Stained with grass and dirt, the ladies went upstairs early to change for the evening. Kelan and Greyston hadn’t yet returned from their ride, sparing Lily the awkwardness of bathing and dressing in Kelan’s company.
Her corset laced up in the front, and her evening gown had a row of tiny pearl buttons running down the side which took an age to fasten, but were all reachable without assistance. Ana had stayed behind in London to pack their trunks for tomorrow’s journey.
Lily glanced around the room while her fingers worked, her gaze going from the enormous canopied bed with its enamelled posts to the wide berth of the padded window seat to the elegant chaise lounge…that would do for her. Kelan was welcome to the bed.
A shiver rolled through her body at the thought of later tonight, and it wasn’t entirely chilled. You could have pushed harder for Evie to re-arrange us.
Lily rolled her eyes at herself and squared her shoulders as she made her way downstairs. Thank goodness she didn’t have to rely on her own resolve. Kelan had kissed her passionately, made dark promises about the business of their marriage, and then promptly forgotten all about it.
Devon made an appearance at supper, mildly surprised—decorum permitted only a flitter of interest across his face—to find his castle had accumulated extra guests in his absence. Apparently he’d spent the day in Reigate, although he didn’t elaborate on the details.
He was the most austere man Lily had ever known, but when his gaze rested on his wife, the overwhelming tenderness warming those silvery blue eyes was unmistakeable. The impact melted Evelyn’s smile as she looked up at him, a silent exchange between husband and wife without words others could be privy to. Lily hoped ‘I forgive you’ featured somewhere in that coded message.
Kelan stood behind her chair a moment after Lily had taken her seat. He ran his fingertips along her bared shoulders, leaving a trail of sensual awareness on her skin. His head lowered, bringing his earthy scent of rain, forest and male, and his mouth brushed near her ear. “You look beautiful tonight.”
Her body took undue pleasure from the simple compliment and flushed heat to her cheeks. He was putting on a show for Devon, Georgina and the staff, but it didn’t feel artificial or public, not when half the people seated at the table knew the truth about their marriage. Desire, languid and wistful, coiled low in Lily’s abdomen and lingered long after he’d drawn away.
And then there was Greyston and Georgina, trading illicit looks they thought no one noticed.
We must be the oddest coupled pairs to ever sit down to an intimate supper of dearest friends.
Georgina kept them enthralled with ludicrous snippets of gossip, most of which Lily couldn’t believe about her acquaintances amongst the ton, some of which she knew as fact to be true. She was tempted to ask what Georgina had heard of her and Kelan, but she didn’t dare, lest it be the latter.
Seated across from her, Kelan’s eyes seemed to be on her every time she glanced up from her plate. He appeared completely at ease, his muscles loose, his hooded gaze observing with the ennui of a nobleman with too much time on his hands and too little to occupy it. Experience told her this was when he was most lethal. As if he drew every one of the extra senses he seemed to possess deep inside to an inner eye, primed to react before the act.
The feral features carved into his face were still there, but at rest, smoothing the harshest ridges and fiercest shadows into a landscape of intoxicating, dark beauty. The shape of his mouth imprinted on her blood, flustering craving and caution, want and need, danger and cowardice, until she couldn’t tell one from the other.
At the drop of a pin, she’d fall under his spell…and into his bed. But the scariest part, the part that kicked some bone into her spine, was if she had a magic wand, she’d wish this desire away in an instant.
Lily averted her gaze and grabbed her glass of wine. If she didn’t want to want Kelan this badly, how hard could it be to ignore his pull?
A few hours later, her theory was put to the test. She’d retired upstairs and chased through her ablutions while the men engaged in billiards. A chaste robe pulled over her thin nightgown, she hauled an extra blanket and pillow from the top shelf in the wardrobe. With any luck, she’d be fast asleep before Kelan’s game ended and all social discomforts could be avoided.
She propped the pillow against the armrest of the chaise lounge, and the door opened.
“Good,” Kelan drawled as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him. “I hoped to catch you awake.”
Lily tossed the blanket onto one end of the delicate sofa and sat, turning a prim smile on him. “I can’t imagine what cannot wait ‘till morning.”
“Greyston obtained useful information from Harchings.” He stripped his neck cloth and flung it on the bed. “The warship has been built, likely near to completion so far as Greyston can conclude. The Gossamer, as it is called, is also as bulky and impractical as we suspected.” His jacket joined his neck cloth. “They cannot generate enough power to lift it off the ground, let alone sail the Aether.”
Lily dropped her smile and inhaled deeply. Her obsession over the sleeping arrangements had clearly been all one-sided. “Has the ship been abandoned then?”
“With the Dirigible Fleet Bill aborted, Harchings won’t have the funds for much research and redesign, but he wouldn’t discard all the money and work invested.” Kelan perched on the edge of the bed, unbuttoning the top few buttons of his shirt as he spoke.
Her gaze touched on the smattering of short curls revealed in the deep vee he’d opened, and shot straight up again.
“They’d need an unusually large warehouse to hold the Gossamer, a remote location for reasons of state security…” Long layers of silken coal hair fell across his jaw as he reached down to undo the laces of his boots. “Given no one at Precision Steam Works, besides Winterberry, had any inkling of the ship, it was built off-site, and probably still sits there. Somewhere round and about Glasgow, I’d have thought, but we won’t limit our search.”
“Originally we assumed Agares wanted the ship to cross the channel, but that doesn’t tie in with the trap it laid using China. We’re not even sure if there’s a connection at all.” Lily shook her head. “If the Gossamer isn’t functional, do we really care about it?”
“Greyston didn’t have anything specific, but he believes there were enough allusions to be certain George Winterberry had a biased interest in the Gossamer that went above and beyond a businessman’s concerns. I need to know where that ship is, so we can keep an eye on if and how it’s used.”
Kelan pulled one boot off, then another. “Greyston wants to fly off with the Red Hawk for a couple of days, but he’ll meet us in Cragloden to help the search from the skies.”
The last time Greyston had left, he’d stayed away for months. But he’d been injured and spent most of that time recuperating in Austria, she reminded herself.
“Greyston and I agreed one more thing.” Kelan unbent to look at her, an elbow resting on his knee. Long fingers scraped the hair back from his cheek. “We’re telling Harchings everything in the morning. If he knows the truth, he may cooperate.”
“If he decides you’re insane instead—which is far more likely—he’ll forbid Evelyn from having anything to do with you…with any of us.” Lily’s stomach twisted into a hundred tiny knots. “I know Evelyn, and their marriage will never recover.”
“Neither would my reputation,” Kelan said. He straightened, pushing to his feet. “We have half an hour to persuade him. If we fail, Greyston will sift back in time and warn us not to attempt it.”
Before the knots could unwind, he added, “I’d like Evelyn to sit in on the conversation. If anything, Harchings will heed his wife.”
“Absolutely not,” Lily said firmly. “Evelyn will fret herself to pieces if things go haywire and I won’t put that half hour of stress on her, not even if it will be unwound. She doesn’t know Greyston can rewind time and I won’t ask him to divulge his secrets.”
> He believed his demon blood darkened his soul. Lily didn’t agree. Their blood was tainted, and nothing else. But even so, she didn’t have the courage to tell her friend. She didn’t want to know if Evelyn would look at her differently. And she wouldn’t risk the toll it might take on Greyston if Evelyn looked at him differently.
“Very well.” Kelan’s jaw tightened, concentration pulling at the corners of his eyes. His hands went to his shirt again, working down the row of buttons. “Greyston insists he wants Georgina there and she’ll have to do.”
Lily’s gaze heated on tanned skin and short hairs revealed inch by inch. “Why would he insist on that?”
“Apparently she has a close bond with Harchings and Greyston thinks she may help to persuade his mind.” Almost at the last button, he flicked the tails of his shirt free from his waistband. “Or so he says.”
Lily didn’t hear the end of that sentence. Hot blood thumped along her veins, dragging at her senses, dulling her wits. “Will you please stop undressing!”
Firm, wide lips curved into his usual cynical smile. “You should know…” He slipped the remaining buttons through their holes with nimble fingers. “I sleep naked.”
Lily’s mouth went dry. She patted the spot beside her. “Then it’s just as well I intend to sleep here.”
“So I see.” He shoved a hand into his trousers pocket. The edge of his shirt clipped, pulling further open.
Her eyes strained against the furious protests of her head, and won. Flames licked her skin as her gaze swept downward over the broad chest corded with muscle. His stomach lean and concave. Black hairs arrowed into the waistband of his trousers. Her gaze travelled up again, slow enough to thicken the flames.
“You cannot believe I’d let you sleep on the sofa.” The satin-soft tone coated resolve cast in iron. “Or that I’d give up the luxury of a bed with you in it.”
He closed the distance between them in lithe strides. “I’m going to use the bathroom.” His eyes glittered navy crystals in a sky darkened with raw lust, proof he could turn it on at a whim. “When I return, I expect to find you in the bed.”
She swallowed past lumps of desire and rising panic. “Or what?”
“Or I’ll seduce you into it.” His knuckles grazed beneath her chin, a thumb strumming her cheek. “And we both know I’ll succeed.”
Heat charged the air, pulsing thick and heavy. Her lips felt swollen from kisses yet to come. An ache of longing melted through her limbs, reflected in the darkest depths of his gaze. He bent his head, and her fingers burned to reach for him, to trace the bristled hollow of his jaw, to glide through his hair, to bring his mouth closer.
Logic, reason and self-preservation were long lost. Her body was starved for the passions he’d ignited and wouldn’t be denied.
Honesty was her only recourse.
“You would succeed,” she said huskily. “I have no defence against you, Kelan. When you look at me like…like this, you consume me. When your lips touch mine, I’m gone.”
Hunger, raw and bared, flared in his eyes and settled into the shadows of his face.
“But I’m not ready.” She placed a hand on his arm, her eyes pleading. “If we do this, we’re not just sating our desires. We’re consummating a marriage, Kelan. And I’m not ready to make this marriage real.”
He looked at her a long moment, his gaze heated with arousal and intent. His head lowered. His knuckles beneath her chin lifted her mouth to his, and her bones melted along with her impassioned plea.
“Climb into bed, Lily.” His lips brushed hers with a light, achingly tender kiss before he pulled back slowly. “You have my word. I won’t touch you.”
Lily woke up alone in the enormous bed, her cheek squashed to the pillow, her eyes opening drowsily on the empty expanse to her right. Memories of last night burnt through her usual sluggishness like a midday sun. Her arm shot out, her palm sliding over the cold sheet on that side. He must have risen hours ago.
She rolled over onto her back, staring at the billowing cream silk above. She’d gone to bed in a stunned daze. Never, in the furthest-flung corners of her imagination, would she have thought Kelan capable of such a gentle moment. The tenderness of that kiss washed over her again and again, wrapping her in warmth last night and releasing on her sigh now.
Her husband was a strange, complex man.
She scrambled from the bed to peek through the heavy drapes. The morning sun hid behind a blanket of sullen clouds that camouflaged the time of day. Knowing me, that may well be the afternoon sun.
She was relieved to find the breakfast table still laid when she made her way down, although she didn’t get to enjoy more than a bite of toast spread with poached egg before Greyston interrupted.
He popped his head inside the morning room, then stepped inside, leaning against the doorjamb. Brown eyes assessed her, dulled with emotion somewhere between resignation and regret. “Kelan’s gone upstairs to wake you.”
It bothered him that they had spent the night together, even though he’d done nothing but foist her onto Kelan for weeks. And after all these weeks of push and pull, Lily finally understood. They shared a bond of love and trust and a betrayal that was more than a decade old. They’d shelved all notions of loving each other as lovers, but there were other kinds of love and ties.
Letting go was a process and the journey wasn’t travelled in a straight line.
She gave him a small smile. “You can install me in the country, but I’m not designed for country hours.”
Greyston pushed away from the door with a chuckle and took the chair beside her. His gaze swept over to the footman in attendance. “Could I bother you for a glass of warm milk, my good man?”
“Certainly, m’lord.” He inclined his head, turning to the door at his back.
Lily nibbled on her toast between quick sips of tea. If Greyston was sending the footman on errands, her breakfast was likely to be cut short.
Once they were alone, Greyston scraped his chair closer, speaking in low tones. “Kelan told you about the chat we intend to have with Harchings?”
“And Georgina, apparently.” She bowed her head close to his. “Is that wise? Double the people means double the chance one won’t swallow and you’ll still have to rewind both.”
“Georgina’s mind is less stifled than the duke and they share some history. She may persuade him where we cannot.” Greyston shrugged. “If you don’t want Evelyn involved, we need you to distract her, preferably as far from Harchings’ study as possible.”
Lily sighed. “I can’t say I’m optimistic about Devon being receptive to—”
Her mouth snapped shut at the movement to her left, but it was only Kelan. Dressed in dark, svelte grey and immaculate white and his usual stone-cold mask.
At a glance, he took in the confidential nature of the scene and her unfinished plate of breakfast. “When you’re ready,” he said by way of greeting, drawing all the right conclusions.
Lily searched his swarthy face for tenderness, his navy gaze for warmth, and found none. Add perplexing to strange and complex.
She pushed her plate aside. “I’m done.”
Before they could rise from the table, the footman returned.
Kelan raised a brow at the glass of frothy milk placed in front of Greyston.
Unconcerned, Greyston drained half the glass and wiped a hand across his mouth. “It’s supposed to be excellent for gout.”
“So is chewing straw,” Kelan commented dryly.
Greyston grinned. “Then it’s a good thing I don’t have gout.”
The footman observed without the barest flicker of bland interest crossing his expression, which wasn’t to say the story wouldn’t be embellished upon on its translation below the stairs
Lily suppressed a smile as she stood. “Come on, I have a sudden urge to take in a long walk. Where is Evelyn?”
They found Evelyn and Georgina in the morning parlour, a small reception room flooded with sunlight from the glass
dome above.
Georgina scooped a pile of wooden poker chips from the table with one hand and stacked the deck of cards expertly with the other. “And that’s how you play solitaire,” she declared loudly.
Evelyn burst into laughter.
“The two of you together are trouble.” Lily shook her head at them as she walked up.
“Good morning, sleepy head,” Evelyn said on the tail end of her laughter. “The next time you visit, I’m installing a rooster in your room.” Her eyes danced to Kelan, then back to Lily, sparkling with utter mischief. “Oh, wait, you already have one.”
“Since you’re in such high spirits,” Lily muttered, “you can walk me through that peach orchard you mentioned yesterday. I need exercise before I’m crammed into a carriage.”
“You do realise the heavens are about to pour,” Evelyn informed her as she rose to her feet.
Georgina’s gaze slid to Greyston. “I love walking in the rain.”
“You’d make a spectacular drowned rat,” he drawled, his burr thickened in warm honey. “But could I have a word with you first?”
“Good morning, sleepy head,” Evelyn said, still laughing as she pulled her gaze from the deck of cards to Lily. “The next time you visit, I’m installing a rooster in your room.” Her eyes danced to Kelan, then back to Lily, sparkling with utter mischief. “Oh, wait, you already have one.”
“Since you’re in such high spirits,” Lily muttered, “you can walk me through that peach orchard you mentioned yesterday. I need exercise before I’m crammed into a carriage.”
Greyston’s hand landed on her shoulder. “Lily, could I have a word with you first?”
She looked over her shoulder. What now? A glance at Kelan told her nothing, but then his face never did.
Greyston’s hand tightened on her shoulder. “Lily?”
Lily turned back to Evelyn with a smile. “I’ll be right back for that walk.”
“No rush,” she said. “The Heavens are about to pour anyway.”
“I love to walk in the rain,” Georgina murmured, her gaze sliding past Lily to Greyston.
The Dark Matters Quartet Page 64
