Page 77 of As the Devil Dares

“It was an accident, my darling.” Her arms slid around his waist, and she gently pressed herself against him. She laid her cheek against his back, and he sucked in a mouthful of air through clenched teeth at the scalding torture of her consoling touch. “A terrible, horrible accident.”

“Mariah—”

“It wasn’t your fault,” she repeated, tightening her arms around him, unwilling to let him go. “Just as it wasn’t my fault that Mama took us to the park and came down with fever. People die, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. No matter how much we love them. No matter how much—”

A sob fell from her lips as her words choked off, and the sound broke his heart.

He turned and took her into his arms, pressing her tightly against him as she began to cry softly. For him. For both of their losses. He buried his face in her hair to take comfort in her, to breathe in her strength and certainty. To grieve together. As he held her, tears stung in his eyes, and for the first time since his father’s death, he released the blame he’d carried inside him.

He exhaled a jerking, anguish-filled breath as he finished for her in a rasping whisper, “No matter how much they love us.”

She nodded, unable to speak as she cupped his face in her hands and rose up on tiptoe to kiss away the tears on his cheeks. Then she kissed his lips with such tenderness that he felt the first stirrings of healing deep within his heart. Slowly, the pain eased away until there was only Mariah.

As he lifted her into his arms and carried her back to the bed, he knew he’d been wrong. He had found absolution in her arms, and he prayed that she could help him find redemption in the days to come. But more than that. As he lowered her onto the bed and followed down to make love to her, he knew the truth.

Mariah had undone him.

He’d never experienced such a connection with any other woman as he did with her. Physically, emotionally…never. Never had he shared such soul-wrenching release. And never had he bared his heart so vulnerably as he just had with her.

He’d fallen in over his head. Because it was more than the partnership that tempted him now. It was the Hellion herself.

And he had no idea what to do about it.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Mariah’s heart skipped. Robert was staring at her. Again.

Sitting at a desk the next morning in the shipping office, Mariah tried to pay him no mind, but he wouldn’t stop staring. As if he could see right through her dress to every naked inch of her beneath. Blast the hot blush threatening at the back of her neck at everything that stare implied! And oh, how very much it implied.

Even now, surrounded by office workers, she couldn’t help but remember the pleasure of being in his arms last night, how he made her feel special and beautiful. Just as she couldn’t stop the urge rising inside her to somehow get him alone right now, scandalously in the middle of the afternoon when she was supposed to be going over the warehouse lists for anything Papa might be willing to donate to the school. A flimsy excuse for why she’d come to the office, when the truth was that she’d simply wanted to be near Robert.

But every time she looked at him—and every time she caught him looking back with that knowing twist to his sensuous lips—her mind blanked and her body tingled, in all kinds of wicked ways.

She hadn’t known what to expect this morning when they saw each other again, after sharing themselves both physically and emotionally last night. Oh, they would always argue. A tiger would still be a cat even if it managed to change its stripes. But they were no longer enemies.

As for how he felt about her as a woman…well, that one she had no answer for. Although they’d spent the night in each other’s arms and he’d made her happier than she’d been in her entire life, he’d not once admitted to having feelings for her. And she’d not asked for fear of hearing an answer that might destroy her. Because no matter what he felt for her, she had fallen in love.

He glanced up and caught her watching him. Their gazes locked, and a pulse of heat curled down her spine.

Oh my.

As her cheeks flushed, she looked away. Yet she couldn’t stop the flutter of happiness low in her belly.

Without drawing attention to himself, Robert rose from his desk and casually approached her. He leaned over her shoulder as if reaching for the papers in front of her. The nearness of him sent an electric shiver spiraling through her.

“You look beautiful,” he murmured low enough that none of the office workers could overhear.

Drat him for making her heart stutter! Yet she somehow managed to roll her eyes at the compliment. “I’m wearing last year’s dress.”

“Can I help it if you’d look beautiful wrapped in gray drab?” His hand brushed hers as he pretended to examine the inventory, sending a warmth up her arm. “I want to see you tonight.”

A soft ache began to throb dully between her legs in quick arousal. How was it possible that he could affect her so viscerally with only a husky murmur? Yet he did just that.

“You are going to see me,” she reminded him a bit cheekily. “We’re having dinner with Lord and Lady Hammond.”

“We’ll have to beg off, then.” His eyes sparkled wickedly. “Because that kind of feast is not what I had in mind.”

At his rakish innuendo, she lowered her face and cleared her throat to keep the hot blush at bay as she enticed with a breathy purr, “What, exactly, did you have in mind?”