He tried to smile but feared it fell flat. “And what about you, darling? What do you want?”
She met his gaze for a long moment, and all the heat and passion between them flared hot and bright once again. “I don’t know. But I still want to go with you for the next few days. I want to be with you until you find the ones who did this to us.”
For the first time all day, the aching pit in the bottom of his stomach quit hurting. “Good,” he murmured. “I’m glad to hear it.”
Before they could say anything else, Allison beckoned Heather impatiently from across the room, where she stood with gorgeous dark-haired Vanessa Strathmore, who had been a famous actress until she married the reclusive Adrian Strathmore.
“Looks like you’re needed elsewhere,” he told her softly. “But I’ll have a servant pack your things and we’ll leave when the party is over?”
She nodded. “That sounds wonderful.”
Chapter Fifteen
Two hours later, Heatherstood shivering in the front entryway of Drake’s home in Belgravia. As she allowed his butler to take her coat, she glanced around the dim foyer, wondering how many other women had entered into a sexual relationship with this handsome-as-sin aristocrat. And how many of them had he turned back out onto the streets when he tired of them?
She shook the thought away and tried to smile when he led her toward the stairs.
“I have half a dozen constables guarding the outside of the house,” he told her. “We’ll be safe here.”
“I trust you,” she assured him.
The person she didn’t trust was herself. Who was this person she’d become? Her life had changed entirely tonight. Allison was now offering her the family she’d always craved. She couldn’t believe that she’d left her sister on the night that she’d finally accepted her as an equal, just to run away with a man.
Not just any man, though. She sighed as he strode up the stairs in front of her, his body straight and strong. Soon, all her lies would come toppling down on her head. Was it so wrong to want just a few more nights of heaven before all of this was lost to her? Before this beautiful man started looking at her with disgust instead of soft longing?
Even Allison might turn her back on Heather when she found out she’d been part of the Citizens Committee, that she’d been part of that bombing, part of Drake’s kidnapping...
Squaring her shoulders, she decided not to worry about any of that right now. She’d made love to Drake twice now, but neither time had been in a real bed nor had they been able to relax and take their time. She wanted tonight to be perfect.
One last wonderful memory to take with her to prison...
She shivered again as they reached the top of the stairs, and Drake turned to her with a gentle smile. “I’ve had a room prepared for you, if that’s what you want. I know that the last few days have been difficult, and I would never presume that you want to stay in my room tonight. I just wanted you here with me.”
“Oh, Drake.” His consideration chased the last of her doubts away. She threw her arms around him and lifted on her tiptoes to press a swift kiss to his lips. “I want to stay with you. I want to fall asleep in your arms. There’s nothing I want more.”
A beautiful smile lit his face and then he kissed her again, hard and passionate this time, tasting of whisky and the promise of what was to come. “Come with me,” he said at last, taking her hand and tugging her down the hall to a door on the right.