Linley thought about how she must look to him. Her hair was dull and lifeless, and fell out in chunks. She was thin to the point of emaciation. To say that her face had life in it was a gross exaggeration. She looked like she’d crawled up from the grave.
“Patrick, when I think of all the things you’ve endured for my sake, I am humiliated,” she said. “You have seen me at my absolute worst.”
“It’s true, I have.” He tried to crack a smile. “I am on very intimate terms with your inner workings. I know your body as surely as I know my own. You have no secrets from me now, darling.”
Linley put her head in her hands. How could she ever face him again?
“I didn’t say that to embarrass you,” he said, pulling her hands down and turning her chin up to him. “I want you to know how honored I am, knowing that I was the one there for you when you needed someone the most. I felt useful. I felt…needed.”
“Oh, Patrick. Of course I need you. I wouldn’t know what to do without you.”
“Then I suppose I have a confession to make.” It was time. He needed to tell her what he’d done. What he was willing to do. “I told you that I sold Kyre House, but I did not tell you what I plan to do with the money. I have talked it over with your father, and he has agreed to take me on as a sort of partner. I will invest the money into your expeditions, and in exchange, I will be allowed to come along on any trips I choose.”
“I…I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you’ll tolerate me a little longer. At least until the money runs out.”
“Just how much money are we talking about here?”
Patrick grinned. “Thirty thousand, give or take.”
“Thirty thousand pounds?” she cried. “Are you mad? People don’t just give away money like that! You could live like a king for the rest of your life on thirty thousand!”
“That is stretching it a bit, but yes, I could live nicely. Alone. At Wolford Abbey, sitting at my great big dining room table. Heating a hundred rooms that will never be used,” he explained. “Or we could live nicely. Sleeping in tents in the desert. Driving dog sleds in the Antarctic. Together.”
They could be together. He was the stupidest, most foolish man alive, but they could be together!
“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked. “Not even I think I’m worth thirty thousand pounds, and I have an awfully high opinion of myself.”
Patrick laughed. “You’re worth every penny. And more, if I had it.”
“But couldn’t we split it? Fifteen for you and fifteen for my father?” she asked. “I feel like you’re being cheated. You’re not very good with money, and in a few months you’ll wish you had a little something left to pay your own bills.”
“Your father and I have an agreement, and it wouldn’t be right to go back on the terms. I am a gentleman, you know.”
Linley shook her head and laughed. “Being a gentleman almost got you killed. It seems silly to abide by such a ridiculous code of honor. Don’t you ever want to behave badly once in a while?”
“I have been known to misbehave.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t mean when you were a child and your cook said you could have one sweet, but you took two. I mean something really naughty.”
“Ah, well, perhaps you have me there.”
“Don’t worry,” Linley said. “Stick with me and I’ll get you into all sorts of mischief. Before long, you’ll be begging my father to let you out of your agreement.”
Linley leaned in and wrapped her arms around him. She pressed her lips to his neck, sliding them up to his ear, and across his freshly shaven jaw. With one hand, she ran her fingers through his hair, pulling just hard enough to tilt his head back. With the other, she began to unfasten the buttons of his pajama shirt.
There was no doubt in her mind they’d find themselves in all sorts of sticky situations. And—if she had anything to do with it—the sooner the better.
“Linley, I don’t think that is such a good idea.” Patrick tried to untangle himself from her arms, but Linley held him tight.
“Of course it isn’t a good idea,” she said. “It wasn’t a good idea the first time, but that did not seem to stop us.”
He shook his head. “I knew there would be consequences for what we did, and I ignored them. I put your health and happiness in jeopardy.”
“None of this was your fault,” Linley explained, running her fingers through his dark hair.
“I should have shown some self-restraint.”
“Not with me, Patrick,” she said. “Never with me.” Linley slipped her hand into the waistband of his white cotton pajamas. She felt him grow hard in her hand. “I love how I can make that happen.”
“It is a natural reaction to stimulation,” he replied. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
Linley refused to take no for an answer. “You always say that. And you’re always lying. I know what it means. It means you want me.”
“Of course I want you.”
She stroked him. “You could have me.”
Patrick shook his head. “We are practically in a church.”