Chapter Three
Six Years Ago
It was her debut season. She should be thrilled to be out.
She should be thrilled at the attention some men were paying to her.
Asking her to dance, asking to get her a lemonade (though she preferred sherry), asking her name, and sometimes, if she were lucky, sometimes they even asked about her hobbies or interests.
Well, that had happened one time, and it might have just been a segue into him wanting to share his interest in studying spiders.
Fair enough, everyone should have a hobby they loved, but when he mentioned that he could show her his findings, well, at that point, the dance was over before it really began, wasn’t it?
And there was that other gentleman, the one who had asked her about paintings.
And art, well, that sounded like a lovely topic to discuss.
How delightful. Though she didn’t know much more than the average lady on painting, colors, and various techniques, she still welcomed the topic.
But then he had asked (a little too eagerly) whether she had seen the private collection the host had in residence.
He seemed a little too keen on implying the forbidden nature of the collection.
So of course that dance would never be turning into a second one…
not on this night or any other in the future.
The ballrooms should still captivate her, enthrall her though.
There were other men. Plenty of men not interested in spiders or scandalous paintings, surely she could find one.
Just one. That’s all it took. But the men, the glitter, the shimmering candles, the intoxicating fragrance from the abundance of flowers…
it was all a bit…cloying. She should be enjoying it, but there were so many shoulds that Nobi wanted to escape them for a bit.
She could pretend to be a proper lady all the time…or…she could just go be by herself and regroup before putting on a face again.
She didn’t even mind putting on a face all that much. There was a reason for it. It made for seamless conversations, effortless introductions, and graceful dancing. And those were all worthwhile endeavors in high society. She liked them…she really did. But they were all falling a bit flat.
A quick step out into the gardens, under the darkness of night, with a breath of fresh air, and she would be as good as new.
Nobi picked up her hem and raced down the steps, casting a glance around, she ducked down further into the garden where there were fewer and fewer candles lighting the path.
With a deep inhale she rested her back against the trunk of a tree and dropped her head back to gaze out from under the branches at the night sky. The stars twinkled a wave from their distance. She blinked a wave back and closed her eyes.
Her chest relaxed as her hands rubbed mindlessly against a soft patch of fabric on her skirts.
This was what she needed. Just a moment to breathe.
CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRUNCH.
Leaves underfoot, their existence crumbling at a sharp pace, and her eyes flickered open. Heavy breaths. Manly breaths. How did she know that? She didn’t know how she knew, she just did. She could feel it in her bones.
Nobi’s fingers curled against her skirts and she transferred the weight of her body from her heels to her toes.
There was a man ducking under her tree. Yes, it was her tree now.
Couldn’t he see that? Oh…perhaps he couldn’t see her at all.
Dash it! That had been the point in hiding outside, but really, now, she was in for it.
She knew what it meant to be found alone with a man.
Scandal. And if not scandal, it could be dangerous.
She didn’t know the man…but she had been told that men took things from women they shouldn’t.
Though she wasn’t quite certain of all the details, enough of the fear of God had been instilled within her that her blood was running quite cold at the moment. The man was breathing heavily, as if he had been running away from something. She could obviously offer him no protection.
Perhaps if she stood perfectly still, he would just move along. Be the tree. He can’t see you. He was just on the other side of the tree trunk, if only he would just stay there.
But of course he didn’t. The second he fumbled around the truck, he bumped into her.
“Yipes!” Quite the unmanly sound escaped from his broad silhouette.
And the sound so shocked her that she didn’t have the wherewithal to be afraid; instead, she giggled.
“Oh, a man’s suffering is your pleasure, is it?” the voice asked archly.
In a low voice, so as not to disturb the stillness of the night, she answered, “Not usually. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard a man utter such a word in such a fashion.” The last few words stuttered out on a second giggle.
“You find this all quite amusing then? My manliness in shreds?” She couldn’t see his eyes in the shadows, but somehow she could just imagine them twinkling like the stars above.
“It’s rather funny, I must admit.”
“I’m glad you think so—” and in a trice his hand was over her mouth, and his body had stepped closer. Her mind whirled and thoughts shook like the leaves in the tree. In a windstorm. Had she read him all wrong? What was he doing? Why was he so close to—
“Sh…” his breath was warm on her neck. In fact, his body was warm all over her. “There’s a woman after me.”
Unable to express herself, she raised her eyebrows, hoping he would notice.
“She’s relentless in trying to trap me into marriage.” He leaned his forehead against hers, intimately. Yet…comfortingly. Well, more so for him. It seemed almost as though he were trying to draw comfort from her…
She must have wiggled because he pulled back. “Don’t move. I don’t want her to find me. Or us for that matter.” And then he stepped back another half step, and perhaps having realized the fright he might have caused her, he removed his hand. “God, I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking—”
“Duke?” A female voice singsonged a whisper into the air.
And Nobi’s heart wrenched within her. She knew about obligations and expectations. No one should be forced into anything. If the man didn’t want to marry the relentless husband-hunter out there in the dark, he shouldn’t have to. What kind of woman trapped a man into marriage anyway?
She couldn’t offer this man protection, yet, in a way she could. There wasn’t a moment to lose. She had no time to reconsider her decision. Besides, the words just plopped out without her consent.
“Pretend you’re with me,” she whispered. And her hands. Damn those normally subservient hands. They reached out and grabbed his jacket pulling him closer.
“If you want my protection, pretend you’re with me.” She said it again. At his bewilderment, she loosened her grip. The moment was gone. Shattered. His twinkling eyes, the warmth of his body, she had been caught up in them for God knows what reason, and she had acted the ultimate addle-pated idiot.
But then one of his hands covered hers, and one flew to the tree trunk. And his face was inches—no, just one single inch—from hers. And his eyes were amused. Intense. Cautious. As though he were trying to decipher the meaning of a joke.
“All right. But I’ll be the gentleman. You needn’t fear me.
I won’t touch you, and I won’t let her see you.
” He pressed even closer to her, and she could tell that he was trying to hide her face but not her skirts.
Protect her. “If she thinks I’m out here with another woman, she’ll run back inside. ”
With the thickness of her tongue, and the dryness of her throat, Nobi could only nod.
When his lips grazed her ear, saying, “I think she’s almost here. She’ll see me soon enough,” she gasped. Loudly. And it was one of those gasps that hummed into the air.
And her gasp must have pulled the trigger on the relentless woman, because the husband-hunter too gasped. And her stomps could be heard all the way back to the ballroom.
“That was perfect,” the man mumbled into her ear.
He was still pressed up against her, despite the woman’s hightailing it out of the darkness.
“Was it?” Nobi asked, unsure of what her next move should be.
“It was. And there’s no way she would be able to identify you. Not with the shadows we’re in. You saved me.” Her hands were splayed out against his chest (when had that happened?), and she felt a soft laugh rumble out of him when he kissed her temple. “I owe you…my life.”
Ah…yes. Her first kiss. Sealed with a promise. Her insides had turned gooey. Her toes were curling, seeking to dig tunnels in the ground beneath her slippers.
This man, this nameless man, was handsome. Playful. Honorable. And he wanted to live life on his own terms, not at the demands of someone else. He was…perfect.
She sighed.
He stepped back. “God, I’m sorry. I keep crowding you. I came out here to escape the crowd for a moment, and here I am…doing…what?” He rubbed his fingers along his jaw, which she could make out had just the slightest amount of stubble on it. “What are we doing here, Lady…?”
“Lady Zenobia. Or just, Nobi.”
“Nobi.” Her name sounded how velvet felt, soft, warm, and like she wanted to rub herself all over the way he spoke. That made no sense.
Dash it! What was she thinking? She needed to get ahold of herself.
“I’m Chris.” He cleared his throat, and mumbled, “Duke of Saxby, one-day-to-be. I guess you should know. No use hiding it.”
“Oh. So that’s why she was after you?”
“Now wait a second. Are you saying she was only after my dukedom?”
Dash it! She needed to retract her statement. Or was it an assumption? “Oh dear. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insult—”
His laughter rippled through her ramblings.
“I’m joking. Of course that’s all she was after. What she knows about me amounts to a grand total of two things. She can match my title to my face.”
“I’m glad I didn’t offend you.”
“It’s hard to offend me.”
“That’s…good to know.” And somehow she felt like she had been given a small peek into his inner workings. Already, she knew more about him than the husband-hunter. She knew his title, his face, and that he was not easily offended. Hmm…that did make her wonder…
“What would it take to offend you?”
Chris rubbed his jaw again. “Not sure I should give a woman that kind of ammunition.”
“I’m not just any woman—”
“You know, before you finish that thought. I already regret saying it.” He shook his head. “To evince you of my contrition, I’ll tell you two things that would offend me. One, if you called into question my honor. And two, if you insulted my family.”
And wonder of wonders, warmth spread through her body again. And he hadn’t stepped any closer to her. Just learning his depths produced a melting effect within her.
“I would never…”
“I didn’t think you would.”
“How would you know? You don’t know me,” she said lightly.
“You know,”—he rubbed his jaw for a third time—“it’s true, I don’t really know you at all. Yet, I feel like I might.”
“How’s that?” Her curiosity was piqued now. How could a man feel as though he knew a woman in only an instant?
“You’re loyal. Protective. Compassionate. Caring. Considering what you just did for me. I’d say there’s not much you wouldn’t do for your family or those closest to you.” All true. She supposed it was possible for a man to read a woman in an instant. Not fully, of course, but at least accurately.
He wasn’t done. “I’d say more, but as a gentleman, I really shouldn’t.”
But those things he didn’t want to say…for some reason, the sizzling sensation within her told her that those were the things she really wanted to hear.
“What shouldn’t you say?”
And then he turned those twinkling eyes on her, but instead of the shimmering light, she saw the black of night. An intensity. A depth. A vastness she couldn’t fathom in only one glance.
“Let’s just say,” and his voice dropped into a husky rasp, “you’re as beautiful on the outside as you are on the inside.”
A bullet zinged straight to her heart. And her heart was leaking something it shouldn’t.
Because, well, a heart shouldn’t leak at all.
But she couldn’t stop it. She was feeling all kinds of things for a man she didn’t know.
This way led to danger. But it didn’t feel dangerous.
It felt safe. It felt like he would never be the type of man to hurt her.
That he would put her needs above his own.
It felt as though given the choice between her wellbeing and his own, he would sacrifice himself for her.
But how could she read that about him in such a few short moments?
It was madness to feel such a connection with him so quickly.
As though she knew him. Not even that. It was more that she had always known him but didn’t know where he was.
She had been searching and now she had found him. How…odd.
And even odder, at the point of finding each other, it felt like they were mutually, instinctively agreed upon protecting each other. What the dickens was that about? It couldn’t be real, could it?