Page 89 of Teach a Rogue New Tricks
“The question, Jackson,” said Gwendolyn, “is what willAdado with him.”
Ada stepped away from the railing and strode toward the gangplank, never taking her gaze from Cass. “I’ll speak with him. That’s all I know for now.” She gathered her skirts and her courage and marched toward the docks.
As her feet met the shaky planks that bridged the ship and the dock, Cass rushed up to her, sweeping her off the plank and back onto the ship. He held her tight, looked down at her with something other than moon and starlight glinting in his eyes. “You’re leaving.”
She nodded. “I have always wished to travel, and now I am.”
“Damned quick, you are.”
She laughed. “When the opportunity arose, I could not ignore it.”
“Damned right you couldn’t. Proud of you.”
“Why are you here, Cass? And with my father of all people.”
“Bax is here, too. Not sure why. But it’s good to have him at my back. Not that he can see it in this pitch.”
“Don’t delay an answer, Cassius. I’m on a ship and now you are, too. You are supposed to be at a ball.”
He snorted. “So are you, Miss Cavendish. I made quite the scene saving ‘you’ from the nefarious clutches of an unsavory gentleman and it wasn’t evenyou.”
“I wish I had seen that. Who did you rescue?”
“Your sister. From your former, er, paramour.”
Lucas? Ada shook her head. It felt fuzzy with the number of details assaulting it. “But… Lucas is in the country?”
“Not anymore. He’s in London. Looking for you. Your sister reminded him you didn’t want him. He did not take it well, but by the time we’d left, he’d cozied up to a very proper-looking young lady in the corner of the ballroom.”
“Wonderful. He deserves to be happy. I could not give him that.”
His gaze dropped to her lips, grew hungry, then deflated. He glanced over his shoulder then back at her. “Ada, when does this ship leave?”
“At first light I’m told.” She’d not felt the darkness before this moment, but now it settled heavy around her shoulders, pressed against her chest until she could not breathe. Dawn would come, and she would leave. And this moment, standing in one another’s arms like they belonged there, wove their last goodbye. “No!” she barked, tightening her arms around him.
He flinched, looked at her with a curious tilt to his head. “Not at first light? When then?”
“No. No. I mean…” She looked down into the deep dark space between their bodies, took a shaky breath, then looked up into his eyes. They were soft and searching, promising laughter and heat and… love? “Come with me.” She grasped the lapels of his greatcoat and trapped herself in the spicy scent of him. “To France. To Italy. To all the other places. Just don’t say goodbye. Ma—”
She slammed her lips shut tight. She couldn’t say that. No respectable woman said such things. Nowomansaid such things. But she was a Cavendish woman. And perhaps that made all the difference.
She reached up on tiptoe and kissed his lips, quick, soft, a brand. “Marry me.”
The words had barely settled into the night air before his lips descended onto hers, opening her mouth with a decisive sweep of his tongue, plundering, taking, scattering small kisses along the corner of her lips, her cheek, tugging at her earlobe. Then he whispered, “It’s about time you made an honest man of me, Miss Cavendish.”
She squeaked and threw her arms around him. His arms tightened, lifted her off her feet and swung her around in a circle. The world faded into a swirl of midnight and stars, and when her feet touched the ship’s decking again, his thumbs caressed her cheek, and his eyes looked nowhere but at her.
“I love you,” he said. “I will follow you to the ends of the earth, love. In fact, I came here to beg you to let me follow you. No marriage required, though it would have been nice. Convenient you did all the work for me. You are a bold one, Ada.” He grinned, a wicked thing she adored. “And I love it.”
“I love you. I do. I love your humor and your cursing and, frankly, I’d let you kidnap me any day of the week.”
His hand massaged the nape of her neck. “You’ve hit the nail on the head, Ada. The problem lay not in the abduction but in who I abducted. I kidnapped the wrong woman.”
“Obviously.”
“What’s happening up there?” Her father’s voice tore through the dream they’d knitted around each other.
“Bollocks,” Cass hissed. “Forgot about the baron.”
