Page 60 of The Scholar's Key
He let out a sigh as he opened his eyes. “Not here.”
Her heart leaped. “Somewhere else?”
“We shouldn’t.”
“But?”
“My aunt and uncle are out at an event tonight. If you wish to… further things, I suppose we could sneak you into the house.”
She clapped her hands together in glee before she realized she was making herself look like a young fool. “Wonderful,” she said. “I shall come to the back door, then?”
He shot her a stern look. “I will come to you and walk you to the house.”
“But—”
He shook his head. “You will not be walking the streets of Bath alone. Especially in the late hours.”
“I have done it before.”
“That was foolhardy.”
She raised a brow elegantly. “I do hope you are not calling me a fool.”
“I said your actions were foolhardy. But then, who am I to talk when I am agreeing to this with you?”
“It will be fun,” she said with a grin. “You’ll see.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” she heard him murmur as she stood and walked away, their banter adding a lightness to her step.
* * *
Noah was the fool now.
He and Percy were walking together in charged silence to his aunt and uncle’s home. After the party had retired for the evening, he had returned there alone as expected. Eric had wanted to continue the party elsewhere, and Noah had been glad when he went out on his own after Noah made an excuse of needing to retire early for the night.
Eric was disappointed, but it didn’t seem to bother him to continue the evening’s entertainment without Noah.
Percy had been waiting for him with an eager grin on her face, and Noah found that he couldn’t turn her down. Not only did he not have it within him to do so, but he was concerned that she would assume there was something wrong with her if he said no.
Which was so far from the truth. He supposed now he would have to show her just how far.
The air of anticipation between them, one that appeared to be near to crackling, had happened the moment she had slipped out the door of her house clad in a navy cloak. They both appeared to be anticipating what was to come, and Noah wondered how, once they were finished with one another, anything could ever be the same again.
He opened the back door, entering first so that he could look from one side to the next to determine if any of the servants were still about. He had given his valet the night off and assumed that just his aunt’s lady’s maid and uncle’s valet would be waiting for their master and mistress to return. Finding no one about, he waved Percy in, and she remained close to him as they hurried up the stairs to his bedroom. When he shut the door behind them, he nearly sagged against it with relief.
Meanwhile, Percy was near to giddy as she all but pounced upon him, her fingers drifting up his chest.
“We made it,” she said with a rush of glee.
“We did.”
“Does it not make it so much more exciting with the knowledge that we could be caught?”
No, it certainly did not. “I suppose.”
She pushed him backwards until his shoulders hit the door behind him.
“I missed you this week,” she said, and he wondered how a woman as vibrant as she could miss a man as boring as he in her life. He stared into her eyes to find that she wasn’t lying, her pupils large and dark.
