“If Annie trusts ya, I do, too.” He turned, ostensibly to return to his work.
“Wait, Jack,” Grayson called out.
Jack whipped back around.
“Your father, is he mended?”
Jack nodded.
“And everything is fine at home now?” Grayson pressed. “There’s no more temptation to find creative solutions to your problems?”
Jack smiled, the first true smile they’d seen from him. “Everything’s right as rain, my lord!” He trotted away from them, disappearing into the back of the stables.
“What were you going to do? Had he responded otherwise?” Henrietta asked.
Grayson shrugged. “Found a way to help him, I suppose. Money, or if they refused to accept financial support, there are other ways to help. I could find the father a temporary job he could do sitting down, for example. It would allow him to keep his pride, would help him keep his mind off his injury.” He shrugged. “I’m sure Lady Stonefield sent food and help.”
Henrietta nodded and dropped her chin to her chest. “You’re a fine man,” she mumbled. “Lady Willow is a lucky woman.” She strode away from him, quickly slipping out of the stables.
Grayson followed, thinking on her words. He didn’t know how to respond to her final statement, so when he caught up to her, he responded to the first instead. “You are a fine woman, Henrietta Blake.”
She stopped, huffed a laugh, and leaned against the stable wall. “Am I? Ada suggested I’m a social climber yesterday.”
“You’re not.”
“And Tobias calls me a termagant.”
“He’s wrong.”
“Papa calls me an interfering chit.”
“Wrong again.” He leaned a hip against the wall beside her and stooped low over her, drawn to her body in a way he’d not experienced with anyone but her. Her lips quivered and he wanted to take the plump bottom one between his teeth, steadying it with a kiss.
She looked up at him with a jerk, as if pulled by the intensity of his concentration on her. The movement swayed her toward him, but he remained a statue, suppressing the growing need to crush her in his arms. With every muscle in his body clenched, he kept his distance, he did not touch her.
Her gaze flicked frantically across his face before she breathed, “Oh, mercy,” twisted her arms around his neck, and pulled herself against him with a kiss.
Chapter 10
She shouldn’t have done it. He was all but engaged to another woman, a fact Henrietta’s body refused to acknowledge as it leaned forward, finally—finally!—closing the distance between them and taking his lips as she’d longed to do all afternoon.
He stiffened at first, and she pulled away, but then his arms wrapped around her waist, locking her in place. They’d barely touched one another in a year and now they seared their bodies together as if no time had passed. No gentle kiss or awakening for them. Instead, a conflagration. His fingers pressed into her waist, lifting her almost off the ground. Her palms cradled his face, pulling him close. His soft, firm lips parted hers, and she opened to him with a moan as he pressed her against the stables, slipping a knee between her legs with a gentle nudge at her center. She felt every inch of him, and it felt like a miracle; it felt like the past surging into the present. It felt like she’d come home.
Laughter rang inside the stables. A door swung open and slammed shut, ripping them apart from one another.
Henrietta gulped in a breath and ran the back of her wrist over her swollen lips. She dared not look at Grayson, dared not see the regret in his eyes.
“Shit,” he whispered.
“Yes. Shit,” she replied.
“I should not have—”
“You didn’t. I did.” She paced forward, trying to work out the frustration seething through her. “I shouldn’t have.”
“Why?”
Which obvious reason did he want her to offer? His almost fiancée? Their aching history with one another? “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she said, settling her breathing and smoothing her skirts. “You’re engaged. I …” What did one say when one had done something as vile as she’d just done? And enjoyed it so well?
