“What are you doing out here?”There was a hint of suspicion this time when he asked again.
She swallowed.She could say she was looking for her siblings.That she wanted to check on the babe.But the truth won out.“I was looking for you.”
He didn’t make a noise, but she felt a new tension in him.His body seemed to hum with it.He caught her hand and tugged, pulling her into a room down the hall where candles blazed.
His study.
His eyes burned brighter than the fire that crackled in the fireplace.“Why were you looking for me?”
His dark eyes roamed over her face, her loose hair, down her frock…
His gaze was searching.
“I-I wanted to thank you,” she said.
Wrong answer.His gaze grew shuttered so quickly it gave her a chill, and his hand dropped from her arm.“No need to thank me.You are in my employ which makes you mine to protect.”
She nodded, wrapping her arms around herself as if that could bring back the warmth that had suddenly vanished.
Silence descended, and she risked a glance, eagerly taking him in because…
Because what if she never saw him again?
There was a distinct chance after everything that had happened.After all she’d done.
Surely he wouldn’t want her as a maid any longer now that he’d seen her whore herself.He had rules about that sort of thing, and everyone knew it.
So even though she was nervous, and maybe even a little afraid of his intimidating presence, she drank him in so she would never forget.That blunt nose, the square jaw, the fearsome furrow of his brow that made his already dark eyes seem that much darker.
He wasn’t as broad or tall as Beast, but he was more frightening in his own way.It was his confidence and the power that seemed to seep from him like sweat.
He had the air of a man who could have you killed or spared with the wave of a hand.
Finally, he arched a brow, his eyes glinting with wry amusement.“Was there something else?”
She shook her head, but she made no move to leave.Her feet felt stuck, her body of one mind while her mind told her to move.
But she didn’t want to leave.
“We’ll be gone by morning,” she whispered.“And I…” She took a step toward him.
His eyes narrowed slightly, almost as if he were wary.“You what?”
“I’m sorry.”Foolish tears welled before she could stop them.She blinked rapidly but that only seemed to make her lower lip quiver.“I shouldn’t have…I didn’t know what else to do.”
“A desperate mother will do anything for her child,” he said, his voice little more than a growl.A muscle ticked in his jaw.He didn’t sound angry, but he seemed to be growing more tense with every second that passed.
Belatedly his words registered.A desperate…mother.
She blinked, her lips parting.Of course.Of course he thought that Leo was hers.It was the logical conclusion, she supposed.She ought to correct him, but her tongue felt heavy and her mind began to whir in every different direction.
“Are the twins yours as well?”And then he shocked her by reaching out, brushing a calloused thumb over her cheek to swipe away a tear that had escaped.
Her heart went wild from that simple touch.
Simple, light…but filled with more affection than she’d ever known.
She felt dizzy with it and only just managed a shake of her head.“My brother and sister.”