Notorious Pleasures (Maiden Lane #2)(97)

“But what about Anne? What about your fears of betrayal?”

He felt ignoble panic rise in his chest. “They don’t matter.”

“Yes.” She took a deep breath. “Yes, they do. Anne horribly betrayed you, and you haven’t trusted a woman since. I can’t live with the constant fear that I’ll do something that you’ll misinterpret.”

“No!” He closed his eyes, trying to control himself so he could make this important plea. “I was a cad, I admit it, to ever doubt you. You never strayed from me when we were together. You weren’t the one who found someone else. I was.”

“But—”

“No, hear me out.” He squeezed her hand. “I know I am the problem. Griffin told me that he’d never seduced Anne, yet I refused to give him the satisfaction of believing him. Please, please, Lavinia, trust me. Let me prove I can change.”

She was shaking her head, trying ineffectually to wipe at the tears. “What of parliament? Or the succession of the marquessate?”

“Don’t you see?” He shook his head, searching for the words, he who was known for his eloquence on the floor of the House of Lords. “None of that matters. Without you, I am a shadow of a man, a mere wisp. Parliament, even the marquessate, can survive without me, but I cannot survive without you.”

She made a sort of gasping sound.

“I love you, Lavinia,” he said, desperate now. “I don’t think that’s ever going to change, because I’ve tried to stop and I can’t. I love you and I want to marry you. Will you marry me?”

“Oh, Thomas!” She was half laughing, half crying. Her eyes were red, her cheeks blotchy, and strangely she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

HERO STARTED RUNNING the moment she saw Griffin beside Maximus on his horse. They were lit by flickering torches and in the midst of a desperate battle, but all she could see were the two men. Dear God, was her brother about to kill her lover?

“My lady!” George shouted, and blocked a blow from a man with a large stick. “My lady, please!”

Griffin ducked around Maximus’s horse. He shoved aside a man in his way, stabbed another with his sword, and punched and then kicked a third. In all of this, he never took his eyes from Hero. Even in the dimly lit alley, his pale green eyes seemed to glow with a savage light. He reached her just as George gave a shout and fired his pistol.

Hero flinched and turned to see a man falling, bloody, at George’s feet.

Then her shoulders were grabbed, and she was swung around. Griffin glared down at her. He’d lost his wig and was bleeding from a cut on his forehead. Blackened blood was drying on the right side of his face, his right eye gleaming in the midst of the gore like a demon.

She almost fainted from the relief of seeing him alive and whole. Thank God she’d arrived in time. Thank God she’d not have to spend the rest of her life mourning him. Thank God—

Griffin opened his mouth. “What the hell are you doing here, you bloody stupid woman?”

She blinked and stiffened. “I just spent the last hour traveling across London to get to you!”

“I told you never to go into St. Giles alone!” He shook her.

“I had George—”

He snorted. “George! One man! And after dark. Have you completely lost your senses?”

She thrust up her chin. “I was coming to rescue you, you… you cad!”

Tears of humiliation and hurt were flooding her eyes. She shoved away from him and turned to flee.

He muttered a completely inappropriate curse and grabbed her from behind. He swung her around, and then his mouth was on hers, hot and angry and oh so alive.

She was glad—so very glad—that he was well, even if he’d just been awful to her, that she opened her lips beneath his and wrapped her arms as tightly as she could around his neck. Sight and sound and place disappeared until it was just the two of them, alone in their own world. Her heart was beating loud in her ears. She could smell gunpowder and sweat on him, and the sharp, acrid scents made him more real. More alive. She could taste her own tears on his lips—tears of joy.

“Hero,” he groaned.

“Griffin,” she sighed.

“Jesus,” someone muttered in disgust nearby.

Griffin raised his head but didn’t take his emerald eyes from hers. “Go away, Wakefield.”

Hero’s eyes widened, and she glanced wildly around until she saw her brother, still seated on his black horse, staring disapprovingly down at them.

“You can’t take him!” she cried, and clutched at Griffin’s broad shoulders. Maximus could hardly arrest Griffin if she clung to him bodily.

“He’s not going to arrest me,” Griffin said, arrogant as always. “Not if you marry me.”

“Are you blackmailing my sister?” Maximus growled.

“If I have to.” Griffin’s gaze had returned to hers, and what she saw there suddenly made her heart fly free. “I’ll do whatever it takes to marry you, Hero.”

She caressed his jaw—the only part of him not covered in blood—with unsteady fingers. “You don’t have to blackmail me to marry you. I love you.”

His eyes flared and he pulled her close again. “Do you mean that? You’ll marry me?”