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G ray was unusually quiet for the rest of breakfast, something Thea entirely blamed her uncle for. Intentions and prospects indeed, when neither of them had discussed anything vaguely romantic since their truce! Although the past week had been romantic as far as she was concerned. She had never spent so much pleasant time with a man. And although he never instigated any of their casual walks or rides after he had attended to Archimedes, he had never turned a suggestion down either. Which she had decided to take as a very good sign, despite the dire lack of flirting or touching or incendiary heated looks.

If anything, he had been the perfect gentleman. Rigidly sticking to the parameters of their truce but allowing their new friendship to blossom. She was glad for that—but wanted more. Especially since Impetuous Thea had been out in the wild for seven whole days now, too, and nothing untoward had happened at all. She never curbed her in front of Gray or Harriet and had twice told her uncle off quite forcibly. Once for the sneaky cigar she had caught him with and then briskly confiscated, and once for his shameless cheating at chess. Both times he had bristled and bit back, and neither time did he keel over. It encouraged her to be bolder, which in turn made her feel lighter and happier than she had in years. It also made her wonder if that boldness might be just what was needed to give Gray a gentle nudge to let him know she was open and receptive to more should he feel inclined. The more she got to know him, the more it seemed a shame that such a warm and passionate man was so averse to allowing himself to love again.

His was a big heart, filled with joy, and it was increasingly playing havoc with hers. With each meeting, a little more of her wariness melted away and she became more convinced he wasn’t forbidden fruit, but the man for her. And she was the woman for him.

Yesterday, she had almost kissed him. They had been walking along, chatting amiably and laughing, then her eyes had locked with his and lingered. She had instinctively licked her lips and watched those wolf-like irises darken, found herself leaning towards him in invitation. Then lost her nerve at the last moment, fearing she had misread the signals or might push him away because he was adamantly wary of anything involving hearts. Particularly when one of the hearts was his.

They had discussed that a little this past week also, always at Thea’s instigation, too, and although it was still clearly a very sore topic, he had opened up. Enough that she was now convinced it was the fear of heartbreak that made him keep his heart at arm’s length, rather than his continued deep and abiding love for the awful woman who had broken it. In fact, he had confessed yesterday also that he now had to concentrate hard to properly recall Cecily’s face. Something which had apparently surprised him, but made Thea’s heart soar.

Because her wary heart was waning. Instead of being instantly suspicious or worried about his motives, she found herself thoroughly enjoying each and every moment in a way she never had before. She got butterflies before she saw him, tingles once she did and a delightfully warm feeling deep inside simply knowing they occupied the same planet. As well as a completely different sort of warm feeling every single time she looked at him or pictured him naked in the brook.

‘Fetch the ball, Trefor!’

Shamelessly she feasted on the sight of him pulling back his arm and throwing the tattered ball, admiring the way the muscles in his shoulders and back bunched. He really was a very fine specimen of manhood. Once she plucked up the courage to kiss him again, she was going to allow Impetuous Thea to thoroughly explore those muscles. He glanced back, then paused to wait for her, his eyes fixed on Trefor as he bounded through the tall grass after his beloved cricket ball. ‘I meant to ask—one of the grooms mentioned your uncle received an express early this morning. I trust it was not bad news.’

‘He did?’ That was news to her. ‘He never mentioned anything, so I doubt it was of much importance.’

‘Perhaps they were mistaken. He seemed in perfectly good spirits. It was good of Bertie to come back early, although I am not certain your uncle was as surprised to see him as you were. He looked relieved, though—as if he had wanted him back.’

‘Bertie is his right arm. Always has been—but more so since his stroke. He’s worked for Uncle Edward for all the years I have been alive and longer. Although I have no idea how many years. I’ve never thought to ask. Dear Bertie is the only person truly able to make my stubborn uncle do what he is supposed to.’ Without his diligence, he might have died in those first dreadful weeks after the stroke.

‘Really? He holds that much sway?’

‘Much more than me, I’m sorry to say. But then Bertie doesn’t have my fiery temper or my uncle’s pig-headedness. He simply issues calm instructions and miraculously we all comply. It’s his gift.’

‘I wish I could manipulate people to do my bidding.’

‘Me, too. Perhaps we both need to be more overt in our manipulations? Perhaps that is the secret. It certainly seems to be working for Harriet.’ Something Thea was becoming more and more envious of. ‘She seems to have your dour cousin Cedric eating out of her hand.’ Gray grinned wickedly, then chuckled, but didn’t elaborate as he picked up his pace. ‘You know something, don’t you?’

‘I do.’ Gray bent to wrestle the soggy ball out of Trefor’s jaws and threw it again into the trees that hid the brook. ‘But daren’t tell you.’

‘Daren’t? Is it a secret? For if it is, I have to tell you Harriet will tell me herself.’

‘I doubt that. It’s not for delicate ears.’

‘My ears are hardly delicate! And it shows how little you know Harriet if you think she would censor something. I have been privy to some eye-opening confessions.’ Harriet was a great fan of bed sport , as she called it. ‘Besides, it strikes me as grossly unfair that you should know something that I don’t.’ He had jogged on ahead after the dog, forcing her to sprint after him and catch him by the arm. ‘Tell me, you wretch! Did you catch him stealing a kiss?’

He grinned and shook his head. ‘So innocent ... Worse!’ He was laughing, the deep sound doing odd things to her nerve endings.

‘Worse?’ He watched her puzzle it through, making no attempt to hide his delight when shock replaced curiosity. ‘Oh, my goodness! They are...’ She felt her cheeks heat as she struggled to find the polite term for the act she suspected.

‘The word is lovers , Thea.’ He raised his dark eyebrows suggestively. ‘In truth, I’ve been itching to tell you all morning, because nobody is as shocked or thoroughly entertained by the situation as I am. But there is no doubt. He came home at the crack of dawn this morning, attempting to creep in in the exact evening clothes he went to hers to dine in last night—minus his cravat.’

‘There might be a perfectly innocent explanation...’ Harriet was incorrigible. She knew that in her bones. Although scandalous, part of Thea—the impetuous and wilful part—couldn’t help but be impressed. Her friend didn’t waste time with doubt or overthinking. When she wanted something, she leapt.

‘There was nothing innocent in his guilty, convoluted excuses or the brilliance of his beetroot face. Consequently, I am left in no doubt that our older and wiser companions have...’

‘Seen each other naked .’ He roared with laughter and Thea found herself giggling. ‘Oh, my goodness. Cedric and Harriet...do you think this is just an affair or something more...serious?’

He paused as if considering it for the first time. ‘I have no idea. Cedric keeps his cards very close to his chest. They have been spending an inordinate amount of time together.’

‘So have we.’ The words had popped out before she could stop them and then she saw his shoulders stiffen. ‘By which I mean, they might just be friends. As we are.’

His shoulders relaxed. ‘Yes, but they have seen each other naked. There is a difference.’

‘I’ve seen you naked.’ What was the matter with her? Why was she intent on spoiling a perfectly lovely walk by pushing him into discussing something he really did not want to discuss.

‘Again, there is a difference. You saw me in the altogether from a polite distance. Their nakedness was up close.’ There had been nothing polite in the way her eyes had greedily drunk in the sight.

‘Do you know, I was secretly rather jealous of you and Trefor that day? It’s been so hot and that water looked so cool. Then, of course, thanks to Trefor, I got to enjoy it.’

‘Fully clothed is hardly the same. You should give it a go one day when there’s nobody around. A naughty bit of nude bathing sounds exactly like the sort of pursuit Impetuous Thea would enjoy.’ She would. Except Impetuous Thea wanted to do it with him. An errant thought which made her suddenly peculiarly warm.

‘I suspect it’s something Trefor is currently enjoying.’ Gray stared at the trees and shook his head. ‘His absence suggests he’s clearly been waylaid by the water again.’ It was exactly then that Thea’s toes reached the edge of the mystical precipice Harriet kept going on about and immediately all her friend’s advice made sense. If there was any sort of future between her and Gray beyond this lovely friendship they shared, then one of them had to leap.

They found the dog swimming backwards and forwards with the ball clamped in his mouth, his tail swishing from side to side like a rudder. Gray tried to get him to stop, feeling slightly uncomfortable that they were in this intimate, secluded spot when moments ago they had been talking about it and other wholly inappropriate things, and his mind was now filled with images of Thea floating naked in the water. Copper hair unbound and fanned out on the surface.

He never should have told her about old Fennimore and Harriet. No matter how easy he found her to talk to, how frank and open and honest their conversations were, there were certain subjects a gentleman didn’t discuss with a woman who wasn’t his in the biblical sense. Now all he could think about was what it would be like to know her in a biblical sense and that was playing havoc with his senses.

Obviously, she wasn’t similarly affected, because she made herself comfortable on the bank. ‘Oh, to be a dog! Leave him be for a little while. I’m in no hurry and I’d hate to spoil his fun.’ She patted the ground next to her, a place he really did not want to be. Not when his breeches were suddenly tighter and all he wanted to do was kiss her again—and more.

‘I should check on my grooms. They claim they will have the exercise yard cleared by today.’ Good grief, he sounded jittery. But his feelings regarding Thea were becoming more complicated with every passing day.

‘Then leave Trefor with me. I might just allow Impetuous Thea to join him in the water.’ She offered him a mischievous half-smile, peering up at him through her ridiculously long lashes which his rampant body responded to immediately. He really didn’t want to know that. Or be beyond excited at the idea. Not when he was failing abysmally at being a better spy thanks to his overpowering need to be with her.

‘I suppose I could linger a little longer.’ Utter madness, but his feet were already making their way towards her. ‘Keep Impetuous Thea on the straight and narrow.’

Gray sat, self-conscious and riddled with inappropriate lust, and decided the most sensible course of action was to change the subject back to what he was supposed to be doing. ‘I wonder why Bertie rushed back? Do you suppose he was summoned by your uncle?’

‘Uncle Edward isn’t one to make demands.’ She sat back on her hands, staring up at the dappled sunshine. The pose did wonders for her figure and served to further torture him. ‘I think it’s lovely that Cedric and Harriet have found one another don’t you? I hope they make a go of it.’ Her eyes flicked to his. ‘In case you haven’t already guessed, and despite my justified suspicion of fortune hunters, I’m a romantic at heart. I believe in true love. I know that you are jaded from the experience, but I like to believe that there is the perfect someone for everyone. I’m glad Harriet has been given a second chance.’ She took his silence as disagreement. ‘Don’t you believe in second chances?’

‘Of course I do.’

‘Just not for you.’ She tilted her face back towards the sun, making the obligatory loose tendrils of hair glow copper and gold to torment him. ‘Because your heart cannot mend.’

‘It’s mended enough.’ Unstable ground. ‘But it’s too scarred to risk again.’

‘Liar.’ She smiled up at the sky. ‘At least be honest about it. This has nothing to do with the current state of your heart and everything to do with your silly fear history will repeat itself. You’re no different from me for all your bold claims you like to live in the moment and leave it all up to fate. You claim to be full of life. Claim to embrace all its twists and turns and potholes and peculiarities, yet when you find a woman you are drawn to on a far deeper level than you care to admit—your words, Gray, not mine—you create boundaries and silly truces to guard your precious heart. You’re a hypocrite. One who is too frightened to live life to the full.’

‘You wouldn’t understand.’ And they were not having this conversation. He shot to his feet, not caring whether or not he looked outraged, because he was, damn it. This conversation crossed a line. He was not going to discuss them. They were friends. Nothing more. He couldn’t allow there to be more. ‘I need to get back.’

‘Go ahead. Run away.’ She was smiling wryly, but otherwise seemingly unbothered by his response. ‘You’re very good at that. But before you go, at least listen to some advice. It’s good advice. Yours, in fact.’ She sat forward and sighed, then smiled kindly, her dark eyes filled with an emotion he couldn’t decipher. ‘You were twenty. It’s a dangerous age. You think you know everything, when in fact you are barely an adult. I should imagine what Cecily did, to someone with a vivid imagination like yours, would give you an irrational fear of trusting a woman ever again. But what you had with Cecily was one-sided. You loved her and the awful reality is she didn’t love you enough back.’

‘I know what the awful reality was, Thea. I lived it. And with the greatest respect, it is a subject you have little experience of. You have never been in love so are not in a position to offer me advice.’ His hands had fisted at his sides and his poor damaged heart was thumping in his chest. He turned on his heel and began to stride out of the suffocating intimacy of the clearing and the perilous turn in an otherwise pleasant conversation.

‘Then I suppose this odd feeling I have for you doesn’t count?’ At her words his feet stopped and those invisible cords forced him to turn around. She was stood now, proud but vulnerable. And more beautiful and tempting than he had ever seen her. ‘The excitement I feel every time I see you. The overwhelming sense of rightness I feel when I’m with you. The affection. The friendship. The desire. You say I have no experience, but this...’ both her hands went to her chest to cover her heart ‘...this certainly feels like what I’ve always imagined love would feel like.’

‘Stop.’ Although there was no conviction in his words. She loved him? Instead of making him want to run away, it tempted him to run to her. She loved him? That was...everything. She saw his hesitation and took a step forward.

‘I am not Cecily. I don’t care about titles. I have no need of a bigger fortune or greater standing in society. None of those things matter to me. I just want you.’ She took another cautious step forward. ‘If that makes you want to run, then go now before I humiliate myself further.’

Unbelievably, he was disinclined to run. He had promised himself he would never again allow another woman to get under his skin as he had Cecily. But while half of him was terrified by her unexpected confession, the other half—the half that couldn’t resist the lure of the moment or the pull of the woman who stood next to him—was intent on staying exactly where he was. Because she had mined under his defences regardless and inexplicably he discovered he was exceedingly glad for the intrusion. His damaged, scarred heart was bursting with something which felt like joy.

‘Oh, Thea...’ He wasn’t going to spoil the moment by considering the ramifications or all the many reasons why it was a bad idea. She loved him.

Him!

That was miraculous, all things considered. More miraculous was the way both relief and warmth bloomed in his chest. Instead of running, and because he was imprisoned by those invisible cords, he closed the distance between them and gently pressed his lips to hers.

It was an honest kiss. Slow, tender and brimming with all the complicated emotional attachments he had avoided for a decade. When she kissed him back, he wound his arms around her and gathered her close, carefully lowering them both to lie on the bank before he deepened the kiss.

Thea didn’t hold back, slowly running her curious fingers through his hair, over his shoulders and down his spine before tunnelling under his shirt to find skin. He felt the dappled early morning sun on his back as she tugged his shirt off, then rolled him to lie beneath her so her fingers could explore his chest. Where they trailed, her lips followed, torturing him. Good grief, it felt perfect.

‘This is dangerous.’ Gray didn’t have the strength to stop her, but then the panicked voice in his head came to the fore as he silently hoped she would come to her senses before he completely lost his. ‘I can’t make any promises.’

‘I don’t recall asking for any. I am simply following your advice and giving Impetuous Thea free rein. In this precise moment, she simply wants to kiss you.’

This was madness. He should put a stop to it. But his fingers had gone to her hair and were pulling out pins. ‘Best not deny her, poor thing. Not when she’s been shut in a box for years.’ Not at all what he should have said for the sake of his heart—yet his heart was soaring. Beating with more purpose than it ever had before. What did that mean?

He kissed her again and she kissed him back. A heated, open-mouthed kiss that blasted through what was left of his reserve. Let the cards fall where they may. With that acceptance came more relief and joy, both surging through him with such force they made him unsteady. Holding Thea steadied him and anchored him in the present and he realised his heart had not only mended, but was lost again. He wasn’t entirely sure when that had happened, but knew it wasn’t recent. Perhaps he had lost it that first day, when she had stumbled upon him in the brook. He didn’t remember a thunderbolt, but he had felt a connection. One that had grown and thrived. One that felt perfect. So very different from what he had felt for Cecily.

The woman who didn’t matter any more. The woman who paled into insignificance now that his heart had found Thea.

As moments went, it was the greatest he had ever experienced. He found himself smiling against her mouth as he accepted his fate and wrestled with veritable ironmongers nestled in her scalp. ‘Exactly how many pins do you have in here?’

‘A great many. Otherwise my hair is vertical.’

‘I’d like to see that.’ All her fiery hair loose; all her alabaster skin uncovered. Utter, utter madness, but those invisible cords were wrapping themselves around them, lashing them comfortably together, and he was powerless to fight them. Not when holding her felt so very right and he never wanted this perfect moment of clarity to end.

‘It’s not a pretty sight.’ But she was smiling as she briskly and methodically plucked each pin out, then bent her head forward to shake out the curls. ‘I have wayward hair, too.’

It was the first time he had seen it completely unbound and the sight of it had more impact than those few fallen tendrils he had glimpsed before that she was forever attempting to tame. He ran his fingers reverently through a long, copper ringlet, tugging out the curl until it was completely straight. To his delight it stretched way past her hips. ‘It’s beautiful. You’re beautiful.’ His hands smoothed their way back up her hips, briefly pausing to span her waist before moving up to cup her breasts. ‘You’ve haunted my dreams, Thea. Have since the first day I met you. I am severely sleep deprived.’

‘Me, too.’ He loved her earthy giggle. Loved everything about her. Loved that the mere thought of loving her didn’t make him want to run. ‘But we are young and can sleep when we’re dead.’

He kissed her again, their tongues tangling until his body wanted more. Far more than she might be prepared to offer. But he would wait...

Wait? That sounded ominously like he was ready to make plans. ‘We should stop. Before this gets out of hand.’

‘Very sensible. Is the brook cold?’ She chewed her lip shyly before boldly glancing up at him from beneath her lashes. ‘Only in my dreams, you’re back in there and I am swimming with you.’

There was no doubt he wanted her. Always had, but this was more than lust and so much more than one reckless moment. Unconsciously, he rubbed the spot in the middle of his ribs. Was she worth the risk? ‘I’m not sure I can do this, Thea. Not again.’ But the voice in his head urged him to gamble once again. It was tempting. She was tempting.

‘I don’t want to break your heart, Gray. I want to possess it. There’s a difference. Unlike her, I shall treasure it and look after it.’ Her fingers went to the laces at the back of her dress. He watched, helpless, as the front of her bodice loosened and fell to hang off her shoulders. ‘Although don’t take my word for it. To be completely sure, you should test the theory. Scientifically, of course. If I break your heart, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you were right all along. And if I don’t...’ She stared at him intently. ‘Onwards and upwards. It’s your motto after all. Leave the past in the past where it should be...’ She wiggled her shoulders and the bodice slipped down further, barely covering her breasts. ‘And live in this wonderfully unexpected moment with me.’