Chapter 16 #2
At least I’ve eaten, and I won’t have Nicholas hounding me as if he is my nursemaid.
She’d set the children up there to look out onto the street, and they’d since fallen asleep, sunshine casting a warm glow over their faces. With a tentative hand, she reached out to brush a strand of Olivia’s hair away from her cute face, and she let her finger trail along Tim’s tiny knuckles.
Such precious things. I cannot trust them to just anyone. Helen, what would you have done? Who would you have chosen?
It had been days since she’d begun interviewing, and she was certainly spoiled for choice. She’d seen at least ten different candidates, but none of them drew her in; none of them made her feel as though she was doing the right thing for her godchildren. How could she possibly choose?
Staring down at them, Cordelia gasped in shock when she felt a warm hand at her waist and a large, looming presence behind her.
Nicholas.
She turned around, practically in his arms, and he was already smiling at her.
His smell filled her senses, and the usual warmth spread in her belly and over her skin.
It felt good to be in his arms but dangerous too.
Swallowing, she stepped back, and he removed his hands, and she was almost disappointed at the loss of his warmth.
But why? You’ve been keeping him at a sort of distance since that night.
It was true. It had been over a week since their night together, and Cordelia had been so undone by it that she hadn’t known what to do.
What were they to each other? To consider one another mere guardians in an arranged marriage was far safer than to think them more than that or to let unbridled pleasure guide her actions. She was not Danae, after all.
He frowned at her. “Have you eaten, love?”
“Yes,” she said in an annoyed tone, frustrated at the smile that came to her lips.
While it was infuriating to be so hovered over, she couldn’t help but feel just a little bit special in his eyes, that he would take so much care.
“Good. Now, what is it?” He bent down a little, his blue gaze boring into her eyes. “You will not choose this one either, will you?”
She sighed. “Lower your voice! And I don’t know. There have been too many now, I think. I can’t keep them straight.”
“That can’t be it.” He folded his arms across his chest, and she looked down, having quickly caught a glance at the fabric of his shirt stretching a little tighter across his muscular chest.
I wonder what he would look like underneath everything.
Her mouth went dry at the thought, and when Nicholas prompted her again, she blushed, realizing she’d allowed thoughts of him to fill her daydreams yet again.
“I just –”
Olivia made a little snorting noise, and they both turned quickly, hesitating as they waited for Olivia to wake. But she did not, and they both breathed out.
“I love these children dearly, but they have been running rather wild this morning, and I feel spent,” she told him.
“Yes, they have. I could hear them from my study.” He spoke not looking at her but at the children. “I’ll help you get them to bed. Best they sleep upstairs than here in a busier space.”
He brushed past her, and she watched as he gently lifted Tim into his arms, Tim making slight muffled noises but not waking. Cordelia felt the warmth spread again inside her as well as the usual tug of desire as she watched his kind face look down at his godson.
Nicholas looks so…different than he used to.
She couldn’t put a finger on it exactly, but there seemed to be layer upon layer of Nicholas, the Duke of Meinster, and he was slowly peeling each piece back the longer they spent together.
“Are you coming?” he whispered, and she nodded, moving quickly and quietly to pick Olivia up. Slowly, they moved out of the room and toward the stairs.
“So, are you going to tell me why you’re not choosing a nanny?”
“Really? Right now? On the stairs while we try to keep the children asleep?”
He chuckled softly, and she winced as Tim shuffled slightly in his arms. “Yes, right now. We are practicing how to speak when children are asleep. I think it a practical skill.”
She rolled her eyes from behind him as she followed him up the steps. “I don’t know, I am just so worried that I’ll make the wrong choice. They are not my children, but they’ve been put in my care, and I want to do the right thing. I feel uncomfortable with someone else handling them, I suppose.”
Nicholas made a hmphing noise in his throat but did not say anything until they laid the children down in their beds in the nursery.
They stood in the doorway for a moment watching them.
When one of them stirred again, Nicholas hurriedly shut the door, and they both waited outside with bated breath.
When they eventually heard nothing, Nicholas grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the door and down the hallway.
“I understand your hesitancy, but you don’t want to miss out on a good candidate because of this. And you have other responsibilities; we both do. A nanny will help to relieve us.”
“I know.” They had reached the end of the hallway and were about to descend the stairs but had paused, Nicholas on the step below and her at the top.
They were now face-to-face, and Cordelia looked down in surprise that he’d placed her hand on his chest. She’d hardly noticed it, but when she did, she lingered only a moment, feeling his muscles tighten underneath her hand.
Then, she pulled it away and put both of her hands behind her back, fearful that she’d embrace him and kiss him senseless, when she still had so many new feelings to sort out in her mind.
She could hardly put one foot in front of the other, and she had to focus on the children, not herself.
He smirked at her reaction but said nothing about it. “Listen. I’ve arranged for the maids to take care of the children for the rest of the day. You are going to have a break and go out. With me.”
She blinked at him, and a rush of pleasure flooded her. “With you?”
“Yes. You need a bit more society in your life.”
Her gaze narrowed, and she put her hands on her hips. “You are not only my nursemaid but now you are also my social coordinator?”
“Well, yes.” He grinned, and she laughed. “We have been invited to a ball at the Earl of Wynnward’s estate, and we are going.”
“Why should you care about my social life? It is a white marriage after all. It was just done for the sake of the children.”
These words felt like a dead and truly beaten horse, but they were the only thing keeping her grounded at the moment, or else she might float away in girlish delight.
He took her hand again, and this time, his thumb brushed against the back of it before he drew it to his lips.
“Because, love, I bought you a new gown, and I want to see you in it.” When her cheeks had fully flushed, he added, “I’d be happy to assist helping you into it, if you’d like.”
“I have maids for such a purpose,” she breathed, her mind going dazed again.
“Too bad.” His voice was low, and it only made her desire worse. “Well, enjoy it.” He kissed her hand again and then turned away, leaving Cordelia almost bereft at the top of the steps, wondering why his sudden departure made that ache fill her again.
Back in her room, her smile was wide as she saw the most beautiful gown she’d ever seen laid out on her bed.
She was right then willing to believe Nicholas a truly honorable man through and through, until she spied the four new nightgowns he’d ordered as well, all silken, all low, and all nearly transparent.
She chuckled. “A rake he will remain then.”