Page 17 of Winner Takes All

“Take her home,” he ordered Jonas and backed away, his furious gaze never leaving Charles. “Be certain to tell the viscount exactly how thisgentlemantreated his daughter tonight.” He flexed his hands in and out of tight fists, as if he were still considering charging straight back and beating Charles senseless. “I’m certain Darlington will want to rethink his future plans.”

Then he turned and strode off into the darkness. The suddenly somber crowd stared awkwardly between Charles and Frankie. The party was over.

Shaw shoved open the double doors of his barn, stepped into the welcoming shadows, and blew out a hard breath of frustration. Frankie had stirred up all kinds of old jealousies and fresh yearnings tonight, all of which were better left unacknowledged.Christ!He’d nearly pulped a man for daring to touch her and would have gotten himself tossed into prison over it if she hadn’t stopped him. Yet he’d had no business interfering at all.

She wasn’t his. She wouldneverbe his. The sooner he accepted that, the better for both of them.

They had one morning left when they would be forced to be together. One morning when he had to pretend that he didn’t want her, that he possessed no feelings for her. Then it would be over, and he’d never have to see her again.

He would survive it.Somehow.

Needing to move before he punched his fist into the wall, he walked through the dark barn. All the grooms were still at the bonfire and wouldn’t be back until dawn. Only one of the horses swung its head over its stall door in curiosity that he was there, then decided he wasn’t worth the attention and turned back inside its stall. Shaw checked that the slide bolts on each of the stalls were secure for the night, that all lanterns and lamps had been extinguished—

The tack room door stood open and unlocked. Cursing whatever groom had left it that way, he crossed the wide aisle to close it.

“Running away again, are you?”

The soft voice floated to him through the shadows, and Shaw froze with his hand on the door, ready to push it closed. He glanced over his shoulder toward the front of the barn.

Frankie stood just inside the open doorway, lit by a slant of moonlight. A vision of ebony and silver, she resembled a ghost wandering the night. But wasn’t that truly what she was? A ghost from his past who still haunted him, a reminder of all he could never have?

“You shouldn’t be here,” he dodged as he turned to face her. He crossed his arms over his chest in a pose that should have been a battle stance but in the end only felt defensive. Yet he couldn’t help himself, because open arms meant arms capable of reaching for her, holding her, and making love to her the way his soul ached to do.

“Uncle Jonas is making excuses for me. I won’t be missed until morning.” Undeterred, she pressed softly, “But you…you’re running away, just like you ran away from Willow Wood.”

Her accusation grated. “I left Willow Wood to start my own business.”

The moonlight washed over her shoulders as she stepped slowly toward him like an angel emerging from the midnight darkness. Her eyes gleamed at his attempt to walk that knife’s edge between admitting the truth and saving his pride.

“Youran awayfrom Willow Wood,” she corrected, taking another step toward him. Her ankle was healing, but she couldn’t hide a faint limp. Of course she’d ridden all the way here on her own, despite that. The little minx was as stubborn as ever and refused to be ignored. “You’re doing it again tonight.”

“Exactly,” he bit out, staying where he was, just out of reach of the moonlight. He didn’t dare come closer, didn’t dare stray into the light where she could see his feelings for her on his face. “I ran away to keep from killing that bastard.”

“I don’t mean the fight.”

His heart jolted against his ribs. He knew what she meant, and the truth of it rubbed at him like a raw wound.

“I did run away,” he admitted quietly, “but not from Willow Wood. I ran away fromyou, Francesca.”

She remained still and silent, like one of those carved statues of angels in Westminster Abbey. Those weeping angels, frozen in stone, in time and place. Unearthly. Wholly unobtainable.

“I had to leave, don’t you understand? For the same reason I had to leave tonight. If I’d stayed, everyone would know how I feel about you.” He raked his hand through his hair to keep from reaching for her. “If I’d stayed at Willow Wood, I would have taken your innocence. You would have been ruined, I would have lost my position—God help us if your father had learned of what we’d already done.”

“Did you care about me?” she whispered. The tears in her eyes shone in the moonlight.

So much more than you’ll ever know.Instead, he confessed hoarsely, “I cared enough about you to leave.”

With a pained gasp, her lips parted delicately, and a tear slipped slowly down her cheek. “I was devastated that next morning when I’d learned that you’d gone without even saying goodbye.”

A bubble of formed in his chest. “I couldn’t tell you that I was leaving.” No, she would have tried to entice him to stay, and he wouldn’t have had the strength to refuse her.

“I wanted to marry you.” Her voice was so soft that it was almost lost beneath the sounds of the horses growing restless in their stalls. “I loved you.”

With that, the bubble burst inside him, and he flinched at the brutal pain of it. “You were never meant for me.”

“I wasalwaysmeant for you, Jack.” She reached behind her back and unfastened the short row of buttons on her bodice. The dress fell loose around her bosom, and she slowly pushed it down, off her shoulders and arms, to fall to the floor in a puddle around her feet. “I still am.”

His eyes trailed over her. The cotton shift was so thin that the moonlight shined through it, silhouetting her waist, hips, and legs. The temptation of what she was offering burned low in his gut, and his blood hummed with desire. He’d seen her in just her undergarments before, that night at Willow Wood when she’d also removed her dress, when she’d whispered against his lips that she wanted to make love. When he knew he had to leave her.