Page 27 of The Lord Next Door I Wished For
He determinedly ignored the anger that heated his blood. If only he could take her parents to task for the way they treated her.
But judging by the way she was so stubbornly refusing to meet his gaze, and the way her cheeks were still pink with embarrassment, he forced the anger away and focused on what she'd just admitted.
That night she’d been looking for a friend.
She’d been looking for…
He drew in a sharp breath. “Jane.”
She glanced over in question.
“Were you there for me that night?” The moment he asked it, he felt like a fool. Perhaps being the object of so much female attention had well and truly gone to his head.
But then she nodded, her blush deepening before she turned back to the stallion and began talking to it in hushed tones.
Maybe she felt his continued stare, because eventually she spoke again. “I’d heard you were in town and that you’d be at the masquerade and I thought…”
What? What did you think?
Her silence when she trailed off nearly drove him mad.
Eventually, she shook her head. “It was silly. And you were right to call me reckless.”
He shifted from foot to foot, fighting the urge to move closer. To go to her.
Shehadbeen reckless, but she’d gone to all that trouble to see him.
Him. Luke. Her old friend. Not the heir to a dukedom or the new marquess, but him.
His lungs struggled to work properly and his heart was thundering as he watched her speak softly to this brave, strong, no-doubt lonely stallion.
“Do they take you out enough, Midnight? Hmm?” Her voice was a lovely, husky murmur, and he felt it all the way to his toes.
He meant to stay silent, to give her space. But he still reeled from this new revelation, and he couldn’t let it go. “Jane…You snuck out a window in a London townhome in the middle of the night, and you took all those risks…to see me?”
She didn’t respond, but her hands faltered in their stroking, and he knew she’d heard him. And her silence was confirmation.
He knew right then and there the truth he’d been trying to ignore.
He wanted to marry this girl more than he wanted anything in the world.
And it had nothing to do with his grandfather or her property or the fact that he needed a wife. No…
This was the only woman Luke could ever marry.
Because she hadn’t just snuck out of her school that night…
She’d stolen his heart.
CHAPTEREIGHT
Jane stared at Midnight,tense as could be, as she waited for Luke to laugh or tease.
Why did you admit to such a thing, you silly ninny?
Alarmingly, it was her mother’s voice in her head. It had been an age since it was her mother’s voice she heard. Not since she’d gone off to Madame Bellafonte’s. And that made her miss Jocelyn, and Isabelle, and her cousins more than ever. Her friends would know what she ought to say and do, but Jane couldn’t help but feel she was going about it all wrong.
Like just now. Admitting to Luke that she’d been lonely, that she’d sought him out…
