Page 67 of A Remarkable Rogue

Last night, she’d found exactly what she’d wanted—intimacy without losing control of her heart or her independence. So why was her traitorous body still aching for his, her mind still wanting to be challenged by him? And why, oh dear God,whydid she find herself wanting to surrender to him in more ways than only with her body?

Ignoring her disappointment, she crossed to the armoire and reached behind her back to unfasten the short row of buttons.

“Yes, I do trust her,” she answered. “I hired her two years ago, long before the blackmail started.”

She shrugged out of the sleeves and bodice, then stepped out of the skirt and petticoat. Her stays went next, tossed unwanted across the back of a nearby chair.

“She’s never given me any reason to doubt her loyalty to me or her dedication to Robert,” she added as she hung up the dress and reached to take down her hair.

He paused, the glass raised halfway to his lips. His eyes narrowed on her as she pulled the pins from her hair and shook it free. “What are you doing?”

“It’s late, and I’m tired,” she explained wearily.

She pulled her long hair over her shoulder and began to loosely braid it. After all, what was the point in remaining dressed if he had no interest in undressing her? She’d have to do it herself.

“If you want to discuss your mission tonight,” she told him, “you’ll have to do it while I get ready for bed.”

He said nothing to that but finished bringing the glass to his mouth.

She took his silence as an invitation to carry on and continued to fix her hair. After all, based on his behavior last night, he would have swept her into his arms and taken her to the bed by now if he wanted to make love.

Obviously, he didn’t.

“I needed someone to care for Robert and give him a good education,” she explained, “and not just on scholarly subjects but also on how to behave in society. He’ll be part of that someday. Oh, he’ll have enough money that they’ll accept him just the same whether he has manners or not, but I don’t want him to feel uncomfortable the way I did.”

She finished the braid and reached into the armoire for the shirt hanging on its hook. Nate’s shirt. The same one she’d planned on wearing to bed last night before he stripped it off her, the same one she’d wear in bed tonight. Alone. Her belly sank with bittersweet emotion at the sight of it.

He commented quietly, “You stayed a long while in the nursery this evening.”

If she wasn’t so irritated at him, she might have teased him about how port made his voice hoarse. Instead, she turned her back to him and pushed the shift off her shoulders and down to the floor around her feet.

“I was enjoying myself and didn’t want to leave,” she admitted with a bit of embarrassment over revealing her emotions to him but none about displaying her bare backside. He deserved that. “I stayed until Robbie fell asleep.”

“He likes you,” Nate half whispered.

She paused as she raised her arms into the air to slip the shirt on over her head. His words warmed her more than she had a right to feel. Her fingers tightened on the linen material as it bunched around her shoulders and breasts, and she didn’t have the courage to face him as she asked, “Do we have to leave tomorrow? I want one more day with him, Nate. One more day when I can get to know him as the little boy he is before his life is turned upside-down again. Please.”

She held her breath, fearing he would refuse and break the fragile bond forming between her and her son.

“All right,” he agreed reluctantly. “But only one day.”

Her shoulders sagged with relief, and she pulled the shirt down into place around her thighs.

“Thank you.” She was more grateful for this opportunity with Robbie than she wanted to admit, even to herself.

“Do you still think you can part with him, then, even after tonight?”

Emotion tightened her throat. Hadn’t she been wondering the same thing herself since the moment Robbie ran into the drawing room?

She slowly propped her foot on the stool of her dressing table and lifted the hem of the shirt to midthigh so she could untie her stocking and roll it down her leg. Could she ever be Robbie’s mother, a true and proper andgoodmother to a boy who didn’t even know who she was? Especially when she had no good mother of her own to model herself after?

“I don’t know,” she whispered honestly.

Nate gave no counter to that. Most likely, he still didn’t understand the decision she’d struggled with to keep Robbie at Oakwood rather than with her in London. After all, Nate had a good mother who had been willing to sacrifice everything to keep her son with her, a mother he could respect and emulate. Of course he wouldn’t understand. Hecouldn’t.

Yet she let a wistful smile tug at her lips as she slipped the stocking from her toes and dropped it to the floor. A soft laugh passed her lips. “Did you see the way Robert introduced himself to—”

The words choked on her tongue as she glanced up at Nate and froze. He was staring at her bare leg with a wolfish hunger in his eyes as if he wanted to devour her.