Page 6 of One Night of Surrender
“I would never toss you out.And no, I’m not trying to have your employment terminated.Though I will say I never imagined I’d see you as a governess.”His gaze dipped over her as if he were assessing what hehadseen her as—and she didn’t want to know.
Too aware of his lingering attention and the fact that she wore only a night rail covered with a rather thin dressing gown, she crossed her arms across her chest and gave him a cool stare.“You need to go.”
“And I shall.Soon.After we…talk.”He looked around the room once more, and his gaze settled on the diminutive chair situated in the corner next to her miniscule nightstand.
“We have nothing to talk about,” Isabelle said.
He moved to the chair and sat down.“Come now, after a decade, there is plenty to discuss.I could sit here with you all night.”
All night.They’d done that once.But they hadn’t been sitting.Or talking.Well, there had beensometalking.Andsomesitting…of sorts.She blushed at the memory.
He gave her a sly look.“What are you thinking about?”
She shook her head, pushing the recollection away.“Nothing.Really, you need to go.I can’t allow you to jeopardize my position.”
“We could just have told Barkley that we’re old friends.”
Isabelle squeezed her fingertips into her biceps.“We aren’t.”
“Yes, we are.We wouldn’t have to tell him the part about being lovers.”He said it so casually, so offhandedly, as if it were absolutely ordinary.How could it be when it had been the most extraordinary experience of her life?When she measured her days in terms of before Val and after Val?“Why did you lie to him and say we’d just met?”His query fished her back from the abyss of the past.
“It seemed easier.”And safer.They’d had to hide even their friendship at Oxford.The students were not allowed to fraternize with women, particularly the daughters of wardens who were, in turn, not supposed to fraternize with the students.They’d stolen time together here and there, mostly just to talk and read and talk about what they’d read.
He was staring at her as if he expected her to say more.As if he expected her to say she’d been wrong and of course they could reveal their friendship.
“You really need to go,” she repeated.
Naturally, he didn’t move.He’d always been stubborn, especially in their debates.His gaze strayed to her nightstand, and he picked up the battered book she’d set atop it.“Still reading French literature, I see.Oh, and it’s one of our favorites.”He gave her a dazzling smile.
“It was one of my favorites before it was one of yours.”
“True.I keep a copy in my bedchamber.”His gaze met hers, and the intensity of his stare made her knees weak.
“Why?”Where had that word come from?She hadn’t thought it, but her lips had whispered it.
“Because it reminds me of you.”He set down her worn copy ofLes Liaisons dangereuses.
“Val, you really have to go.”She sounded like a parrot that only knew how to say one thing.
He rose from the chair and came around the bed.“If you insist, but first tell me why you’re a governess.What happened to your husband?”
“I told you, he died.”
“Didn’t he leave you any money?”
“What he left me with was debt, which my inheritance from my father settled.Thankfully, I am able to provide for myself.I’m quite happy in my current position.”While that was true, it wasn’t what she’d ever expected.She’d expected her own household, a husband, children.
“You had no children with him?”Val asked, seeming to have followed the course of her thoughts.
“You are too familiar,” she said, growing uncomfortable with the direction of their conversation—because she could find comfort in it.When was the last time someone had spoken to her, really spokentoher?
“I should hope so,” he said softly.“I know you rather well.”He’d moved to stand just in front of her, so close that she could easily put her hands on him.
“Youknewme.That was a long time ago.”And yet his scent of pine and sandalwood was as familiar as the book on her nightstand.
“Can you be that different?”He studied her, his eyes caressing her as if he touched her.
She suddenly longed for that touch, as she had on so many occasions in the last decade, particularly in the early years.Over time, she’d learned to store her memories of him in the back of her mind, only bringing them forth when she allowed herself to feel vulnerable.
