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CHAPTER FIVE

Pain. Pleasure. Two companions, forever arm in arm.

The one could scarcely exist without the other.

Truly. How could one appreciate the sweetness of pleasure without having tasted the sting of pain first?

They were twin threads, knotted into the design of what it meant to feel.

One to make her ache. The other to remind her she was gloriously, shamelessly alive.

Rhys had made love to her all night.

If that was the word for it—love. Because it hadn’t been sweet or slow, though there had been tenderness between the hunger.

No, it had been wild. Untamed. A storm that had taken her under and rebuilt her from within.

Goose flesh broke over her arms from the memory of his hands, his mouth, the rough rasp of his voice when he’d whispered her name like a curse and a prayer all at once.

Those lines between her pain and pleasure had blurred after the first time. At this moment, however, her body ached. A wanton, sated soreness that pulsed low. She wished she hadn’t had to sneak back into her own chamber at the crack of dawn.

The man was a promise that beckoned her.

Irresistible.

She feared she’d already fallen quite deeply—perhaps the moment they’d first met, when she’d helped him escape a marriage trap.

“Why do you look different?”

Daisy blinked, startled out of her thoughts at Meredith’s question. They were enjoying tea in the greenhouse, but her mind had lingered in Rhys’s chamber all morning. “I believe I look the same as always.”

Meredith shook her head, eyes narrowing. “No, there is something different about you.”

Daisy paused, not sure how to confess to her friend.

She ought to keep it to herself—lock it away like a precious secret—but how could she?

Not when Meredith had helped her meet Rhys last night.

A selfish part of her didn’t want to either.

It felt too big to contain. Too consuming. “I seduced Nightingale.”

Meredith blinked, her tea pausing halfway to her lips. “You what?” she exclaimed, her voice laced with shock. “When was this?”

“Last night.”

“You didn’t look like you were ruined when you returned from the garden. Wait. After you met him?”

Daisy nodded. “I went to his chamber.”

“Daisy, are you out of your mind?”

“Possibly, but it’s done,” Daisy said.

“But what about the Duke of Frosthaven? Weren’t you interested in him?”

Daisy snorted. “What duke?”

Meredith’s eyes widened in disbelief. “That’s not funny, Daisy! What on earth happened in the garden that changed your mind?”

“I’m sorry, Mer. I realized the duke was merely an excuse. A distraction from what I really wanted.” She offered her friend a small smile. “I think I’ve always wanted him. Nightingale.”

Meredith’s mouth dropped open before she snapped it shut and asked, “So, you’re in love with him?”

“I believe so.” What else could she say? The truth still rattled her.

“This is a nightmare,” Meredith muttered, shaking her head. “You know what he’ll do, right? He’ll break your heart. The Earl of Nightingale is a devil in disguise. He won’t be kind to you in the end. If this ruins you.”

Daisy’s lips curled into a determined smile. “I seduced him last night, I can seduce him for longer.”

Meredith blinked at her. “What does that mean?”

“It means I am the seducer.” Though, honestly, she didn’t quite know what she was doing, only that she wanted to do something. And for some reason, Rhys broke his rules for her. She could use that. Tempt him.

“How long do you plan to do that?” Meredith asked.

“Forever long?”

“Daisy!” Meredith’s voice was sharp with panic. “This isn’t some game. The man is a rake. A. Rake. Notorious. Infamous. Irredeemable.”

Daisy sighed. “I know, Mer. And I don’t have the answers to that. All I know is that I must try my best.”

“He won’t stay at your side. He will hurt you.”

“It’s my heart to hurt,” Daisy said softly.

But she was confident, at least for the duration of the party, he would not stray.

After that, she would come up with another plan.

She didn’t know if she could ever be his wife, but secret lover?

That he might do. As for the duration… That was a question for another day.

“What about your brother?”

“James? What he doesn’t know will not ruffle him.”

Meredith let out a breath. “You know secrets don’t last forever.”

“No, but they can last a lifetime.”

Her friend pinched the bridge of her nose. “Very well. I can’t claim to understand, but I am here for you, come what may.”

Daisy grinned, reaching for her tea, which had long since gone cold. “That is all I ask.”

The greenhouse door opened with a burst of laughter and footsteps. Two girls swept inside, their slippers clicking lightly on the stone floor as they passed the table where Daisy and Meredith sat.

Daisy sipped her tea without glancing up.

“Oh, have you heard?” one of the girls said. “Nightingale apparently left in the middle of the night?”

Her entire being stilled at the mention of Rhys.

“Truly? I’m not surprised. Rakes like him don’t belong at parties like this,” the other said.

“I agree, but he is so handsome, though.”

Their voices trailed off as they wandered out of earshot.

Meredith’s concerned gaze met hers. “Daisy…”

For the second time since Daisy met Rhys in the garden, her world spun. But this time, it wasn’t in a spellbinding, first-kiss sort of way.

No, it was in the exact opposite.

Rhys glared at the carriage, its wheel swallowed by a muddy rut so deep it might as well have led to Hades.

For saint’s sake, it was summer. It hadn’t rained in days.

The ground should’ve been as hard as brick.

As if that weren’t enough, every bloody horse had managed to get a thorn in its hoof. Every single one.

Unbelievable.

He dragged a hand down his face, muttering curses unfit for any company. This was the last thing he needed. Not when he had plans. Important ones. Ones involving escaping a maddening little witch with an indulgent set of blue eyes and a vexing tendency to linger in his thoughts.

It was better this way.

For her.

For him.

For everyone.

With a growl, he rolled up his sleeves. If the blasted driver couldn’t solve it, he bloody well would.

“Sir! It’s no use.”

Rhys turned, brows snapping together.

The driver stood wringing his cap between his hands, sweat lining his brow. “We’ve tried wood, rope, even had the lads push with all their might. It won’t budge. And the horses—well, they’ll be no use until a horseman sees to them.”

Rhys bit back another curse, grinding his teeth. “We’re miles from the nearest village.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“When will we hear from the man you sent?”

“That’s difficult to say, my lord. The message might not reach town until midafternoon, and a team won’t arrive until evening. All depending on luck.”

Luck his arse. “You’re telling me we’re trapped here?”

His driver gave a sheepish shrug. “At present, yes, my lord.”

Rhys turned on his heel and stalked away from the wreckage, his boots crunching over the dry road. The saints were mocking him now. Punishing him. “You think this is amusing?” he muttered up to the sky. “Some celestial jest?”

A breeze teased through the trees, brushing his face like a whisper of agreement. Damnation. They were mocking him.

I do not believe in fate.

No, he did not.

Because if he did—if he dared to think that some divine hand was orchestrating this farce—then he’d have to admit something far more dangerous.

That he didn’t want to leave.

Rhys closed his eyes. The memory of her returned unbidden—her mouth on his, the why she raked her fingers over his flesh, the damn way she’d looked at him… like he was more than a libertine, more than his father’s son.

She’d undone him. Entirely.

And it terrified him.

“She deserves more than me,” he muttered. “More than a man who only knows how to take his pleasure and leave.”

But the moment he said it, he knew it was a lie.

Because she was the one person who made him want to stay.

And he’d been running.

Like a coward.

He looked back toward Frosthaven Estate. Had she discovered him gone? Was she vexed? Hurt? Christ. The thought didn’t sit well with him now that he allowed himself to imagine it.

Everything had conspired to keep him here—mud, horses, time itself.

No, not conspired. Warned.

The world didn’t want him to leave Daisy Nightingale.

And neither did he.

With a muttered oath, he did the only thing left to him.

He started to walk back to her. Where he belonged.