But now…now it was different. He knew she loved him. He loved her. So when he tasted her skin, he was tasting the future he so desperately wanted. When he parted her gown, it was parting the way that seemed so impossible.
He loved her and this meant so much more.
She pushed at her dress, managing to yank it down around her waist despite his weight on her, and he smiled. “Always in control,” he said on a chuckle that dissipated some of the tension in the room between them after her confessions.
“Never with you,” she promised as she kissed him again. He cupped one breast, flicking his thumb over the nipple, measuring the weight of her in his palm. She whispered his name against his mouth and he felt the tug of it like she had cupped his cock.
Need took over again, washing away everything else as he slid down her body and tasted her breasts, teasing her with his teeth and his tongue until she writhed beneath him, her cries echoing in the room around him like music. He pulled her dress lower, over her hips. She kicked the fabric away and spread her legs to give him a place to rest. He took it, pushing her wide as he trailed his tongue over her stomach, her hip and finally stroking her sex in one long lick.
She spasmed against him, already on the edge of release. He raced her toward it, sucking her clitoris over and over, fingering her gently and then rougher until she jolted against him and the flavor of her orgasm coated his tongue.
“Please,” she murmured, tugging at his jacket, pulling him toward her. “Please, please.”
He nodded as he cast the coat aside. As she tore at the cravat beneath. The shirt. He unfastened the placard on his trousers and she caught his hard cock, stroking him until his vision blurred and he couldn’t wait any longer.
He tugged her lower on the bed, rubbing his cock back and forth over her as she mewled in pleasure. And when he took it was a hard, long stroke that filled her slick body completely.
Tears streamed down her face as he claimed her. They merged in their kiss as she held him to her, her fingers tangled in his hair. She lifted to meet him, waves on that same ocean, and he lost himself in sensation. He lost himself in her as pleasure built. She came again at last, her sheath milking him hard with tremors, and he could hold back no longer.
He moved to pull away, but she gasped and cupped his backside, holding him tight as they locked eyes. He could have moved. Could have refused what she wanted. But he wanted it too. So he poured himself into her with a roar and then collapsed over her, sweat mingling as he kissed her and kissed her and kissed her.
Selina curled her fingers against Derrick’s chest, loving how his arms felt around her in the quiet of this sanctuary. Knowing she was selfish for wanting this night to never end. And for what she had encouraged him to do. He’d come inside of her. He might have created a life by doing so. That life could save her from the hangman’s noose and perhaps that’s why he’d done it.
Even if it didn’t, she still loved the idea that a child with his eyes and her smile might exist because of their love. The idea of him or her was beautiful enough to make the next few weeks bearable.
He had been combing his fingers through her hair for what felt like a lifetime, but now he stopped. The tension re-entered his body as he moved a little, forcing her to roll from his chest onto her side. He was frowning, not at her, but into nothingness.
“I don’t want to go,” he whispered.
“I know.” She ached for what she had to say next. “But it’s time. Vale will be back soon.”
“Be…careful of her, Selina.”
She frowned at his continued doubt. He wasn’t wrong in his assessment of the situation, of course. On paper, Vale looked to be a good suspect. But Selina couldn’t believe her partner, her friend, would turn on her. Their bond might be strained at present, but she believed it was powerful enough to withstand the troubles Selina had brought down on them.
“How will I give you my location in London?” she asked.
He got up, and she stretched as she watched that remarkable body move through the small room. Muscle and sinew, grace and command. Scars brought by war and life that told a story he rarely spoke about. She loved it all. She wanted to know all the details of it all.
He scribbled down a place to address her letters on a piece of paper on the table, then dressed, his gaze slipping to her. When he was finished, he sat on the edge of the bed and traced her face with his hand once more. “I’ll never stop looking for a way to fix this,” he promised.
Her heart stung. Fix what she’d broken. Fix what she’d done. “I don’t deserve that,” she whispered.
He didn’t answer, but leaned in and kissed her. Then he went to her door. One last look, a long one, and he said, “Goodbye, love.”
She couldn’t bring herself to say the same as he left her room. Goodbye felt final. She knew it might be, despite his hopes and promises. She knew how the world worked, perhaps even a little better than he did. It was a dream that she could be saved.
But it bought her time.
She rose slowly and dressed herself, though when she looked in the mirror, she appeared well loved. She could fix her hair, but didn’t. She wanted to leave it, to feel that feeling a little longer. To know it was his fingers that had run through her curls.
The door behind her opened and she pivoted with a gasp. But her fear subsided as Vale came into the room. Her friend had a slight scowl on her face as she looked around.
“You’re back early,” Selina said, happy Vale hadn’t come even a few moments sooner or else she would have walked in on quite a scene. “Was the music not good?”
“It was passable,” Vale said, folding her arms. “And how was your love?”
Selina froze, staring at her friend. “My love?”
“I know Derrick Huntington was here, Selina,” Vale said with an exasperated shake of her head. “I saw him. You ought to thank me for giving you the chance to talk. Or whatever you two are calling what you did.”
Selina bent her head. “He did come to me. Why should I lie?”
“Because that’s how we’re built,” Vale said with a sigh. “Women like us move through the world and protect ourselves with lies. We tell men what they want to get what they’ll give in return. To keep them from taking what we don’t want to provide. We lie, Selina. And when you stop lying, you don’t just endanger yourself. That man is a hunter, sent here to find you.”
“That man was hired to hunt me, yes,” Selina said. “But that’s not why he came. We love each other, Vale. Truly love each other.”
Vale frowned. “And where does that leave me?”
“I’m getting you to London, just as I promised,” Selina said. “You’ll disappear into the world, like you’ve wanted to do for so long. But I…I won’t. I can’t anymore. I have too much to protect. I’ll stay. And I’ll accept whatever punishment comes.”
“You idiot,” Vale murmured. And then she reached into her pocket and pulled out a tiny pistol, which she aimed at Selina’s heart.
Selina cried out, staggering back even though there was nowhere to go in the small room. “Vale,” she said. “What? Why?”
“I wasn’t going to do this until we got to London. But if you’re going to blow up our lives, I don’t see any reason to wait even a moment longer.”
Chapter 25
Derrick had let a room at the finer inn in the little village and he trudged through the main hall and up the stairs, barely marking his surroundings or the loud music thundering through the packed hall below. All he could think about was Selina, all he could do was make plan after plan about how to save her.
But he was a strategist, he always had been. And he feared that all those plans would play out with her in Newgate or transported or…or hanged. He could do nothing to stop it.
He tried to focus on breathing as he unlocked his chamber door and stepped inside. But before he could close himself in, perhaps even allow for a collapse before he shored up his strength, he heard a voice from the fireplace.
>
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to stop yourself.”
He spun on the voice and found Barber standing there, the Duke of Roseford at his side. Both men were watching Derrick closely, guarded in their expressions.
“Bloody hell,” Derrick grunted. “We’re supposed to meet tomorrow at the crossroads. And why is he here?”
Roseford arched a brow. “I am here because Selina is my sister. She’s in trouble and I need to help her. And we are here because neither of us is a fool, Mr. Huntington. It’s clear you’re in love with her. It’s written all over your face.”
Derrick’s shoulders rolled forward because he was just too tired to fight. “Yes,” he whispered.
“You’re compromised,” Barber said, more gently than Derrick deserved. “Just as you have been from the moment you first laid eyes on her. So yes, I did my due diligence on the other road, and then we circled back here because it made sense this would be her stopping point if she took this path. This would be where you found her.” Barber moved closer. “Did you find her, friend?”
“She didn’t steal Katherine’s bracelet,” Derrick said, an answer to a different question. The answer to the one asked, as well.
Roseford’s jaw set and twitched. “She said as much a few days ago.”
“And you didn’t believe her,” Derrick said. “You broke her heart.”
“She broke mine,” Roseford said, his fists clenching at his sides. “The moment that bracelet fell from her pocket, I…I knew what she would be condemned to.”
“To be fair, Huntington, she admitted to being the Faceless Fox. How can we believe that she didn’t steal from the duchess?” Barber said.
Derrick scrubbed a hand over his face. “Because she admitted to what she’d done. Taking something from her family, from Katherine, never made sense. She has a code. She’s always had a code and you know it, Barber. She steals from ladies of the ton who make other lives miserable. She exacts a strange…justice. And she says she’d never hurt you that way, or your wife, Roseford, so I believe her.”
Roseford watched him carefully for what felt like an eternity, then smiled slightly. “I think if you are going to so passionately defend my sister, you perhaps should start calling me Robert.”
Barber turned toward the duke. “So you believe him.”
“I do,” Robert said with a sigh. “I was so shocked when that bracelet fell from her pocket, I could only see what was in front of me. But over the past few days, I’ve come to doubt my initial reaction. And I think you have, too, Mr. Barber. I have marked your increasing discomfort with the subject of my sister as we rode.”
Barber straightened his jacket with a tug. “I know what awaits her in London, Your Grace. I can’t imagine the pain it will cause your family if she is tried and convicted as a criminal.”
Derrick and Robert exchanged a glance, sudden partners in fear and a desire to save Selina. He would take that partner.
“Let us set aside the fact that Miss Oliver is the Faceless Fox,” Barber said slowly. “She’s admitted that, it is not up for debate. But we can examine the attempt to steal Her Grace’s bracelet and frame Miss Oliver. If that is true, then someone is trying to harm her.”
“Yes,” Derrick said. “The person planted a glove in Lady Winford’s room first, the one Selina denied leaving there, and then this bracelet. We’d be fools not to believe it was the same person.”
Robert nodded. “I agree. Someone who knew her true identity.”
“Which would narrow the field considerably,” Barber said. “At least at first glance.”
“Her companion,” Robert said softly.
“That is what I tend to believe, as well,” Derrick said. “But she doesn’t want to think ill of her friend, a woman she’s trusted for many years. Still, the means is there. The knowledge of Selina’s true identity.”
“And the simplest answer is often the truth,” Barber said. “But what would be the motive?”
“She’s benefitted from Selina’s actions if she’s been with her a while,” Derrick said. “If she felt her changing, pulling away from that old life, she might feel threatened.”
“Yes,” Robert said. “When our brother Morgan married last year, I sensed a change in Selina. But it…it might be more than that.” He paced the room. “Selina has independent control over a portion of her inheritance. The bulk of it pays for her home and its upkeep. But there’s a not insignificant fund that sits mostly untouched. She recently asked my solicitor to change who would inherit if she passed.”
“Who?” Derrick asked. “Who would get those funds?”
Robert shook his head. “Vale Williams.”
Derrick nearly buckled as motive slapped him in the face. Not just for framing Selina, but for far worse.
“So she might be angry that Selina is pondering her future without the Faceless Fox,” Barber said. “And knowing she would inherit if Selina were out of the way, she destroys her in the eyes of her family, her protection. Which isolates her. And would give Miss Williams every opportunity to—”
Barber cut himself off, but Derrick had already started for the door. “We have to go back. We have to find Selina and make sure that if Vale is our culprit, she won’t do anything before we can stop her.”
He was out the door, Robert and Barber at his heels, but as he raced down the hall, he had the worst feeling. That he was going to be too late. And then nothing else would matter.
Selina’s feet hurt as she staggered through the brush in the darkness of the night. Vale hadn’t allowed her to put on shoes. Of course, that was a method to control her, to keep her from being able to easily mount an escape.
Not that the gun in her back didn’t do the same.
“Why are you doing this?” Selina said. “I’ll protect you, Vale. I’ve always protected you.”
“Always used me,” Vale corrected, nudging her forward without regard for her physical wellbeing. “The Faceless Fox was all for you, Selina. I was just a cog in the machine.”
“You are…were my friend. My partner. We helped each other. And I shared the wealth, didn’t I?”
“When you harvested it. But you were always so much more worried about your damned code of honor. Picking and choosing your marks, as if every person in the Upper Ten Thousand didn’t deserve to be maimed. You ignored prizes worth ten times the ones you chose and you patted yourself on the back for doing the ‘right’ thing. I knew you’d go soft eventually. I saw it happening last year, and I knew I had to act.”
Selina tripped over a rock, pain jolting up her body from where she’d stubbed her toe. Vale shoved her forward, ignoring her staggering and swearing as she pushed them forward, through the darkness.
“What do you mean, last year?” Selina asked, trying to keep her former friend talking both to uncover her motives and to develop some kind of response.
“When Morgan went with Roseford,” Vale said, rolling her eyes. “Waste of a handsome man that he married some spoiled toff’s sister. But you were…jealous. I saw how jealous you were that he’d gotten dear Robert’s favor.”
“I wasn’t jealous!” Selina cried. “I knew he needed help and I was happy Robert could offer it. I’m pleased for Morgan. He loves his wife.”
Vale shrugged. “Love is for children. Fools. It makes you weak. And that’s what you were becoming: weak. You slowed your schemes, you started spending more family time with Gillingham, and when Roseford came back to Town, with those titled ninnies, I saw you were going to break. You were going too respectable. The entire house of cards was coming down so I had to control it.”
“How?” Selina asked, stunned by her words.
“Little trails I left, the ones that led to you.”
“The glove,” Selina whispered.
“Yes, that damned glove. Meant to make the investigators suspect you. Your family, too. But that was a last step. How do you think Huntington and Barber knew you would be hunting at your brother’s estate?”
Selina
gasped. “You?”
“I gave information. I didn’t expect them to be so good at their jobs, though. I figured them for fools and I underestimated you would be so soft as to fall in love with one of them.” Vale rolled her eyes. “But I did what we always do. I adjusted my timeline. Decided to finish it now rather than a month from now.”
Selina could hardly breathe from the shock that was hitting her in waves. Trust had always been a hard-won thing for her. Her past ensured it. And Vale had been the first person she allowed into that circle closest to her heart. To know it had all been a manipulation, that she had been too blinded to see the truth beneath her nose, it was shattering.
“You look sick,” Vale taunted. “Worried. But you needn’t be, my dear. I took care of myself.”
“Took care of yourself?” Selina repeated. “What do you mean?”
Vale pulled her through a glade and into an open grassy area. The clouds blew away from the moon and the light revealed a tall tower in the middle. It rose ominously, at least twenty feet up.
“This was built in remembrance for local boys lost in the Seven Years’ War,” Vale explained. “When I heard it was here, so close, I thought it was apropos because you and I have known each other…”
“Seven years,” Selina whispered, and her heart began to throb. Why hadn’t she listened to Derrick’s concerns about Vale? Why hadn’t she allowed her own a voice? Why had she let the code she held herself up to be one she assumed others followed?
It would be the death of her. She could see that now.
“How did you take care of yourself?” she asked again, hating that her voice broke. Hating that her fear was obvious.
“They used to light the lantern at the top of this tower every year for those who were lost in the war. And then it was just every ten. Now it’s crumbling. Everyone forgets those who are sacrificed to be useful. That’s why we little people have to take what’s ours.” Vale smiled as she shoved Selina closer to the tower. “I’ve gotten quite good at mimicking your handwriting over the past few months. Enough so that your brother’s solicitor believed it was you who asked for a change to your line of inheritance. You who signed the addendum so I would inherit.”
The Heart of a Hellion Page 23