Library

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Oh, that kiss.

Luna knew there was no way he knew how much it meant to her. That afternoon. The entire evening when they’d ridden back. Even the carriage ride had been filled with lingering kisses and strokes until the two of them had rushed through the halls to his bedroom. He couldn’t know that her entire life felt as though it had been leading to this moment, and nothing else would ever satisfy her.

He’d done that. A werewolf, of all things.

Now, as she lay in his bed, she knew how foolish this had all been. She still had to steal from him. He wouldn’t give her that diamond and the necklaces in that box. Even if they were in love and he wanted to marry her. Those were too precious of items to give to anyone.

It was so easy to kiss him. Her fingers found him, no matter where he was. In the carriage, she wanted to hold on to his hand. In his bedroom, she wanted to explore every bit of his body and have him do the same to hers. She wanted to know what an earl felt like.

She hoped he didn’t notice the desperation in her touch. How she threw herself into the entire evening as though she would never get to touch him again, because she knew she wouldn’t. Luna had already seen the writing on the wall. If he hadn’t, then she hoped he’d be able to deal with it after she left.

Her life didn’t mix with his. He was a good man, an honorable man, and he wanted his entire family to prosper. He helped people. She made people’s lives worse and put them in a state of shock and fear. Their paths were so different and he couldn’t seriously think they could merge those two into a future that could work.

But for now, she had to focus on the present. On the moments with him that meant so much because he was real and right in front of her.

She traced a line from a tiny wrinkle in his brow, down his nose, to those lovely plush lips. “Why do you look like you’re angry?” she asked.

“I’m not angry. I’m just trying to figure you out.” He shook his head with a wry grin. “I suppose that’s an impossible task.”

“It is.” She owed him at least something, though. If he wanted to know more about her, then he deserved that much. “What do you want to know?”

“You said your mother was a pagan, and you ended up in the Church where they did all manner of horrible things. But you weren’t working for the Church when you tried to steal from me.” Luther rolled up onto an elbow, looming over her while staring down with questions in his eyes. “So what happened after that? You obviously left their services.”

“My sister made a deal so the other two of us could go free.” And it still stung. She hated knowing that Maeve would still be in their services if she hadn’t met Martin. Even now, the Duke only had so much sway. They all still lived in constant fear of what they’d be asked to do next. “I don’t think they ever really leave your life, though. I’ve been running from them ever since.”

He cupped her cheek in his hand, a sad smile on his face. “I’m sorry you had to live through that, Luna. Your story brings tears to my eyes whenever you talk about it.”

“That’s not the point of what I’ve lived through.” She sighed, then looked over at the painting that hung over his desk. “You’ve got a story and a half as well, I suppose. Even in the painting, your father’s eyes seem to follow me wherever I move.”

“I hope he can’t see through it. He’d be horrified about what I did to you,” Luther replied with a chuckle. “He’s dead now though, and that makes it all easier I suppose.”

“Does it?”

He thought about her question for a few moments, as though no one had ever asked him to clarify. Finally, he nodded. “It does. I don’t have to worry about disappointing him so much, you see. He always hated it when I did something he didn’t approve of. I had to fear what he would say or do afterwards. Now, I take the steps in life that I wish to take.”

If only she could do that. He moved through the world with a freedom that so few had any experience with. But that was the difference between an earl and a street rat, she supposed. He had the ability to choose freedom.

“If you could tell him anything and he would hear it, what would you say?” She rolled over, tucking herself into the curve of his body and staring at the painting with him.

Luther threw an arm over her waist and the movement was natural. Like they’d slept together a thousand times before. “I think I’d tell him thank you. Even though he was a cruel and unusual man, he made me who I am today. He wasn’t abusive, he was just... wrong. About everything in life. And I cannot imagine how difficult it was to live like that.”

There he went again, being a good man without even realizing how kind he was. Even to his father, who certainly couldn’t hear that his son forgave him after all this time.

Luna waited until Luther’s breathing evened out. He settled against her with too much comfort, and she wanted to stay here. To linger in his arms while he kept her warm and safe. But that wasn’t in the cards for either of them. Not when she had a bounty on her head and so many debts to pay.

It didn’t take long for him to settle. Apparently, he had tired himself out. If she had planned on staying, she would have reminded him that he’d told her he would tire her out, and not the other way around. But the man had earned his sleep.

She slipped out from underneath the covers and tried to not focus on the soreness of her muscles. How much she wanted to stretch her arms over her head and then sneak back into his arms.

He’d given her the smallest detail of his life, and revealed the way he thought, and that was a mistake. He should know better than to give such personal information to a thief.

Luna snuck over to the painting of his father and moved her fingers along the frame. If he had forgiven his father, and the jewels were from his family line, it would only make sense that his father would continue to watch over the key to their family fortune.

Her right forefinger bumped against something cold and metallic. The key was slotted into a tiny holder on the side of the painting, just beside his father’s eye. She had to stretch onto the tips of her toes to grab it. The skeleton key was all she needed to get the fortune he’d hidden underneath the floorboards and then leave this place.

Damn it. She didn’t want to go. Her soul screamed that they didn’t have to do this. Luther would help her with the gangs. Maybe they could get Crowley and his idiots locked away for good, and then she wouldn’t have to care what she owed them. No one would dare threaten an earl, after all.

But they would dare. Crowley wasn’t a stupid gang member. The man was intelligent, and he knew how to run a crew. They’d find out that Luther was a werewolf, and that he’d killed that villager, and they would ruin his life. Easy as that. In fact, Luther was an easy target for anyone.

She could look after him better on the streets. Luna would make sure no one targeted him again after this, or they would answer to her and a hammer.

Luther shifted in his sleep, his hand smoothing over the blankets that she’d left in her place. He would wake up soon, and she needed a better story than stretching.

His dressing gown draped over the back of his desk chair. With a quick shift in movement, she threw that over her shoulders and slipped the key into the pocket. Then she walked back to the bed and sat down on the edge, purposefully making her movements hard enough to wake him.

He snorted and asked, “Where were you?”

“I was a little cold. I hope you don’t mind that I’m wearing this?” Luna touched the tail of the dressing gown to his cheek. “It looked warm, and it smells like you.”

She appealed to the wolf, knowing that the beast would be pleased with her wearing his scent. Neither he nor the beast inside him were all that hard to figure out. She wished there were another way, but... Well. She had to trick him somehow.

He grumbled in his sleep, but then tucked her into his body as she laid down. Luna tried her very best to stay as still as possible, even though tears slid down her cheeks. She hated doing this. She hated herself right now.

Not a single bit of sleep was achieved that night for her, although she pretended to be asleep when he woke up behind her. In fact, she’d watched the sun rise with guilt riding on her shoulders.

Luther pressed a kiss to her back, then to her hair. “How did you sleep?”

“Well, considering I’m in the bed of an earl.” She didn’t roll over, though, to accept a good morning kiss from him. She rather felt like she was frozen in place. “Do you mind if I keep sleeping, though? The sun has only just risen, and you did tire me out last night.”

He chuckled, the sound filled with far too much masculine pride. “That’s fine. I have to go figure out the household items for the week, anyway. I’ll send a servant up in a couple of hours to wake you for breakfast. How does that sound?”

She stretched and pressed her face into the soft pillows. “That sounds divine.”

“You know,” he paused at the edge of the bed. His weight dipped her hip toward him. “This doesn’t have to be a one-time thing. I slept better than I have in years with you beside me and... Well. It would be an honor to know that your arms waited for me at the end of a long day.”

No. No, he couldn’t be saying these things when tears pricked her eyes. She wanted to sob into the pillow and admit everything to him. How she’d fucked up royally and now she had to do these horrible things, or she feared they would both end up dead.

But she couldn’t. Every choice she made from here on out was to keep him safe, and if he didn’t understand that, then he would never understand her life. So instead, she nodded, faked a yawn, and covered her eyes with her arm. “I’d like that.”

“You would?” He paused, and then when he spoke again, his words were filled with hope. “Well. That’s good, then.”

She listened to him stand and walk out of the room. It took him a while, and he lingered at the door for perhaps a little too long, but she heard the latch click shut. The final sound of their relationship, rocking through her skull.

Sighing, she sat up and dashed the tears from her cheeks. She’d done worse than this, and she had lost worse than him. Luna would survive, like she always did.

Crawling out of the ridiculously comfortable bed, she gathered up his letter opener and dropped to her knees beside the floorboard. The gemstones were surprisingly quiet until she pulled the box out of its dark hole.

“You’re so sad,” they whispered, the sound barely a song with misery that mimicked her own. “We don’t like to make people sad.”

“It’s not you that are making me sad.” Luna fit the key into the padlock, then the remaining three locks. “You are perfect, I’m sure.”

And when she opened the box, she found how right she was. The diamond was the size of her fist. So insanely beautiful and perfectly cut. Three necklaces sat coiled around it. One made of sapphire as blue as the sea. The other two glimmering with emeralds and diamonds. They’d sell for enough to fix the house, that much was certain.

A sob stuck in her throat and she had to look up at the ceiling to stop it from coming out. Deep breath. Hold it. Let it out slowly so no one could hear her cry.

This was so stupid. She’d stolen a hundred things in her life. Why was this one so different?

The diamond hummed in her hand. “You like him,” it said. “You like him so much that it makes your heart hurt to think about him. And you know if you do this, he will never forgive you for it.”

“He shouldn’t forgive me for it,” she corrected. “He shouldn’t ever forgive me for seducing him and then stealing jewelry of such value from the floorboards of his home. This isn’t right. I know it isn’t right.”

“Then why are you stealing us?”

As if the diamond didn’t want to leave. Even now, Luna could tell that it was vibrating with excitement. All of them were. They wanted to see the world, and they wanted the freedom Luther couldn’t give them. Only Luna could.

“Because I don’t have any other choice,” she whispered, feeling her tears dry up in her eyes. “If I did, I’d stay with him until the end of time. But women like me don’t have choices.”

She snapped the box shut again and melted into the shadows of the manor. By the time the servants came to wake her up, she’d already be long gone.

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.