Page 23 of Just About a Rake (Ladies Who Dare #5)

L eonora stared at the man in the center of the warehouse, bare chested, his skin marred with bruises, her heart in her throat, pulsing fiercely. She didn’t know if he had won or lost, but drat it all—he had never looked more devastatingly handsome. After leaving the drawing room... After what she had discovered...

She’d fought hard to hold her tongue in that room, to keep from blurting something she could never take back. It was certainly not how she had envisioned her first official meeting with her mother would go. Leonora still couldn’t fathom the duchess’s degree of meddling. On the brighter side, standing in that stifling drawing room, beholding Heart and the duchess together, the entire array of their life choices had flashed before her eyes.

And she had come to a clear, vivid conclusion.

Their life was not her life.

Their end was not her and Dare’s end.

Period.

And speaking of that rake... his eyes, socketed in a face mottled blue, black, and purple, and streaked with smears of red, stared back at her with an expression she couldn’t quite place. When he hadn’t been home, she’d set upon his friend Lord Knoxley, who had pointed her here. And now here she was. She’d come to get answers, prepared to accept them.

She stepped up to him. One step. Two steps. Three, four, five, and all that followed until she stood before him. Her gaze touched every battle stain on his handsome face. “It looks worse closer than from a distance.”

His lips parted but no words came out.

“Like a parrot,” she said, her eyes finally locking with his.

The warehouse quieted, save for a few low snickers from the crowd, and a scowl formed on his brow. “A parrot?”

His gruff voice sent a tiny thrill through her. But she wouldn’t allow it to soften her. “All words but no substance.”

More snickers followed, but the man before her merely stared, raw and unflinching, taking it all, and not denying her claim. Was he not going to say anything? Would she have to challenge him to a boxing match to get a reaction?

“You took the deed.” She couldn’t keep a note of accusation out of her voice.

“I did.”

Leonora balled her hands into fists. “Do you still have it?”

“Yes.”

She paused. He did? Her gaze flickered to Drake and back again. If Dare had made a deal with the duchess, shouldn’t he have given his cousin the deed by now? She searched his gaze for any clue to his thoughts, but he gave away nothing except for a flicker of something that looked very much like naked desperation.

“I’ll give it back,” Dare said hoarsely. “The deed.”

Her entire body stilled, rooted to the spot, as her thoughts scrambled to make sense of what he’d just said. Give it back? What did that mean? Did he mean he’d take back what he’d done, what he’d agreed to? Did that mean... did she dare hope? Lord, those bruises. She couldn’t look at them, and yet she couldn’t look away.

“I object to that,” Drake called from his seat on a wooden crate. He didn’t look any better than Dare, in fact.

Laughter from the crowd registered dimly, but Leonora ignored it, ignored Drake. She didn’t give a whit about his deed or his problems. She only cared about the man before her.

“Why would you do that?” Leonora asked. “Why would you give the deed back?”

“I should never have taken it in the first place.”

“Why did you?” Leonora whispered. “I ask, because I find myself rather attached to you, Lord Dare, and rather disappointed that my family members conspired against me to keep us... unattached.”

“What about me? You must be equally disappointed in me. I accepted their conditions.”

She nodded. He had. Yet Leonora didn’t blame him, not when it came to it. She might want to pummel the man, but blame him she could not. He had his own burdens he needed to unshackle himself from.

“I should be. The truth is, I’ve never seen you for something you are not.” A faint, wistful smile. “But my brother recently reminded me that even on the blackest night, stars still shine.” And she’d rather look beyond this mistake than to fixate on it. Everyone deserved a second chance.

“You’re the stars,” he said hastily, yet he moved not an inch. “Not me.”

More laughter echoed off the walls.

“No.” Leonora shook her head. “We mere mortals aren’t meant to be stars.” She smiled when confusion lit his gaze. “They are merely meant to serve as a light in an otherwise darkened void.”

“Leonora . . .”

A voice shouted from the crowd, “Kiss her!” followed by a chorus of jeers.

Leonora ignored the crowd and took another step closer to the man she loved beyond all reason. “They have continually and invariably guided me to you time and again. So don’t ask me to fight against the stars. I won’t.”

“But you have no wish to reform a rake.”

That’s right. She didn’t. “I don’t want to reform you.”

His jaw clenched. “Then . . .”

“I want you to be rake forever,” she said simply. “With one woman in mind.”

He visibly started before his brows furrowed.

“Is that not what you thought I’d say?” Leonora grinned. “I love you, Rake. No matter who or what are you. I came here to say this.”

“Leonora, I—”

“I don’t wish to reform you,” she repeated, firmer this time, because this was where he would always resist, where the scars of his past would whisper that he wasn’t worthy of her love. But she knew better even if he didn’t yet. She saw him. “Stay a rake all your life. But only have eyes for me.”

She would tell him a hundred times if she had to. A thousand. She didn’t mind repeating this all her life.

Dare would never hurt her.

What he had done—accepting her mother’s offer, walking away—most women would cry out in fury or retract into a sea urchin shell. Not her. She understood. His actions came from a place of love.

“Do you know what you are saying?” he asked quietly.

“Yes.”

Two wounded hands framed her face. “God, for some reason I have no words.”

“You could say you only have eyes for me.”

He smiled then. “I do. Only for you.”

A cheer went up.

“Good,” Leonora said with a nod, her relief so great she thought her knees might give way. “There is one thing, though.”

His voice was soft, curious. “Should I be worried?”

She smiled at him. “I am searching for a certain sort of love. Unfashionable. A bit ridiculous. The laces-undone sort of love. If you can’t give me such love...”

His thumbs rubbed back and forth against her cheeks. “You mean a we-can’t-part-with-each-other-forever sort of love? Just that?”

Her pulse shattered and weaved back together again.

Was he saying . . .

She’d hunted him down believing she had to face him with her truth, expecting to be rejected by his. She had wanted to reassure him that, no matter his decision, she understood even if every syllable of his response broke her heart. Dare she believe in a different ending to their story?

“Do you love me, too?” Leonora asked.

A pin drop could have been heard in the silence.

She didn’t care. If he couldn’t say it, she would ask. And if he couldn’t respond with words, she would see it in the way he looked at her, the way he had always looked at her. The way he acted. She’d arrived here tonight ready and prepared for everything and anything. Now she was about to find out what sort of anything it would be.

“ Leonora .”

There it was.

That look. That stark, unguarded look in his blue eyes.

The moment to rule all moments.

Lightning struck, and she suddenly realized—all moments with him were moments that ruled all moments. How could she not have seen it before? When she was with him, time didn’t feel empty. It felt whole.

Leonora’s smile widened, and she lifted a hand, wanting to trail a finger over a bruise on his face but hesitating. “Do you know, fear can survive any calamity except love?”

A brow arched. “Are you calling love a calamity?”

“Is it not? It has so thoroughly claimed me that I don’t know what is left and what is right.”

He pressed his forehead against hers, saying, almost begrudgingly, “Ah, you are a tempting witch. Why can’t I resist you?”

“You were not meant to resist me.” She covered his hands on her face with hers. “Perhaps you should follow the stars as well.”

“I’m still worried. What if I hurt you?”

“And what if I hurt you?” Leonora countered. “There is no guarantee of a smooth partnership, Rake. There is only the promise that we might try. Also, I have my ways.”

“Ways?”

“Should you lack in the trying .”

His voice dropped, turning gruff. “What ways are those?”

“Curious?” Leonora lifted onto her toes to place a kiss on his lips, uncaring whether anyone was staring or not. “Shall we find out?”

The chorus in the warehouse was . . .

Yes.

*

Dare couldn’t believe his eyes, couldn’t believe his ears, and most certainly couldn’t believe the hands touching him.

They were a dream. Her love. Her confession... everything. A dream. A beautiful, lovely, dream.

And he never wanted to wake up.

In a way, he’d lived his life prepared to let go of everything before it could be taken from him, which was why he didn’t get attached. But Leonora Heart was one attachment he hadn’t been able to shake free from. Now, he didn’t have to.

To think it had all started with a teasing remark, a playful exchange that had spiraled into something far deeper than he could have ever predicted. At first, it had been nothing more than a nightly pastime, a harmless dance of wit. But then he became acquainted with her, became acquainted with himself, in a way that left no hope of recovery. With each teasing exchange, she wrapped another tentacle around him, drawing him deeper into her depths. And he had allowed those tentacles to wrap around him, sinking willingly into that temptress’s world, inch by inch.

Another inch.

Another inch.

Until there was no escape. Until he no longer wanted one. Her hold on him was irrevocable. As a result, the direction of his life had changed. Every path after her first smile had always led him back to her.

“Are you going to be a fool all your life?” Drake remarked from the side. “Answer the woman.”

Dare shot his cousin a glare.

Leonora squeezed his hands, drawing his focus back to her. “Are you not willing to find out with me?” she asked softly.

Dare started. Find out? He was willing. Very damn willing. “I am. Willing, that is.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded. Confound it! Why was it so hard to string along more words? They sat there on his tongue, heavy as lead and light as a feather. I love you, too . Or maybe I never want to part ever again . Most definitely I never want to let go. “Don’t go,” he managed—just. Sky-blue eyes blinked at him. “I mean...”

A grin followed his failed explanation, and her smile held all the rays of all his sun. “Don’t worry, I’m not leaving.” A teasing glint entered her gaze. “As long as you hold on, and perhaps even beyond that, I will not go.”

Dare wanted to gather her into his arms and kiss her senseless. “Most men are better than me.”

“I don’t want better. I want you,” she said without pause. “But what about me? There are better women than me, too.”

No, there weren’t. There was only her. Only Leonora.

Forever.

His limbs finally moved, his hands leaving her face as his arms wrapped around her, lifting her up against him. “Just you.” His gaze bore into hers. “And this idiot earl who loves you so damn much.” The pressure coiled inside him finally loosened completely. “Your tentacles have wrapped around me tight and secure.”

“Are you calling me a sea creature? How brazen!”

“A beautiful little tempting one.” He nuzzled her cheek. How the hell had he stayed away from her for a fortnight without going mad? “And you will marry me?”

She didn’t answer at once.

The longest second of his life stretched between them, and he felt like a man holding his breath at the edge of a cliff. Then finally, her lips split into a grin, stealing the very breath he’d been holding so tightly.

She brushed a kiss over his lips and said, “I hope you can procure a special license.”

Dare grinned, starting to walk to the exit with her still in his arms, leaving his cousin and the crowd behind. “Wait. Your brother is now my secret father-in-law and your parents are—” A finger hushed him.

“Just focus on me.” Her eyes sparkled at him.

“I can do that.”

Drake cursed behind them. “I want my damn deed!”

Dare ignored him.

She laughed. “I suppose all my gathering of moments led me to my dream—before I even knew I had one. And it was you, always you.”

He was a dream? He quite liked that. “If that is the case, you can pursue all your moments, as many as you want, just don’t ever lose your dream about me. Let me always be your dream. Grow old with me.” If that were her dream, she’d surely stay with him forever to reach it.

“Now that I can do.”

Ah, hell. He was ridiculous. Ridiculously, madly in love with her. And now that she was in his arms, he could never part with her. He could never let go. He wasn’t that strong. He doubted he could have lasted much longer anyway. Even if she hadn’t come here today, hadn’t looked his way again, he probably would have slowly inserted himself back into her light. Like a moth to a flame.

“I suppose my reputation as a rake is shattered.”

Her arms moved from his shoulder to circle his neck. “Oh, do not worry that much about it. You are still one part refined gentlemen and nine parts rogue. Only now you shall aim all that roguish charm at me. Just how I like you.”

“A rake?”

“Just about... a rake.” She grinned, planting another chaste kiss on his lips. “My rake.”

“Forever.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

It was an easy promise to make. He loved her. Irrevocably. Unequivocally. Without end. The kind of love she had dared to name and he dared to claim. Because this was the kind of love that remade a man, reshaped his very soul. And if she was his dream, he would make sure he was worthy of hers. Every day. For the rest of his life.