Seeing Danger (Sinclair and Raven #2)(88)

“She needs the sleep, brother. Her body needs to heal itself. Saving you took everything she had and more.”

“Christ.” Lilly heard the breath hiss from Devon's mouth. “Just wake up, my love, please.”

She felt his fingers on her cheek, so soft she wanted to purr at the feeling. Instead, she forced herself of open her eyes.

“Lilly.” His arms slipped beneath her and she was pulled to his chest. “God, you scared me.”

“I'm all right.” Her voice sounded raspy and unused. “Just so tired.” Lilly wrapped her arms around his neck and held on. He kissed her hair, stroked her back and anywhere else he could reach.

“A-are you well, Devon?”

“Completely, thanks to you.” He lay her back on the bed then sat beside her hip, and she had her first look at him.

Unshaven, his face was lined with fatigue, green eyes shadowed, but to her he was the most handsome man she had ever seen.

“You are tired.” Lilly ran a finger beneath his eyes. “Are you telling me the truth? You are well?”

“I have no scars or marks. My heart is sound, love. Feel it.” He pulled his shirt free, then took her hand and slipped it beneath.

Lilly felt the heat from his body tingle through her palm.

“You saved me, Lilly, and for that I will be forever grateful. Yet I will not allow it again. Never again will I see you drained of life as you were when I regained consciousness. You have slept in this room for two days, unmoving in that bed until I thought you would never again wake.”

“Had I been run over by a carriage, the pain would have been less,” she whispered. “I felt as if someone had drained the blood from my veins and air from my lungs, and then suddenly there was darkness.”

“You were so pale. We had to get James to carry you from Danderfield's house, saying you had fainted in distress over my condition. Then we had to fabricate another lie that the bullet had, in fact, hit a flask in my pocket and the blood was merely from a flesh wound.”

“I would do it again to save you, Devon, and you cannot ask different of me.”

“We do not know what price you pay for this healing, Lilly. What harm this does to your body.” He braced his hands on either side of her head. “I have been scared before, but seeing you like that will be etched in my memory for some time.”

“I didn't want to live without you. Promise you will never leave me again, Devonshire Sinclair. I have no wish to dwell in the darkness with no light in my soul and no love in my heart, as I did before you entered my life.”

“I promise,” he whispered. “I love you.”





CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE


“Are you sure about this? Because I can turn the carriage around and we can make a run for it.”

“Very amusing, Nicholas,” Lilly said from her position beside him.

They were traveling up Raven mountain and would shortly arrive at the church where she was finally to wed Devon.

“There is something off about that family, though.”

“Off how?” Lilly looked at her handsome brother.

They had come so far since her abduction, and still had a lot to learn about each other, but she knew now he was a changed man.

Dressed in a charcoal coat and matching waistcoat, he seemed whole and healthy now. The cynical smile had gone, and he was often found with a genuine one in its place.

“I spoke with the magistrate after Dev's shooting. He said he was sure the man was dead, but then he appeared in the doorway, walking, although he was supported by his brother.”

“You know what happened, Nicholas.” Lilly looked out the window. She had never been a good liar and had no wish for her brother to see that.

A month had passed since that day when she had healed Devon, and every minute spent in his company, her love for the handsome, infuriating man grew.

“Yes, but there are other things too. Take Eden, for example. She's always hearing things others do not, and Cam seems to sniff the air a lot. Don't tell me you haven't noticed?”

“Actually, I haven't.”

“Oh well, perhaps I'm making more of it than need be. I like them, by the way; they just appear a little odd at times.”

“They are wonderful, as is James and his family.”

“Yes, it's nice to have them all in our lives.” He smiled at her. “You look stunning, sister.”

“Thank you, brother.”

Her dress was cream-embroidered muslin with a small train, and it was simple yet beautiful. Bee had styled her hair in soft ringlets and she wore a small circlet of flowers.

“We are here.”

“Oh, I wasn't nervous before, but now I am,” Lilly said, pressing a hand to her stomach, where butterflies seemed to have taken up residence.

“I love you, you know. Never forget that, sister.”

“Oh, Nicholas.” Lilly started to cry. “I love you too.”

“For pity’s sake, don't weep, woman. Sinclair will thrash me if I upset you today of all days.”

Lilly sniffed and then allowed Nicholas to help her down. Eden and Essie awaited her, along with Dorrie, Somer, and Samantha, who were hopping from foot to foot in their pink dresses. Warwick was looking bored.

This was it, she thought, this was the moment he became hers, and she and Nicholas officially became part of their family. She could hardly wait.