Page 3 of The Heir’s Return

“I will find a way,” Harry rasped.

“Is that so?” Was it his imagination, or did she lean in a little closer when she spoke? She must feel the rapid pounding of his heart beneath her palm; there was no way she could not when it felt as if it were rattling his ribcage with its force. It would take so little effort to snake his hand up and tangle it in her hair, to bring her head down to his and finally know what she tasted like. Sweet and intoxicating, he imagined.

But Harry did not move.

He respected and cared about Mina far too much to do that to her. Even as his body cursed his nobility, he reminded himself of the very reason why he’d never tried to act upon his desires when it came to his friend: He refused to make her into a tawdry joke. He would not reduce their years of companionship down to a ribald story his schoolmates told while sipping drinks and tossing cards. The future earl and the steward’s daughter… No. Harry refused to do anything that might jeopardize the chance Mina had at a respectable future. They might toe the line with their antics, but Harry would not cross into any territory that might sully her reputation, no matter how it killed him.

Besides, he doubted she felt one speck of what he felt for her, and to have her reject him was not a slight he thought he could weather.

Harry cleared his throat and sat up, grateful that she did so as well so he might bend his knees to mask the burgeoning crisis his breeches did little to disguise.

“Perhaps you’ll find a frog beneath your pillow,” Harry suggested lamely, his brain still too soft and fuzzy to form any retaliation more substantial.

“Is that supposed to intimidate me?” Mina snorted and tucked a wayward lock of hair behind the dainty shell of her ear.

What Harry would have given to have been the one to do that for her…

“Then I will remove the final chapters from all your books.” His lips tilted in maniacal glee at her affronted gasp.

“You monster!” She pressed her hand to her breast in horror.

“That is rather gruesome, is it not?” he capitulated. “I don’t think I could do that to innocent books.”

“Then I shall go unpunished.” Her little wiggle of glee made him smile despite himself.

“For now, but just you wait. Your time will come.”

She shivered dramatically before saying, “I do not doubt it one bit.” She glanced up at the sky and noted the position of the sun. “However, it will have to wait until later. Papa has asked that I meet with him before supper this evening.”

Harry nodded in understanding. For all her willfulness and wild ways, Mina adored her father and seemed to try her very best to obey him—even if she did not always succeed. Most days, she’d spend at least an hour or two sitting with him as he worked. Harry had never witnessed it, but he knew she was tutored in mathematics and economics, and naturally, she absorbed the general skills it took to be steward of a large estate by sheer proximity and immersion. She had a sharp mind to pair with her quick wit, and that made Mina all the more devastating.

“More ledgers?” Harry asked. Finally, sure he would not make a fool of himself, he rocked into a standing position and offered his hands to Mina to help her to her feet.

“Actually, I am unsure what this is regarding. I’ve already had my lessons, and the harvest isn’t for another few weeks.” She made a half-hearted attempt to shake the wrinkles from her skirts as she lifted her shoulder in a shrug. “I suppose I shall find out, won’t I?” The warmth of Mina’s smile made Harry’s entire body tingle.

That evening, Harry stripped down to his bare skin and raked his hair back from his face. He was due for a trim—his valet never missed an opportunity to tell him as much—but Mina had once remarked that she enjoyed it when he wore it long…and he was a fool for her. Utterly gone. Had been for years. So, he ignored his valet’s protests and his friend’s comments and wore his hair just the way she liked it. He could still imagine her fingers combing through it when she’d made the off-handed comment. She’d always thought nothing of touching him so casually. It had taken some time for him to become used to it, but now he craved it. Hardly two hours could be strung together during a day when he did not imagine it, and more.

His experience with women was limited to a single night this past spring when his schoolmates at university had dragged his disgruntled hide to a brothel. Not only had he been supremely uncomfortable setting foot inside such an establishment when his heart lay in Kent, but he could not comprehend the appeal of sitting in a semicircle with his friends as they all watched a woman slowly disrobe. Something was exciting on a primal level about watching each new inch of skin be revealed, but it was equally as dissatisfying to know that this was the wrong woman. She was too old, too jaded; she smiled too little.

She was not Mina.

Immediately after her heavy breasts with their tawny nipples had been revealed to a cheering crowd of randy young bucks, Harry had stood and quit the room to walk back to the dormitory alone in the damp fog of the evening.

Since then, he’d been unable to stop wondering what Mina would look like if she disrobed for him. Would she hold herself confident and erect as she normally did, or would she blush and reveal a bashful side she reserved only for him in private? To tell the truth, the thought of being privy to a secret side of Mina’s personality made him even harder than his half-veiled imaginings of her supple body.

Harry groaned as his cock throbbed between his thighs, bobbing to life as his imagination began to take hold.

It took no small amount of effort to force himself to climb into the tall brass bathing tub and sink beneath the steaming water. A frozen pond would have done more to alleviate his current condition, but the rest of him wouldn’t have found it nearly as pleasant. He made quick work of washing himself with the cake of soap and cloth his valet had provided before dunking his head beneath the sandalwood-scented water. When he was done, he swiped the blond locks from his face and leaned the back of his head against the tub’s rolled rim. Sighing in relief, he had all of twenty seconds’ worth of peace before his mind began to wander.

What would Mina’s skin feel like if she were floating there in the tub with him? How would her soft, slick curves feel beneath his hands? Pressed against him? Gliding across his flesh? How beautiful her skin would look flushed from the heat of the steaming bathwater…

As if of its own volition, Harry’s hand gripped the base of his cock and squeezed.

“Bloody hell…” he muttered, his eyes fluttering closed as a zing of pleasure shot through his limbs.

He imagined Mina’s lips on his, that perfect little tip of her tongue darting out to catch a droplet of water on his jaw.

He began to stroke himself in long, slow pumps, each motion with just enough pressure to tease his pleasure higher.