Page 72 of A Lady's Lesson in Scandal
‘I need to tell you something, Beau.’
His body hardened around her. He didn’t say anything, just squeezed his arm tighter around her waist. She took it as a sign of encouragement.
‘There’s a reason I was so good at darts yesterday afternoon.’
Drake ran his nose up her neck, nuzzling the sensitive skin under her ear. ‘I thought I’d have to employ sophisticated tactics of wit and interrogation before you revealed your secrets.’
Millie turned in his arms so she could see his face. ‘No. Just your trust, Beau. That’s what I’m asking for. I need you to trust me. Because I’m going to trust you right now. And we both know, that isn’t easy.’ She felt her heart thumping against her chest as if it wanted to escape. But she needed to tell him everything. Now. He wouldn’t dare betray her. Not after what they’d shared.
‘Tell me.’ His icy-blue eyes flashed in a beam of early-morning sunlight.
‘I have been training as an investigator. For the Queen. And this wedding is part of my mission. Well, the wedding guests, really.’ She could feel her cheeks heating. She was talking toofast, but if she didn’t get it out quickly, her secrets might stay stuck in her throat forever.
Drake stayed quiet. His eyes were unfathomable arctic pools as he waited for her to continue.
Millie fiddled with the sheet, folding it back and forth through her fingers, then flattening it again. ‘I know you work for the prime minister. And I’m guessing we’re after the same man. I want us to work together, Beau. Not just on this mission. But always, with everything. I want this marriage to be real, and close, and strong. So, we need to be partners. Equals. Fighting on the same side, for the same cause.’
There. She said it. All of it. Her heart felt lighter as she took a liberating breath.
Drake released her, sitting up and pulling the sheets with him to cover his lap. He clenched his jaw. ‘You’re investigating Franklin St George?’ His deep voice gave nothing away. But Millie had come too far to back down now.
‘Yes. I am.’
‘And you know the crimes he’s committed?’
‘Kidnapping innocent girls and selling them into the flesh markets in France? Yes.’ Millie sat with him, pulling the sheet to cover herself, feeling more vulnerable than she had with her thighs spread and Drake impaling her.
‘You know how dangerous this man is, that he works for a secret society?’
‘The Devil’s Sons. Yes. I know. And I want to work with you to take them down. Of course, I know you plan on bringing these vile men to the House of Lords. The prime minister still believes they’ll receive justice, but once you speak with Philippa, she’ll explain. Exacting justice upon these bastards ourselves is the only way to ensure no more girls are taken.’ Millie held her breath. He had to agree. Even if it took time to convince him, sheknew he wanted justice just as badly as she did. And she trusted him. He would make the right choice. He must.
Drake needed to make a choice. The hardest of his life. He had just spent the last few hours in the arms of the only woman he ever wanted. The truth of his love for Millie crashed through his soul like an anvil, reshaping his priorities, his understanding of life’s meaning, his reason for breathing. And now, she had finally revealed her secret.
Killian was fucking right all along.
Once he knows, he’ll be impossible to live with.
Drake heaved an internal sigh. Millie secretly worked for the Queen, just like her friend – and Killian’s now wife – Hannah.
But Millie trusted him. Revealed everything without him even asking. She wanted to be united with Drake in their bodies and in their mission. It all sounded perfect.
And Drake was going to ruin it. He must.
She was too precious. Her life too valuable to risk at the hands of evil bastards like Franklin St George. Even imagining her standing next to him while he fought the twisted men responsible for this evil filled him with an emotion long-dead. Fear. A warrior full of fear quickly became a dead man. Dead men couldn’t protect the ones they loved. The whole idea of them investigating crimes together was an impossible fairy tale. Now he just needed to explain that to Millie.
Of course, she would be angry. At first. But she was an intelligent woman. She would see reason. She must.
‘Millie, I swore never to love another woman the way I loved Nora.’ He reached out and traced his finger down her smoothcheek, tangling his hand in her hair as it draped over her shoulder. ‘You’ve proven me right.’
Shock parted her lips on a sharp inhalation. She tried to pull away, but he shifted his hand to her shoulder, holding her steady.
‘I don’t understand.’ Tears filled her rich brown eyes.
‘I will never love you the way I loved Nora. Because my love for Nora was like a shadow. An echo ringing hollow and cold. What I feel for you is…’ He swallowed, looking out the window at the rising sun in a winter sky, desperate for inspiration to quantify the infinite in syllables and sounds. A fool’s task. But still, he had to try. ‘What I feel for you is forever. It’s my breath. My beating heart. It eclipses every other emotion. If I have a soul, you are the essence that fills it.’
Tears rolled down her cheek, but her eyes crinkled at the corners in a smile so precious, Drake’s fluttering heart almost flew away.
‘You must know, Beau, it’s the same for me. It’s why I told you everything. Because you are everything to me.’
