“You are concerned with protecting me,” said Mr Aubrey crisply, “but what of yourself? What about what you wish for yourself and your future?”
Rose opened her mouth and then closed it, the true answer burning in her throat, ready to fill all the blank pages in her commonplace book with heat.
I want you.
She swallowed hard, forcing herself to focus only on what was right. “I promised you, when I first proposed this pretence, that we would never have to wed.” As she watched his eyebrows sceptically rise, she added with a sudden spurt of frustration, “You expressed deep relief at the time, as I recall, so you needn’t pretend that I dreamed up any of that!”
“Have I ever described you as a dreamer? Or led you to think that I would see that as a flaw?” Mr Aubrey shook his head. “In case you hadn’t noticed, you are far more adept at handling the practical matters of life than I have ever been – and you must have noticed how much I admire your skills at concocting and carrying out effective plans. Why else would I have agreed to take part in every one of them?”
She sighed. “You heard me tell your grandfather how kind and principled I know you to be. Of course, you wished to help the dragons.”
“Naturally,” he agreed. “But did you hear me when I told you, myself, only three days ago, how important you had become to me?”
Rose took a shuddering breath. Now, of all times, don’t be carried away by dreams. “I did, and I value your friendship very much.”
Oh, good Lord, if he truly was an old friend of her soon-to-be brother-in-law, she would be expected to treat him like any other family friend, wouldn’t she? She would be thrown together with him again and again over the years.
At least I’ll see him. It would be better than losing him entirely ... but how had he managed to make his quiet and steady presence so indispensable to her across the last several days?
His eyes narrowed. “This is indeed a fascinating puzzle. I’ve been assuming that you must understand by now how I feel. You are so adept at reading other people, it seemed impossible that you would fail to see the feelings I made no attempt to hide ... but apparently you’ve erected an unbreakable mental barrier when it comes to the singular question of how people see you.”
Rose frowned, tightening her hands’ clasp in her lap. “If you think I’ve somehow imagined more than you feel ...” Humiliation burned behind her ribs. “I promise you needn’t worry. You won’t hurt my feelings by being truthful with me now.”
Mr Aubrey’s eyebrows rose even higher ... and then he gave a quick, decisive nod. “I see. Griff was correct after all in the vision that he sent me earlier. Only a direct application can be of any effect.” Shifting forwards, he echoed Rose’s words from their midnight meeting all those days ago. “Forgive me! But I believe this to be necessary.”
She gaped up at him as he took her by the shoulders with a firm, but not uncomfortable, grip. The expression on his angular face was astonishingly stern; it sent an unexpected tingle through her body. “Wha—?”
His warm lips closed firmly over hers, cutting her off, and she fell headlong into his delicious kiss.
Chapter 29
Like any true scholar, Mr Aubrey studied what he loved with focused intensity and became more and more expert at it every day.
If their first kiss, six days ago, had left Rose’s head swimming, this kiss hit quite a different level. She was moaning helplessly – no, wantonly – by the time he finally drew back and released her. To her horror, she even found her hands clutching the lapels of his jacket, leaving visible and ungovernable wrinkles in their wake. She snatched them back ... and found her fingers aching with their sudden, awful emptiness.
Mr Aubrey was breathing hard as he leaned over her, one hand braced on the back of the sofa, looking anything but scholarly. With his pupils dilated and his fair skin flushed, he looked rumpled and positively feral with a most ungentlemanly hunger.
Rose had to close her fingers tightly over her palms to keep from reaching out to yank him back into her embrace. She moistened her tingling upper lip with her tongue.
His eyes darkened even more as his predatory gaze followed the move. “Tell me you don’t wish to marry me, if you don’t.” His voice was low and urgent. “Tell me truly if you haven’t any romantic feelings for me, and I will respect that, I promise. But do not – ever again – try to convince me that I don’t wish to marry you.”
Rose shook her head in wordless shock. Her lips tingled.
“Do you still doubt the strength of my feelings? You may ask my grandfather for confirmation if you don’t believe me,” Mr Aubrey said, shifting a polite inch backwards with what looked like true effort. “It is a known – and highly disparaged – truth within my family that I attach myself only very rarely, and only to particular people and topics. However, once my affections are given, they are inalterable. The few true friends I have will hold my loyalty forever; I will be fascinated with dragons for the rest of my life ... and I will be intoxicated by you for even longer, Rose Tregarth, whether you take me as your husband or not.”
If there was an exact opposite element to the cold, white fog that had surrounded Rose for so much of the last year, it was the heat of Mr Aubrey’s intent gaze upon her, and the answering flame in her chest that rose to meet it – a flame that dared her, despite everything, to break down her final barriers and match his openness and courage with her own.
Rose’s heartbeat pulsed in her ears as she tentatively reached out to cup her palm against his lean, warm cheek. He leaned into her touch with a low, wordless groan.
“I thought ...” She swallowed hard, gathering her scattered thoughts together. “I thought I couldn’t allow myself to indulge in impossible dreams any longer. I thought that ever really having you for myself was too much to even hope for.”
Mr Aubrey shook his head gently against her palm, his hot breath drifting against her cupped fingers. “That makes no logical sense. How could anything be too much for you to hope for? You’re the one person who’s finally convinced me to believe in magic.”
This time, Rose was the one who lunged forwards to kiss him ... but her very real fiancé was more than enthusiastic in his welcome. Even the creak of a nearby door, a few minutes later, was no more than a distant and uninteresting distraction – until it was followed by the triumphant thump of a walking stick.
Gasping, Rose jerked backwards as her aunt, who stood in the doorway behind a beaming Sir Toby, said, “There will be no more nonsense about dissolving this betrothal, I take it?”
“None,” Mr Aubrey confirmed, rather hoarsely. Shoving his spectacles back into place with one hand, he made a vain attempt to readjust his cravat with the other. His gaze clung to Rose for one long, warming moment before he rose to his feet and reached out a hand to help her up from the sofa.
