More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“If I look at you,” he said, softly, moving his hips, “just once, just for a moment . . . I will want to kiss you.”
Losing her strength, she fell into his arms, against him, and he caught her. Of course he did. Because that was where she belonged . . . in his arms. Sesily, who had spent her whole life in motion, restless, searching for more, for different, for better . . . found peace.
On the darkest nights, he would imagine her here, in his arms, and he would remember that, for a heartbeat, he’d known peace. He’d known home.
“You don’t. You don’t have claim or sway or responsibility for me. I’ve never asked you to protect me. Not in the two years I’ve known you, not the other night at The Place, not in Coleford’s study, and not today . . . minutes after being surprised by the existence of your wife and child barely a day after you left me naked and alone on the floor of a country cottage like a damned . . .”
He’d loved her for an age, and he would love her for an age, and though he knew that seeing her, being near her, touching her—all of it—would make everything to come worse, he knew that he would do everything in his power, forever, to protect her.
“I wouldn’t have hated it,” Caleb said. “I promise you I would have done everything I could to turn your head whenever you came near the stables.” She laughed and tucked herself into the crook of his arm, and he knew he shouldn’t notice the way she felt there, in that space that suddenly felt made for her. “I am sorry to say, good sir, I never went to the stables. Seline would have been the object of your affection.” The scent of her was making him wild. There was no other explanation for why he replied, “No, Sesily. One look at you, and I would have been done for.”
The world is changing and these men—wealthy and titled and privileged and monstrous—they do not always win.”
“I come back because I cannot stay away.” She was close enough that he could feel the way her breath hitched in her throat. “Stay away from what?” He brushed a curl from her face, tucking it behind her ear. Marveling at her. At the fact that, for a moment, he’d had her, perfect and his. He whispered her name, and it was the closest thing he’d ever spoken to a prayer. “From you.”
would walk into fire if it meant seeing you one last time. And I would not hesitate.”
“Come inside.” And then, before he could say no, she whispered, “Please. I—” He could have kissed her again. Stopped the words. But he wanted them too much. And though he knew that hearing them would wreck them both, the knowledge was not enough to stop him. He wanted them. Almost as much as he wanted her. But she didn’t give them to him. Instead, she said, soft and perfect, “Caleb . . . I need you.” Somehow, it was worse than he’d expected. Because love might have reminded him that he should leave her. That he should keep her safe. But need . . . need made leaving her impossible. Because he
...more
“You enjoy the chase.” “I enjoy the catch,”
“No one has ever loved me out loud.”
“I’m in danger every day.” “And at some point your gallant knight will have to understand that.” “He’s not my gallant knight.” The duchess cut her a disbelieving look. “For someone who is not your gallant knight, he certainly turns up to protect you a great deal.”
Caleb, who’d fallen in love with the only woman in London who wouldn’t think twice about moving a dead body in the moonlight on the banks of the River Thames, where any number of people could see her.
What had been frustration was now anticipation. What had been concern was now desire. What had been fear was now need.
“For two years I have watched you. I have ached for you. I have basked in your sun for the handful of days I was with you, and savored the warmth of it for all the others. And that’s the thing—you are made for full sun. Not a woman for a life lived in the shadows. And perhaps it’s selfish, but I could not bear to see that light in you dimmed by life on the run. I would hate myself, and one day, you would hate me, too. And that, Sesily, is a fate worse than all the rest.”
“Since I was seventeen, I have done everything in my power to keep the people I love safe. But Coleford will not stop until he has his revenge. And I cannot protect you. I cannot keep you safe. Not now, not ever.” He looked to her. “You think I have not spent the last eighteen years thinking about how to return to this life? To this world? You think I have not spent the last two years thinking about how I might be able to have you?”
“You think I have not woken every night in my empty bed and wished that you were there? By my side? That I have not lain awake every night in that same bed, aching for you? Loving you? Christ, Sesily, I went back to Boston last time, intending it to be for good, because the only way I could stop myself from touching you was to put an ocean between us.” Her eyes went wide. “I didn’t know.” “Of course you didn’t. How could you? How could you know that I dreamed of purchasing return passage the moment I got off the fucking boat because six weeks was already too long without seeing your face? Your
...more
“You are not reckless, Sesily Talbot; you are regal. You’re a damn queen.” Pride burst at the words. Pride, and pleasure, that he saw her. That he understood. She loved him beyond measure. She lifted her chin. “I won’t take a demotion. I was a goddess before.”
“You asked me once why I do not like the dark.” She closed her eyes at the memory of his response, knowing the full story now. Alone and scared and on the run without his sister. In the darkness. “It wasn’t just the ship all those years ago, love. It was a lifetime in the darkness. In the shadows. On the run.” He was so handsome. So certain. “It is time for light.”
“I thought I might never see you again. I didn’t like that, either.” “I’m sorry.” She met his gaze. “And you told me you loved me. I didn’t like that, either.” His brows shot together. “You didn’t?” “I didn’t. You said it the way you say it to someone you’re intending to never see again. You said it the way you say it to someone whose heart you’re about to break. You said it like an end, instead of a beginning.”
“Let me be clear, you arrogant man. You know nothing of what I will do if you die. If you die, I will detonate. They will have to invent new words for the havoc I will wreak."
“You love me,” he whispered, when they finally broke for air. “I do,” she said, happily. “You saved me.” She smiled. “Someone had to.” “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, Sesily Talbot.” “You can tell me that any time you like.” “What if I tell you I love you?” “You can tell me that, too.”
“I should have believed you from the start.” She nodded, serious once more. “Will you believe me in the future? This is how we love. Out loud. With truth. This is how we fight. Together, or not at all.”
“Have we embarrassed you, American?” He laughed, pulling her tight. “Imagine, in all I’ve witnessed among you lot, it’s the undergarments that did me in.” She came up on her toes to whisper in his ear, “And here I am, not wearing them at all.”
“If our marriage were like the others, I wouldn’t be married to you. You, who I’ve wanted from the first moment I saw you. You, who I’ve ached to make mine from the start. Marry me, love.” She answered him with a kiss.
“Or would you rather I show you?” He was across the room and around the screen in seconds, pulling her to him as she squealed her delight. “Caleb! I am still wet!” “And I’m going to make sure you stay that way,” he growled, lifting her out of the bath and up into his arms. “You’re a tease.”
“I’m going to love you, Sesily Talbot. Every day . . . for the rest of our lives.” Her eyes met his, blue and beautiful. “Out loud?” She was perfect. And his. “Out loud.” And he set about doing just that.
