A lot.
He drew unhurriedly away from her mouth, releasing her lips to look at her. A finger traced down her cheek. She blinked through the drops of rain.
“That’s better.”
Her brows furrowed. “What’s better?”
“The look on your face right now.”
Leonora didn’t even want to imagine how flushed her face was or what look had entered her eyes. All she knew was a soft warmth had spread through her entire body.
“How can you say such a thing to a woman you just kissed?”
“Quite easily, I assure you.” He grinned down at her. “If it’s you.”
If it’s you.
“Even knowing what you now know about me?”
“What is it that I know about you? That the circumstances of your birth are different from mine? Lord knows, half thetonare illegitimate if you ask me. That doesn’t define your character unless you allow it.”
“Fine words, Dare.”
“You sound surprised,” he said with another little smile.
She returned his grin. “I always am when it comes to you.”
He chuckled, glancing up at the pouring sky. “Shall we find shelter, or do you wish to become as bedraggled as you were that day in the lake?”
Honestly, at this point, she didn’t care. She scarcely felt the rain or the chill. But they couldn’t stand here all day. “Let’s find shelter.”
Dare snatched her hand and pulled her under the overhang of a low sagging roof of an old, forgotten building. She could scarcely believe that he had come to terms with her secret so quickly. So smoothly.
Did he truly not think differently of her?
Was it because he was a rake?
She eyed him skeptically. “You’re not going to tell anyone about my secret?”
His affronted gaze snapped to hers. It was the first time she had seen such a look appear on his face. It was almost funny. “I would never do such a thing.”
She nodded. “Good.”
He leaned in close. “I never kiss and tell.”
*
How many timescould a heart beat in a minute? Dare had never felt anything as fast as the racing of his heart in that moment as he stared into her eyes, lips hovering over hers. He started counting each beat while his body calmed down.Hecalmed down.
Ah, entanglements.
“I don’t kiss and tell, either.”
Christ, no words a rake ever wants to hear.
Dare straightened and dragged a hand through his hair, the same path she’d used, his scalp still alive with prickles. The drizzling rain created a cloak of privacy around them, setting them in a world of two. A world of their own. A dangerous world, one where he could feel her presence as clear as the sun in the summer sky.
But he had no business lingering in it.
