simultaneously brought my attention back to her scantily clad body.
“Is that all you brought? It seems insufficient for winter nights.”
“I didn’t think I’d need any more than this. No one warned me that this house was in disrepair.” The new, unexpected snappishness had returned, and with it my own wolfish craving to exacerbate it. “Besides, my room is boiling.”
Ms. Dillard hadn’t remembered to tell her about the window, possibly forgetting she didn’t already know.
“If you’ll open your window a quarter, it will balance the fire. As for your wardrobe, I’ll have Ms. Dillard acquire you a robe.”
“Thank you.”
“That’s not an invitation to wander. There are dangers hiding where moonlight doesn’t reach.”
Like me.
“For goodness’ sake, Professor. You’re as bad as the driver. Are you trying to frighten me with ghost stories?”
“Ghost stories?” Someone already filling her head with the nonsensical rumors surrounding Willowfield was not ideal. “There is no central heat, and many renovation projects were abandoned when my wife… It’s left areas unsafe to walk. You’ll either catch your death or fall to it.”
She elicited a soft scoff, and my passion blazed.
“And,” I continued, properly piqued now, “do I dare mention you are alone in the dark with a man you don’t know?”
A flash of anger in her eyes.
“Or perhapsyouare alone in the dark with a woman you don’t know.”
“How perplexing,” I replied, momentarily amused. “I wonder who is right.”
I could sense her battling with her temper, which hadn’t always been so easily stoked.
“Sir,” she said firmly, “I’ve been cautioned about your moods, and while youaremy employer, I’d appreciate a little more decorum.”
“Decorum?” I glanced pointedly at her slip.
She went rigid, and suddenly I wanted to throw the plan away. To disregard Hannigan’s advice and tell her everything right then and there, to lay the whole horrible truth out between us so it could be done. This desire was far more dangerous thanmy physical one, and I finally understood the need for distance between us.
“Please return to your room,” I said. “Straight down this hallway and right at the next corridor. Don’t leave again until morning. We’ll become better acquainted in the light of day.”
When you’re not half-dressed and I’m thinking straight.
Her glare was lethal, and I returned it with as much cool detachment as I could muster. It was better for her to believe me too cold than too familiar, though this mask was foreign to me and did not wear easily.
She broke eye contact and moved to step around me, and for a moment, we were so very close.
“And Miss Foxboro?”
She stopped in her tracks, our arms nearly touching. I offered out the candle to her, and she took it with some uncertainty, as though I might lean down and take a bite out of her. Her instincts, in that regard, were well honed. My next words were not properly considered, but for her sake and mine, I couldn’t risk stumbling upon her, not like this. I would ruin it all.
“If I catch you wandering again,” I said, “I may think you mean to tempt me.”
I heard only a sharp, indignant intake of breath as I moved out of the glow of candlelight, leaving her standing speechless in the halls of a home she no longer knew.
CHAPTER 6
