Page 27 of A Lady's Wager
She huffed, clapping a hand to her forehead. She’d missed his teasing. “If that was all it took, I would have sought the man out weeks ago.” Her lungs couldn’t draw in enough air. He was here.
“Just so I’d come?”
She turned away. The moon drifted just above the line of trees on the other side of the park. “I don’t think you know how much I’ve missed you.” She hugged herself, wishing she hadn’t admitted that. What if he weren’t here to apologize? This vulnerability only opened her to more hurt.
Strong arms wrapped around her from behind. “I think I have an idea,” he whispered in her ear. The words tickled their way through her, sending little thrills across her skin.
“Do you? Your duties to the Crown haven’t distracted you?” The scent of his musky cologne, which she’d missed so much in his absence, wafted over her.
“I hoped they would. They didn’t.”
He’d missed her. She clung to his arms, relishing in their safety. Was she fooling herself? He belonged to the king, and that meant he had to leave again. She pulled out of his embrace and walked farther into the park. “Where have you been?”
There was a pause, then his footsteps came toward her. “Patrolling the Channel.” He sounded disappointed.
She fingered the flowers tied with a ribbon and pinned to her bodice at the neckline. This could end worse than their lastconversation. Fate was cruel to give her a glimmer of hope. “And how did the Channel treat you?”
“Very poorly. We barely made it back to Deptford.”
“Did you win battles?” They should return to the ballroom. What had she been thinking? She hadn’t been, and that was her problem.
He took her hand and pulled her back toward the tree. “Corah, I didn’t come to talk about victories. I came to ask your forgiveness. I know, after how I hurt you, I do not deserve to ask for your love.”
She tensed, waiting, not daring to believe.
“But here I am, devoid of eloquence and sanity, to tell you not a moment has passed since we parted that I haven’t thought of you.” His hands encircled her waist and he placed a kiss on her cheek like he had that day in the gorge. The warmth of his breath washed over her skin. “Not a moment has passed that I haven’t wished I’d agreed to your pleading. I thought I didn’t need anyone in this world, but I was wrong. I desperately need Corah Bradford.”
He needed her. The vulnerability of his voice undulated through her, filling every thought, every breath. She slid her arms around him, leaning her head on his chest. Her pulse raced. How many times had she wished to be right here, cradled against his tall, muscled form? “Why would you need Corah Bradford, who sings silly songs in parks at the break of dawn to fulfill ridiculous wagers and searches for diamonds by the river?”
He pressed her tightly against him. “Because she laughs at my teasing, and not many do that. Haltwhistle, for example.”
She giggled. “He looked ready to murder you in the ballroom.” She traced the buttons on the back of his coat, then ran her fingers along the braid.
“Haltwhistle? Ha! He can’t remember which is the handle side of a pistol. There’s nothing to fear from him.”
Despite his joke, his heart pounded wildly beneath the soft ruffles of his shirt. She closed her eyes, reveling in the sound. He was here. He loved her. He wanted her.
He fished a little box out of his pocket and held it for her to see. “I had this made. I intended to wear it as a cravat pin, but I want you to have it.”
She opened the box. Moonlight caught a yellow-tinted crystal encircled by smaller crystals of the same hue. “Are these Bristol diamonds?” she asked, running her finger over the smooth facets.
“I stole a piece that day in the gorge. I wanted something to carry with me. Something that reminded me of you.”
She leaned into him and pulled the pin from the box. “Do you not wish to keep it?” She fastened it to the ribbon on the flowers at her neckline.
“I want you to have it so that no matter where you venture, you’ll have a little piece of home.”
“And a little piece of that magical day I spent with you.” She stayed still, at once loving the feel of his steadiness and fearing his speech meant he’d soon be gone.
“I love you, Corah. Can you bring yourself to marry such a blasted fool?”
Marry. She raised her head, which brought her lips dangerously close to his. The sincerity in his eyes drew tears to hers. Had it only been hours ago that she sat at her dressing table wondering how to forget him? She’d thought him lost, if not to the sea, then to duty and benevolence. He hadn’t seen the diamonds through life’s rough exterior. “Do you not mean ‘blithering, addlepated son of a blunderbuss’?”
Derrick chuckled and lifted her from the ground in a crushing hug. Corah laughed with him, not caring whatattention it would draw. Then he released her and pressed his lips to hers. Her mind went fuzzy at the warmth of his kiss. A tear ran down her cheek. Hours ago she would have wagered she’d never see him again, that she’d be haunted by what might have been for the rest of her existence. Now here he was, offering his heart and all he had as though he thought it a pitiful payment for her love. He didn’t understand it meant more than anything the world had to give.
She pulled back, then went up on her toes to whisper in his ear, “Yes. I cannot think of anything I’d rather be than the wife of the best man in all His Majesty’s navy.”
He brought his forehead to hers. “It will not be easy.”
