Page 61 of A Fragile Enchantment

“I came back for Sinclair.” Kit sighed heavily. “Jack said he was going to cut off my account unless I married Rosa.”

“What?” She gasped. “So you…? That’s—”

He pulled back suddenly, taking all his warmth with him. “I swear, if you tell him—”

“I won’t!”

“I mean it. I won’t hear the end of it if you do. It was almost impossible to get him to agree to accept my help in the first place.”

“I do not wish to upset you any more than you already are, so I will refrain from reminding you that you are a good man.” She paused. “And also thatyouare the one who told me that you should not make yourself miserable for others’ sake.”

He glared at her. “Thanks for that.”

“Still, I promise I will not tell him.”

He seemed to relax some at her reassurance. A small, selfish part of her wanted to pull him back to her and let him curl up against her. To coax him to accept more than a scrap of tenderness and comfort. Because in that secret he’d trusted her with, she’d glimpsed who he really was. Hadn’t she known it all along?

In all the ways that mattered, Kit Carmine was just like her.

“But I do think you should know…” She cleared her throat, suddenly shy. “I meant what I said the other day. Our fates are not sealed. It is never too late to live the way you wish, and you are not doomed to anything. I understand what it’s like to not want to disappoint people. But you deserve to be happy, too. Life is too short, and it isyours.”

“You hypocrite.” He sounded fond, the insult spoken as tenderly as a pet name. It made heat bloom within her.

He held her gaze with his own, then let it slide down, as if he was memorizing her face. He lingered on the curve of her lips as they parted in anticipation. Right now, there was nothing and no one but the two of them. No expectations, nothing but the desire she saw reflected in the brightness of his eyes. She had never felt less like she was dying.

Something in her face must have changed, because his body became charged with awareness. He twined his fingers into her loose hair, pushing it back from her face. His hand seared her chilled skin like a brand. She knew, down to her very marrow, that she was about to be kissed. Her head swam. It felt like a dream—a fairy tale. It didn’t feel possible, that she should’ve been allowed to have something she wanted so badly.

“Are you sure?” she blurted out. “After everything that has happened, I understand if you are tired, or—”

“Stop talking.”

He kissed her.

At first, he was impossibly gentle, his lips brushing against hers. Niamh sat up as best she could to meet him, sinking into the veritable mountain of pillows beneath her. Her fingertips skimmed his jaw. His breath shuddered against her mouth. That was all it took. A shot of pure, liquid firelight tore through her body. As he drank her in, his eyes darkened.

Perhaps this was inevitable from the moment he first stirred her anger.

When he kissed her again, all she could think was,Of course.The intensity of it was all Kit. He curled his hand around the side of her neck, angling her chin up to him. He was assured and uncompromising, all of his brutal, single-minded focus applied to eradicating every coherent thought she’d ever had, savemore. When his tongue teased open her mouth, she melted completely into his hands.

Neither of them possessed even an ounce of patience. He bentover her, one hand against the nip of her waist as he dragged her closer. The brass buttons of his waistcoat were cool and rough against her fingers as she loosened them. She relished the thrill of satisfaction when she freed him of the last one—and again when she slipped her hands beneath his wet shirt. His breath hitched, and his muscles tightened against her palms.

He tasted like smoke, and he smelled like rain and damp wool, and she might very well go mad from how good he made her feel. She floated in a haze of pleasure and exhaustion. “Is this a dream?”

“I don’t know,” he said huskily, his eyes aglow. “Let me kiss you until dawn, and I suppose we’ll find out.”

Perhaps tomorrow, reality would crash down around her. But here, right now, with the patter of the rain and the whisper of the fire around them, she couldn’t find it in herself to worry, to regret a single self-indulgent moment at all.

17

Niamh awoke to total darkness. The rain had slowed, but the fire had gone to ashes in the hearth and the candles dripped down to nothing in their iron stands. She sat up slowly, cradling her aching head. What time was it? Exhaustion clung to her like gauze, too thick to push through, and it felt as though she hadn’t eaten in an age. Which meant she’d slept all day.

She shot bolt upright, her stomach twisting itself into a knot. How could she have let this happen? She was wasting so much—

Kit’s voice echoed sharply through her mind.You don’t need to work yourself to the bone. Whatever you think you have to prove or earn, it’s all in your head.

Right. Shehadpromised him she would try to believe that, impossible though it might be.

And then he had kissed her.