“No.”
In his tone, she heard a wealth of satisfaction.
Ester smiled, admiration rushing through her for this man. “Then you have done your duty and more.”
A quick frown chased his features, but he made no reply. Her unchecked curiosity rolled through her. “Do you have a lover, Edmond? Someone you delight in?”
A curse slipped from him. “What do you know about it?”
She laughed, the sound light and airy, mocking the severity of his scowl. “Does it bother you I might have intimate knowledge?”
“Aye,” he growled. “It is damned nonsensical, but it is still there.”
“My knowledge was gleaned from overhearing my brothers speak,” she said with a candid smile.
An odd shadow touched his eyes, and he looked away from her. “I have no one.”
Ester’s heart squeezed. “Do you ever get lonely?”
“I have companionship when I need it. What is there to be lonely about?”
But not a lover. Yet his fingers tightened even more on her ankles. Ester lay back and stared up at the sky. His heat drifted closer, and to her surprise, he reposed beside her, their shoulders almost touching.
“Are you ready to return home?”
“No. I enjoy new experiences, and I am basking in this one as I am unlikely to ever have another night such as this. Who will believe when I tell them the man called theprince of sinmassaged the ache from my feet? Not even Emma will believe it, and she thinks ghosts are real.”
“I have work to do,” he said drily.
She briefly closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath. “Then go. I do not ask you to stay. I am quite content to remain here and watch the stars alone.”
Edmond did not move, and flutters went off low in her belly along with that secret thrill inside her heart. Ester had to work hard to not laugh her delight aloud and ruffle his composure.
“I have never walked with a lady under the moonlight before,” he murmured.
Ester smiled. “I have only once sneaked inside a gambling den before, and I have never lain outside in a garden on the grass staring at the night sky with a man reputed to be a scoundrel of the first order.”
“The newssheets exaggerated my reputation.”
She made a noncommittal sound in her throat, and he chuckled.
“I might never see you again after tonight, Edmond.”
“I’ll not be abroad forever. I’ll return one day.”
“Perhaps by then, I’ll be touring Italy or Asia or married to a gentleman who would be a fool to allow a friendship.”
A choking sound came from him, and his shoulders shook ever so slightly. “I sense the rakess inside is stretching.”
“Ah…how pleased you sound, Edmond.”
“I cannot help feeling I am about to discover something quite extraordinary, so I am more curious.”
She pressed her hand to her belly as nerves and a shimmering excitement twisted through her. “As to how wicked I can get?”
“No…as to how wicked you plan to be.”
The silence that fell between them felt perilous. Suddenly the air no longer felt light with their bantering but thick and hot.