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“I know who you are and I still want you, but if we do this, it won’t be easy for either of us. You’ll get fired for sure when my family finds out, and Mother doesn’t tolerate Angie and me dating people outside our social class, which means I’ll most likely get cut off. We’ll have to tread so, so carefully, or life will turn into a living hell for both of us.”

He stayed silent.

Blood whooshed loud in my ears, and I gave a nervous laugh. “Now I’m waiting for you to tell me that was our last time.”

“I don’t care what happens to me, but I don’t want you to lose everything.” His voice hitched. “Not for a man like me.”

“If I’m going to lose everything, I want it to be for a man exactly like you. A man who wants me.Me. Not my name or my money or my connections. Just me. And what’s money if I can’t use it to buy happiness?”

“But your family...”

“Angie will come around, my father’s rarely here, and Mother’s a toxic presence I can live without.” I’d thought this through over and over, and when I looked at the hard facts, I could see that everything she’d done for my sister and me over the last few years was for her benefit rather than ours. “I can create another pen name and write anywhere.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

Fingers trembling, I reached out and clicked the desk lamp on, bathing both of us in a soft yellow glow. Beau blinked back at me, startlingly handsome.

“Say yes,” I whispered.

He pressed soft lips to mine. “I can’t say anything but.”

His earlier frenzy was replaced with a series of slow, liquid kisses that warmed me from head to toe, but rather than close my eyes and lose myself to him, I took advantage of the light and watched his every move. He did the same, creating another connection between us.

And I got to see the delights of his body for the first time too when I unbuttoned his shirt—his solid pecs and tightly defined abs. Idly, I traced the infinity loop tattooed over his heart.

“What’s this for?”

“I got it for a girl.”

“Oh.”

I didn’t want the details. The past didn’t matter, just the present. My fingers fumbled with his hand-tied bowtie—no clip-on for him, which surprised me—then he helped by shrugging out of his shirt. I glimpsed the tattoo on his arm, and I couldn’t help smiling—secretly I’d always had a thing for ink. Hey, maybe I’d even get my own, seeing as I was about to break every other one of Mother’s rules.

Midnight—Beau—slid off the condom used in our earlier exploits, tied a knot in the end, and dropped it on the floor. We’d need to remember to pick it up before we left or it had the potential to lead to a very awkward conversation. Although Angie would take the heat if I begged—another reason I loved my sister.

“Care to do the honours?” He held out a fresh foil packet, grinning.

“With pleasure.”

While Rupert had barely touched the sides, now I got a good look at Beau, I gulped. How in hell had that fitted?

As if reading my thoughts, he gently grasped my chin and tilted it upwards. “Augusta, you were made to fit me.” He kept his gaze locked on mine as he angled into me, pulling me forward until I settled snugly around him. “See?”

I glanced down. I could indeed see now. And I loved the way he disappeared inside me, right to the hilt.

“Make me come, Mr. Midnight,” I whispered.

“With pleasure.”

This time he gave me slow and sweet, and it was me who lost control as waves of bliss washed through me. Shit, I’d left a bloody bite mark on his neck. I tried to rub it away with my thumb, and he laughed.

“Leave it. It’ll make me smile every time I look in the mirror.”

“But what if someone sees? What if someone realises we’re together?” I realised how bad that sounded, like I wanted to keep him a sordid little secret. “Not that I don’t want to show you off to the world, but I just need a few weeks to make some arrangements.”

He hugged me tighter. “Don’t fret,mon cœur. I get it. Are you still sure about this?”

Ever the gentleman, he was still giving me the chance to back out, but no way would I take it. When I made my final decision, a dark cloud had lifted from my mind, and while the future scared me, I’d have the man I was crazy about by my side, holding my hand through the tough times. That much I knew.

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