Page 55 of Bad Luck Bride (Scandal at the Savoy #3)

He rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling.

He hated to leave her now, just when he felt as if their future together had a chance.

She hadn’t said she loved him, and that hurt, he had to admit.

He’d wondered in that moment if she’d ever fall back in love with him the way he had with her.

But he had shut that pessimistic fear down at once, refusing to indulge it, reminding himself that all he could do was hope that, given time and a patient, gradual courtship, she’d come to feel as he did. But now, there was no time.

He gave a groan and rolled onto his stomach, burying his face in his folded arms. Was Fate ever going to give them a chance? he wondered in despair.

The soft tap on the sitting room door lifted his head. Kay , he thought, and though he knew it was more likely to be additional news from Cairo, his heart gave a leap of joy and he was out of bed like a shot.

He’d only taken three steps, however, before he remembered he didn’t have any clothes on. Cursing, he stepped back, and grabbed a dressing robe, sliding into it and tying the sash as he crossed to the sitting room door and opened it.

His first guess had been right, for it was indeed Kay who was standing in the corridor, her glorious hair loose around her shoulders, a lamp in her hand. She was also, he noted, looking down, wearing nothing but a nightgown and robe.

He didn’t know if he was ecstatic or dismayed, but he did know one thing.

“God, woman,” he muttered, hauling her inside before some other hotel guest decided to use the corridor bathroom in the middle of the night, came out of their room, and saw her hovering at his door in a state of undress.

“This is becoming quite a habit with you,” he added as he shut the door behind her. “What are you doing here at this hour?”

She set the lamp on the table beside the door. “Is there any news?”

He stared, nonplussed. “You came to my room at this hour to ask me that?”

“Yes.” She paused, touching her tongue to her lips as if they were dry, making his desire for her, the desire he’d been desperately banking all day, flicker to dangerous life. “Among other things.”

He met her eyes, resolving he would not look at her luscious mouth again, or anything below it either. “The fire’s out,” he said, keeping his gaze firmly locked with hers. “No one died.”

“That’s good. When… when do you go?”

“I’m not leaving until noon tomorrow, so we’ll have plenty of time to see each other in the morning and say goodbye. Now,” he added, taking her by the elbow and reaching for the doorknob, “if that’s all…”

She put her hands behind her, covering the doorknob before he could get to it. “It’s not all.”

He sighed, his arms dropping to his sides. “Of course it’s not,” he muttered.

“I’m really here because you’re leaving, and we don’t know when you’ll be back—”

“But I will be back, Kay. I promise you. Just don’t go getting engaged to someone else in the meantime, if you please.”

She laughed, but it was a decidedly nervous laugh. And so it should be, he thought sardonically, since they were both standing here in his hotel room at midnight. Nearly naked.

And with that reminder, Devlin felt his desire flare into hot, blazing lust, and he knew he had to get her out of here, now.

“Kay, for God’s sake, if you don’t leave this instant, I swear I’ll come undone.”

“You will?” Her smile widened. “I think I’d like to see that.”

“No,” he denied, growing downright desperate. “No, you wouldn’t.”

“But I would,” she whispered, letting go of the doorknob and stepping forward to close the distance between them. “That’s why I came. I decided that before you go, we needed to finish what we started.”

Trying to steady himself, he took a deep breath, but he inhaled the luscious gardenia scent of her hair, and his fortitude slipped a notch. “Kay, we can’t. I told you, this is a proper courtship.”

“We’ve never been proper before,” she reminded him, lifting her hands to finger the edges of his robe, putting all his honorable efforts in serious jeopardy.

“Well, no,” he was forced to agree, “but—”

She stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his neck, cutting off whatever he’d been about to say. “Why start now?”

He wrenched free, grabbed her wrists, and pulled them down, deciding it was time to be ruthlessly blunt. “Damn it, Kay. If you stay I’ll take your virtue. Do you know what that means?”

She actually seemed nettled by the question. “Of course I do. I’m not a child. I’m thirty-two, for heaven’s sake.”

“Then you know if I give you what you’re so sweetly asking for, the result could be that you’re with child. And I’ll be on the other side of the world, with no idea when I’ll be back.”

“Yes, well…” She paused and gave a little cough. “I… ahem… I thought of that.”

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You did?”

She nodded. Pulling free of his hold, she reached into the pocket of her robe and pulled out a long, flat envelope of red velvet. “That’s why I brought this. It prevents pregnancy, I understand?”

“My God,” he muttered, rubbing his hands over his face, praying for fortitude, fearing such a thing was quite impossible at this point. “My holy God.”

“It’s called a French—”

“I know what it is.” He grabbed the envelope and the condom he knew was tucked inside out of her hand. “Where in blazes did you get this?”

“I saw an advertisement for it once in one of Mama’s ladies’ magazines. A shop in Soho has them. So, after we parted this afternoon, I went there and bought one.”

“How could you have done? Only men and married ladies can buy these.”

“Yes, so the advertisement said. So I took Mama’s wedding ring out of her jewelry box and put it on my finger. And I took off my gloves while I was there. That way,” she added as he gave a groan, “they’d believe me when I assured them I was married.”

Devlin’s control was slipping further into oblivion with every word she spoke, but he had to try, one last time, to dissuade her. “Kay,” he began.

“I love you, too, by the way,” she said, cutting the grass from beneath his feet in an instant.

“You do?”

She bit her lip, nodding as she looked up at him.

“Well, you might have said so this afternoon, Kay,” he replied, feeling quite nettled all of a sudden. “I said it first, and you didn’t say it back, leaving me in an agony of suspense, wondering if you were ever going to fall in love with me again.”

“I didn’t want to say it unless I was sure, and when you said it, I wasn’t.

But as I watched you walk out of the hotel, headed for Cook’s, I thought of how it would be, me here and you thousands of miles away for weeks or months or maybe even years, and how much that was going to hurt.

And I knew I was in love with you. Fourteen years ago, we had the chance for a night like this, Devlin, and we let it pass by.

Are you really going to make us wait any longer for a second one? ”

Like a dam breaking, all his resolve crumbled to bits, and he caught her in his arms, pulling her hard against him. “Hell, no,” he muttered. “I never make the same mistake twice.”

With that, he bent his head and kissed her.