Page 43 of After the Spy Seduces

Of all the things to say… He had no idea of the cut he’d just sliced into her chest. The impossibility of what he was asking. He waited for her reply, but she couldn’t make that promise. No matter that she wanted more—so very much more! And withhim, a man who was beginning to mean more to her than she would admit.

But too much was at risk. Too much that could be ruined forever.

He touched her chin, holding her face still as his eyes locked with hers. “When all of this with your brother is over, then you and I will—”

“Then it’s over,” she whispered, interrupting before he could say anything that would break her heart. Because there was no future with him. Absolutely none.

She somehow managed to find the strength to not crumple beneath the surprised flare in the blue depths of his eyes, a flare that instantly dulled to resentment. Another stab to her heart, yet it couldn’t be helped. She had to keep him away.

She hadn’t lied to him. She didn’t regret what had just happened. How could she, when it had been simply wonderful, and only because of him? But she also could never let it happen again.

Unable to give him the explanation he deserved, she slipped from his arms to put the length of the dovecot between them. Her hands shook as she pushed her skirt back into place and readjusted her bodice, aware of his eyes on her the entire time.

“Diana, we need to talk.”

She ignored that and hurried toward the door. “I have to get back to Meri.”

“Meri will be fine for a few more minutes.”

Yes, butshewouldn’t be. Not here in this small space, not when the scent of him still clung to her and she still pulsed with the pleasure he’d brought her. Not when her desire for him beckoned her to surrender completely, in every way, to the sheer bliss she knew he would give her.

And not when he was still determined to learn her secrets.

“She gets into so much trouble, you have no idea.” She opened the door before he could stop her and charged out into the bright sunshine, rapidly blinking her eyes but only partly because of the light. Christopher didn’t immediately follow, but based on the bulging state of his breeches, she hadn’t expected him to.

She hurried back to the blanket and gazed down the lawn, then turned in a circle to look everywhere around her. Meri was nowhere to be seen. As usual.

With a grimace of aggravation, she hurried toward the trees, calling out the little girl’s name. Of all times for her to run off—

“Meri! Where are you?”

She loved playing in the trees, taking her dolls and stuffed animals there to reenact whatever story the general had most recently read to her from the big book of fairytales she kept at her bedside. But today wasnotthe day for hiding in the thicket.

“Meredith!” Her calls grew angry despite her attempts to keep her frustrated exasperation from showing, especially if Christopher happened to stroll out of the dovecot and see her. Oh, the last thing she needed was for him to know the true effect he had on her! “Meri, answer me!”

But only the sound of the breeze in the leaves and the chirps of the birds replied.

She walked to the edge of the plantation and tried to peer through the trees but couldn’t see very far. The plot hadn’t been harvested for wood since before her family had bought the farm, and the underbrush had been allowed to grow unchecked.

She stood still and listened—nothing.

“Meri, answer me this instant!” With a harsh sigh, she started down the narrow dirt path that the girl had worn through the trees from all of her play. “If you don’t answer me right now, you won’t get any pudding with your dinner.”

No sound, no movement… An icy chill of worry began to creep down her spine. Hunting through the undergrowth, she stepped further into the thicket, then froze.

Meri’s favorite doll lay discarded on the ground in the weeds.

Panic seized her chest as she ran to it and snatched it up, then wheeled around in a circle, now frantically screaming for Meri. She wouldneverhave left this doll behind!

“Meredith!” she yelled, all of her shaking with fear.

Christopher hurried through the trees to her and took her arm to stop her from dashing frantically through the brambly bushes, which had already snagged at her dress and bit bloody scratches into her arms and legs. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“I can’t find Meri!” She desperately grabbed at his lapels to keep her knees from buckling beneath her. “She’s missing.” The fears of her worst nightmare tore from her in a hoarse cry, “She’s been taken!”

Chapter 12

Kit slowly stalked the perimeter of the overgrown chestnut plantation, his eyes searching the ground and underbrush for any sign of what had happened to the little girl.