Page 20 of My Favorite Mistake
After a moment, Nick cleared his throat. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I was going to say when I found you.” His eyes were steady on hers, sincere. “I am very sorry to have hurt you. Because I could tell by the look on your face that I did. I’m sorry I didn’t find a way to tell you the truth before it was too late. That you’ve spent the past sixteen years feeling…”
“Like an easy mark,” Fanny supplied. “Foolish and cheap.”
Nick looked down, nodding. “I figured it’d be something along those lines. I am very sorry my actions made you feel that way, because that isn’t how I think of you at all, and those are things I would never want you to feel.” He looked up, his eyes resolute. “But I can’t honestly say I’m sorry I did it. Even if I’d somehow known exactly what would happen, even if you can’t forgive me and I lose you forever, I would never allow Noah to be born a bastard. I would do it all again, without hesitation.”
Fanny sighed. Her head was still swimming with all of this. But she found she didn’t feel foolish and cheap anymore. At least that was something. “I suppose I can understand that.”
A guarded hope flared in Nick’s eyes. “Does that mean you forgive me?” He sat up, reaching for her hands. “That you’ll give me another chance?”
Fanny bunched her hands into fists and buried them in her skirts. Nick’s face fell.
She lifted her chin. “I haven’t decided yet. This is all very sudden. Sudden and overwhelming. I’m going to need some time to sort out what I’m going to do about it.”
He leaned back, raising his palms. “That’s fair. You take all the time you need. Just as soon as you’re ready to talk, you’ll know where to find me. I’ll be over at the stables.”
Fanny pinched the bridge of her nose. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”
Nick frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean I told Lady Ardingly that her husband had made a terrible mistake and hired a good-for-nothing blackguard to be his new head trainer. Last I saw her, she was on her way to find his lordship and convince him to rescind his offer.”
Nick blanched. “You can’t do that!”
“Well, I already did, now didn’t I?”
“Look, Fanny, I understand I’ve some work to do. That I need to earn back your trust. But how am I to do that if I’m not allowed within three hundred miles of you?”
Fanny rubbed her temple. “I don’t know. I didn’t ask for any of this. What I need is a blessed minute to think!”
“Well, you’d better be quick about it, because in a couple of hours, his lordship will be heading back home, with or without me.” He hesitated, studying her, then reached out and took her hand. When she didn’t stop him, he caressed the back of her fist with his thumb, then guided it to his chest where he settled it, palm-side down, over his heart. Andlud! Nick Cradduck had to be going on forty, but damn if his chest wasn’t still a wall of sculpted muscle.
He must’ve made some sort of deal with the devil. ’Twas the only explanation for how a man could be so sinfully attractive.
“You feel it, too,” he murmured, his deep voice thrumming across her palm. “I know you do.”
“F-feel what?” Fanny sputtered, a feeble denial, even to her own ears.
“How right we are for each other,” Nick said, voice dark as liquid molasses.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Fanny lied.
Gad, she needed to stop looking into those storm-grey eyes, because she was starting to feel like she’d drunk half a bottle of gin.
Nick flipped her hand over and started caressing her palm. “I think you do.”
Lord, but that felt good. Fanny scowled at him. “Quit using your horse tricks on me!”
A smile broke out over his face, not the village idiot smile his brother sported, but his signature most-handsome-man-in-the-world smolder. “I would use every horse trick I have if it would win you back, and I wouldn’t feel the least bit sorry for it. But I don’t think they work on you. If they did, I wouldn’t have botched things up in the first place.”
“A likely story,” Fanny muttered.
“Although I’m pleased that you think I must be using them.” He scooted closer and brought those strong, warm hands up to frame her face. His voice was husky as he said, “That means this is working.”
He leaned forward, and she thought her heart might pound right out of her chest as his breath whispered across her cheek.
She felt the faintest brush of his lips against hers, so soft you could’ve convinced her she’d dreamed it, when a cacophony of church bells broke out over in the village. They both froze, and the moment was lost.
“Bloody hell,” Nick muttered as Fanny scooted two feet away. “What’s all that?”
