Toby sighed, the sound soft in the night. “Heinrik is the very last agent I wanted to see. He and I… We have quite a history. A colorful, eventful gamesmanship-type rivalry.” He paused, then went on, “All else aside, that means that in any situation, we each understand how the other is likely to react.”
His lips twisted, and he shifted his shoulders against the door. “That it’s Heinrik who has caught up to us isn’t that much of a surprise. If anyone was going to, it would be him.”
“But you thought he was in Russia.”
“The last I heard, just as I set out for Vienna, he was. He must have been recalled urgently to reach Vienna so close behind me.”
She digested that. “So his masters wanted him in particular.” She arched a brow. “That confirms he’s good at what he does.”
“He is, but in general, I’m better.”
“Hmm. I believe that’s your gamesmanship talking, and we shouldn’t forget that pride goeth before a fall.”
He nodded. “And that’s why I plan on being out here over the next hours.”
She frowned. “I thought you said Heinrik—the Austrians—weren’t dangerous.”
“No,” Toby replied. “I said they don’t generally resort to violence, but I wouldn’t like to wager, now he knows about the children, even without knowing whose they are, that Heinrik won’t try to hold one of the boys or Evelyn hostage in order to force me to hand over the dispatches.”
She stared at him for a long moment, then said, “The children are your Achilles’ heel. The chink in your armor.”
And not just the children.
He searched her eyes, trying through the dimness to find some clue to what she was thinking and not getting far. “Yes, but strange to say, and I’ll admit this is somewhat to my own surprise, I don’t regret agreeing to bring them with us. The idea of them being stranded in Vienna after Fellows passes is… not something I would wish on any child. Certainly, leaving them there to face what was coming wasn’t, to my mind, an option. Presumably, the embassy would have taken them in, but even so, with you having to leave with me, they wouldn’t have had anyone they trust with them to ease their way. Not even Helga would have been able to stay with them.”
Diana’s eyes had adjusted to the night, allowing her to study his expression. She’d thought he’d agreed primarily because taking the children had been the only way she would agree to leave, but it appeared that she’d done him a disservice. He’d thought of the children, had understood their impending plight, and had acted to save them from it.
Protector. Savior. Yes, that was him.
And that was why he needed to stand guard through the night.
She inclined her head. “Very well. If you’re determined to stay awake, I’ll try to sleep. One of us needs to be awake and functioning in the morning. But if there’s anything I can help with, wake me. I used to nurse my father’s patients. I sleep very lightly, and I’m accustomed to managing with very little and often broken rest.”
His smile was surprisingly sweet. “Thank you,” he murmured. And, it seemed, beyond his control, his gaze lowered and settled on her lips.
Attraction flared, hotter, more powerful, more insistent than before.
Her breathing seized. She stared at his face, at his lips, and an impossible-to-deny yearning rose through her.
She swayed closer, a wordless invitation.
His gaze flickered over her face. A heartbeat passed, then he bent his head. Slowly, inch by inch lowering his lips toward hers, he gave her all the time in the world to spin on her heels and run.
She wasn’t going to run.
Boldly, she reached up with both hands, cupped his cheeks, and drew his lips to hers.
A huff of surprise washed over her lips, then his lips met hers, found their fit, and settled.
It wasn’t her kissing him or him kissing her.Theykissed, equally curious, equally fascinated.
Equally wanting to know.
From the first, the sweet, gentle exploration was a shared endeavor, a shared quest, just as this journey was.
For countless minutes, they—their lips—communed in the dark, brushing, pressing, seeking, learning.
Promise, clear and definite, swelled and grew. There for the taking.
