Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

R afe cursed under his breath as Ashton nodded in the direction of yet another young lady, indicating Rafe should approach the woman for a dance. He arched a brow at Ashton in challenge, but his brother only smirked.

“Fine,” Rafe muttered. The quicker he got through these dances, the sooner he could search for Diana. She had disappeared after he’d finished the quadrille with Rachel, and he could no longer see her in the crowd. Most likely she was hiding in some alcove, away from the crowds. And when he found her in the shadows, he would enjoy that moment with such pleasure that he could already taste her kiss.

Diana .

Her name was carved into his soul now, and each syllable tasted sweet upon his tongue. Tonight, he would hunt down his clever huntress. He found himself hiding a grin at the range of pet names he’d somehow managed to give this woman in so short a time. Fire drake , thief , star , and now huntress . She was all of those things to him, a fascinating blend of qualities that made him want to know more about her.

One fact hung most clearly in his mind, making it hard to think past it. She had been so close all this time. Just one property had separated them, and he’d never known. How had he never met her at any ball or dinner party before now?

Ashton came over to Rafe near the refreshment table and cleared his throat. “Rafe, Miss Coventry is ready for a dance. Do the young lady a favor, would you?”

Rafe shot Ashton a dirty look, then plastered a pleasant smile on his face. He headed toward a polite young woman with bright reddish-orange hair whom he’d learned was Amelia Coventry. She nearly fainted when he asked her to dance, but the brave young woman accepted and off they went to the dance floor.

He made conversation with her and found it wasn’t as horrible as he expected. The girl was not as clever or willful as Rachel Merton, but she was a sweet creature. A group of young bucks had been watching him nearby with interest, but Rafe was used to being observed like this. Younger men wanted to emulate his reckless, rakehell nature. Perhaps this was one of those times where he could use his reputation for good rather than wickedness. Feeling charitable, he bowed once the dance ended and made an audible comment on what a delight she was to dance with and that she was just the sort of woman to tempt a man in the best sort of way.

He smiled as two young bucks argued about who would ask Miss Coventry to dance next. With the last of his required dances complete, he caught Ashton’s gaze from a short distance away and held up eight fingers, four on each hand, wiggling them in a taunting way. Ashton rolled his eyes and, with an exaggerated wave of his hand, gave his reluctant consent that Rafe could leave.

But he wasn’t ready to leave yet. He scoured the room, searching every alcove, every nook and cranny, and once, when no one was looking, discreetly peeked under the tablecloth of the refreshment table. There was no sign of Diana. He frowned and slipped into the gardens next, searching the winding rows of hedges and disturbing a few couples caught in scandalous embraces. There was still no sign of Diana. Like a clever fox, she’d escaped yet again.

He stopped just outside the entrance to the ballroom and lingered there a moment, watching the dancers as he considered his options. She lived nearby. He could take the coach home, then ride to Diana’s estate. Yes, that’s what he would do.

He returned to the front of the house and had the Lennox coach brought round. He informed the driver that after the man had taken Rafe home, he should return to the Merton house to pick up Ashton and Rosalind.

Rafe settled into the cushions of the finely decorated coach and let himself daydream about how he would surprise Diana tonight. Three weeks was simply too long to have to wait without her in his arms.

Diana, my little thief.

For the first time in what felt like forever, he felt a stirring of hope in his chest. But he dared not look too closely at what that hope might mean.

Diana was dead on her feet when she finally reached home. It had taken a full hour to walk back from the Merton house. She could have troubled Rachel for a ride in one of the Merton coaches, but she despised having to rely so much on others. Her household would have a fit once they learned she’d walked home in the dark, but she enjoyed the quiet and the solitude of a good walk. Besides, the cool autumn night had helped clear her head.

She’d made an excellent introduction with Rosalind Lennox and would see her tomorrow afternoon for tea. Things were going well, but she wasn’t foolish enough to let herself become complacent. Lady Lennox could help her grow her accounts, but only if she had money there to begin with. There would be another full moon in a few days, and it would be a good night to conduct a second raid on some passing coaches. She’d been giving it quite a bit of thought. They needed someone who could stay at the coaching inns on certain nights and get word to them of coaches to target. They had been lucky last time, but this time, they needed a distinct plan.

She slipped back into the house through the green baize door of the servants’ entrance at the back of the house, where she found Mr. Peele waiting up for her. She’d insisted that none of the staff wait for her to return home and that they should all go to bed since there was always much work to be done with such a small number of staff. But as always, her butler never went to sleep unless he knew she was back safe at the house.

“How was the ball?” he asked.

“Fine, quite fine. You look tired, Mr. Peele, please go on up to bed. I’m just going to fetch a little something to eat in the kitchens.”

He tried to stifle a yawn and nodded at her before he left her alone.

She paused in the kitchen to steal some biscuits and a glass of cold milk. Patches of moonlight cut through the windows as she leaned against one of the kitchen counters, her mind now blissfully quiet and her body wonderfully tired. She hadn’t realized how anxious she’d become since she’d begun her scheme to be a highwayman. She’d paid off her debts, yes, but without proper financial guidance she feared she might have to resort to robbery forever. The danger it presented terrified her. But now, with Rosalind’s help, things were falling into place and the racing thoughts of her worried mind had begun to still.

After she’d finished her midnight treat, she climbed the servants’ stairs to the main floor of her home. No one stirred and no lights were lit, but she knew the way to her bedchamber blindfolded. Once there, she opened the door and retrieved the rushlight from the small table by her bed. She lit the rush and placed it on an angle in a silver stand before clipping it securely into place. It would give her an hour or so of light if she let it burn all the way down, and she wouldn’t have to waste any precious candles. She then reached up and unbound her hair, letting it fall loose down her shoulders and back. With the pins all neatly stacked on the table, she brushed the tangles out with her fingers and, with a sigh, turned toward her bed.

Diana choked down a scream and slapped a hand over her mouth.

A man sat in the chair on the other side of her bedchamber, a pistol pointed at her. For a moment, she thought perhaps he was merely a shadow, a figment of her weary mind. But he was real. His face was covered by a black domino, but the moonlight illuminated his pale hair, making her instantly recognize who it was.

Tyburn .

He sat in the chair as if he’d been there for hours, patiently waiting for her return.

“Good evening, lass.” His Scottish burr sounded like soft, distant thunder. She’d always loved storms, especially during the summer when she could lie in a meadow and listen to the quiet rumbles of thunder several miles off and watch sheets of rain coat the countryside in gray curtains as the storm made its way toward her.

Thank heavens she hadn’t screamed. The last thing she wanted to do was bring her entire household down to her bedchamber. Tyburn needed to be handled with the utmost secrecy.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, trying to put some steel into her tone.

“Visiting ye, of course. Or did ye forget that we might’ve made a wee bairn when last we met? Ye were supposed to let me escort ye home so that I would ken where to meet ye in two months’ time.” His tone echoed hers with a clash of steel, like two fencers’ blades colliding and casting sparks.

“I hadn’t forgotten, but you need not worry—my courses came last week. There is no babe to worry over.”

“ Oh .” He said the word so softly that she believed he had hoped she’d been with child. A lump formed in her throat. What would a highwayman do with a babe? Surely it was better for both of them that she wasn’t in the family way?

“Well, given that I am not with child, you have no reason to be here. You should show yourself out. And by the way, however did you find out where I live?”

He grinned in the dark. “I would be a poor thief if I could not find what I most desperately seek.”

“I wish to retire, alone . So please leave.” But the lie tasted bitter upon her tongue. She didn’t want to be alone, she didn’t want to banish the only man she’d ever felt anything for from her bedchamber. But she had to. If she didn’t mention the stolen money, perhaps he wouldn’t ask her about it. It was a feeble hope to wish that he and his companions had blamed one another for the missing money, but she knew Tyburn was no fool.

Hardness returned to his tone. “Ach, I think not, lass. We still have much to discuss before I can leave.”

“We certainly do not,” she argued, even though a pit of dread formed in her stomach.

A soft, sinister chuckle escaped his lips. “Oh, but we do, ye ken. Ye took something from me when ye left, and I must have it back.”

Diana’s lips thinned, but she refused to admit what she’d done.

“Give it back to me, lass, all of it, and ye need not fear this.” He moved the pistol ever so slightly, reminding her he was armed. She’d quite forgotten that. She’d been shocked, delighted, and then dismayed to see him here like this, and the existence of that pistol had slipped completely from her mind.

I really have been a fool, she thought. She’d harbored such silly romantic dreams over their one night together that she’d forgotten who he really was. Of course he was more interested in the money. Tyburn slowly sat up, a subtle tension filling the lean lines of his body as he studied her.

“Don’t tell me ye spent it, lass. On what? Gowns, jewels, a new saddle for my horse that ye stole?”

At that accusation, Diana flinched. She wasn’t just a thief now, she was a horse thief too, something that would get her doubly hanged. She certainly didn’t like him thinking that she was so foolish as to waste money on fine things when her survival was at stake. Not that she’d dare tell him—at least willingly.

“I didn’t tell anyone about you, and I also didn’t lead the authorities back to your lodge. I think it’s quite clear you have nothing to fear from me.” She hoped the change in subject would distract him. It didn’t.

“Of course ye didna tell anyone, because then ye would have to turn over my loot to the authorities, lest ye be branded a thief yourself. I’ll ask ye again, where is the money?”

Diana planted her hands on her hips. “ Gone . It’s all gone.” Despite the dimness of the room, she thought she saw his eyes narrow beneath the mask he wore.

“Gone?”

“Yes. Every shilling went to pay debts. I haven’t any—” She choked on the words she almost said: “I haven’t anything else to give you.” Instead, she turned away from him. “I left you the only thing of value that I had as a trade.”

Had he sold her mother’s necklace? The freshwater pearl was the only real thing of monetary value she’d had left of her mother. She’d never lied to him about that. She turned as she heard the chair creak, and she saw him pull back the sleeve of his black coat to reveal his wrist and the pearl necklace that was wrapped around it. Her heart gave a wild, traitorous thump at knowing he hadn’t given away something so precious to her. Was it because of how he felt, or did he simply wish to taunt her?

She turned to face him, raising her chin. “I can give you nothing else, I’m afraid.”

The devil smiled. “Ah, but ye can. Ye have in yer possession the softest skin I’ve ever touched, the sweetest lips I’ve ever kissed, and ’tis worth more to me than all the riches ye stole.”

A flare of heat started in her belly and soon worked its way to the rest of her body. His words were scandalous, his intentions ruinous, but Lord help her, she was falling under his spell a second time.

Tyburn leaned forward, his gaze piercing, and his pistol swayed slightly as he gestured at her.

“Remove yer dress.”

“What? No?—”

“Ye stole all that I had and left me while I was still sleeping, yet now ye will not offer me even this bit of recompense? Ye wound me, little fire drake. And yes, ye also seem to forget who is holding the pistol. Strip, lass. Now .” The deep command in his voice did something to her and she no longer could resist him. With trembling hands, she opened the hidden panel in the front of her gown to unfasten the laces and let the garment drop to the floor. She wrapped her arms around herself, though she still wore her underpinnings.

Tyburn let out a hiss of breath and adjusted his position in the chair. She noticed the bulge in his trousers and remembered how large and thick his cock had been. Heat seared across her as though she’d suddenly stepped into bright sunlight.

“Now the rest.” His voice was almost smooth as he motioned with the pistol for her to continue.

With a flare of rage and desire in equal measure, she kicked off her petticoats and slippers, then removed her stockings and finally her stays.

“And the chemise, lass. I would have ye bare for my hungry gaze.” His voice had lost some of its smoothness and was now rough, as though his control was fraying at the edges. Good. She wanted to torture him as long as she could as some small form of revenge.

She pulled the strings that gathered at her breasts and then let the chemise gape open at her neck before shimmying out of it. The night air drifted across her bare skin like a ghostly caress, yet it barely cooled her heated flesh, nor did it tame the fire in her belly. Tyburn studied her like a man desperate for water who’d come across a cold river in the Highlands.

“Come here.” He pointed to a place just in front of him. She walked toward him, her body bare. He unfastened the necklace on his wrist and held it out to her.

“Put this on. I want ye to wear that and nothing else when I take ye.”

Her thighs clamped together as his words painted a wild, erotic picture in her mind. Tyburn poised above her, still clothed, while she lay prostrate beneath him, a sensual sacrifice to the God of the underworld with only her mother’s necklace at her throat for protection from the god’s wrathful lust.

Tyburn looked upon her a long moment, his gaze like a tangible caress. He spread his legs a little and patted his thigh with his free hand.

“Sit here.”

Diana would’ve bristled at the command, for she was no trained spaniel, but she ached to touch him. With no small amount of embarrassment, she eased down onto his lap. The soft black leather beneath her thighs was smooth and warm and somehow highly erotic. His body was hard in a way that made her delightfully dizzy, knowing that he could direct all that strength toward pleasuring her and taking his own pleasure from her. She held back a moan as she began to throb with forbidden desire.

He caught her waist, and she heard the pistol drop to the carpeted floor as he cupped the back of her neck. With a desperate growl, he pulled her down to meet him. His lips were angry as he captured her mouth. She gasped in surprise at the taste of his sensual rage, but when his tongue slipped between her startled lips, he softened his erotic assault. She kissed him back, hungry for whatever she could have of him. She dug her fingers into his hair. When Diana touched the black ribbons that kept his domino on, he jerked away.

“No, lass, no ,” he said firmly, though he was a bit breathless.

“But—”

“’Tis for yer safety. Ye canna be forced to tell what ye’ve seen if ye’ve never seen me.”

“Is that the true reason?” she asked. His hair was thick and silky to her touch, and she trembled with a desire to see it bathed in sunlight. It would surely glow like a halo. “Are you scarred?”

“Scarred? Aye, but the scars are within. I have a fierce angelic beauty that would make ye weep to see me.”

She snorted—it was clear he was teasing her. “So you are as common as I am in looks, then.” She didn’t care if he was scarred or plain-looking. The mystery of his looks mattered little to her. What she cared about was what he said, what he did, and how his kisses made her feel like she could breathe again.

His hand at the nape of her neck moved to slide into her loose hair, and she wondered if he was possessed by the same desperate need to touch her, to make fresh memories of what moments they could steal in the sanctuary of twilight.

“Ye are the farthest thing from common, lass. Never have I seen such beauty as when I look upon ye.”

Diana wanted to call him out for false flattery, but his tone was honest, and he held a hint of reverence for her that set her to trembling anew.

“I’m not a beauty. I don’t compare to other ladies.”

“Lass,” he groaned in exasperation and amusement. “If only ye could see yerself the way I do, ye’d never doubt yerself. Ye shine .” He breathed in. “Like a distant star, so far out of a mortal’s reach. I wonder what it must be like to glow forever in the dark, to burn on endlessly, giving a poor wretch like me the light to find my way home.”

His words held an intensity that made her heart expand, filling it with such warmth that it actually hurt . She’d never imagined anyone would see her that way. What he saw of her was a version of herself that was not weary, had not been beaten down and crushed by life. His words gave her strength. He gave her what she needed most, but she dared not put a name to it. He’d come here tonight for her, he’d tracked her down, and yes, he’d carried a pistol and asked about the money, but all of that was but a side mission for him. That much was clear by the desperate longing in his lips and eyes. If she was perhaps truly a star, she felt like she was shining bright enough to lighten the darkest of nights.

“Kiss me, oh star, before I lose my way in the dark,” he whispered.

She leaned in, giving her mouth to him, letting him teach her all the ways a kiss could spin new dreams on shafts of starlight. After what felt like stardust-coated centuries, their lips parted, and he rested his forehead against hers. She closed her eyes, her fingers clenching and unclenching in the folds of his shirtsleeves as she steadied herself. The entire earth had shifted beneath her. Nothing would ever be the same now that she knew this man’s kiss.

Diana never could’ve imagined a kiss would have the power to make her soul so wonderfully dizzy. She was a young girl again, spinning in a meadow, faster and faster, and then suddenly falling down into the grass to stay still as the heavens whirled above her.

“My God, you are magnificent,” Tyburn murmured between kisses. His mouth traveled down her throat, then to her collarbone, and finally to her sensitive breasts. He nuzzled one, kissing his way to its peak before taking the nipple in his mouth and sucking. Sweet lines of desire sizzled from her breasts all the way to her womb, and she moaned in the dark. In some distant part of her mind, she was aware of how mad this was, to be naked on a highwayman’s lap as he suckled her breast. She’d never dreamed she would feel so wanton or so free.

“Please...,” she begged as his mouth moved to her other breast, giving equal attention to her other nipple.

He kissed his way back up to her mouth, making her lose her mind all over again. She gasped as he rose from the chair, carrying her with him. He placed her on the bed and followed her down, his mouth still hungry and insistent. She opened herself to him, whimpering as he moved down her body, his lips leaving a trail of sweet fire before he tasted her between her thighs. His palms kept her knees wide as his shoulders settled between them, and he licked and nibbled all of those forbidden places.

Diana felt treasured, desired, even cared for in a way that only made sense on an intimate and instinctive level.

“Tyburn...” She whispered his name as she came apart beneath him, the climax swift and sharp. She wanted to weep, knowing this moment with him would be over all too soon. And he would be gone once more.

Tyburn soothed her as he sat up. “Shhh... I’m not leaving ye yet, lass.”

Diana grasped his wrist, holding desperately to him, still afraid this prince of moonlight would vanish before her eyes and she’d wake from a dream aching for him.

“Lass...” Heavy emotion layered in that single endearment, as if he understood all too well what she feared. “I’m here , ’tis no dream.”

She released his wrist and gave him a nod of encouragement. Not that either of them could turn back. Someday she’d be brave enough to tell him what she needed from him.

He unfastened his breeches and freed himself. “I vow not to leave you, lass, not for a long while,” he promised as he mounted her and entered her with a driving thrust that made them both share a moan of satisfaction. She was wet, her inner walls still clenching from the previous orgasm, which left her even more sensitive as he claimed her now.

She tilted her head back, writhing in pleasure as he withdrew and sank back into her. He nipped her throat, her chin, and her earlobe in playful bites before he captured her wrists, pinning them to the bed above her head. The pearl pendant at her throat seemed to hold the very starlight of her soul within it.

He made love to her with an almost harsh desperation, as if the deeper he sank within her, the more they would be one being rather than two. She wanted that, to feel that they shared one beating heart, one soul so full of each other that no loneliness could ever hurt either of them again.

She whispered hopeful, foolish, romantic things in the dark to this man whose true name she did not know as he took her to such heights of such joy that she knew she would never want another man as much as she wanted him.

Tyburn pounded against her as if by lasting just a few more seconds he could erase both the past and the future and capture this moment between them forever, and Diana felt all of that. It was as though she could somehow read his mind, such was their connection. His mouth sealed over hers, and she swore he whispered, “Love you, my little star,” just before she came apart with a cry that he swallowed with a kiss of tenderness.

Heat blossomed deep within her, and Diana tightened her legs around his hips, holding him to her, desperate to do what they’d failed to last time.

Let there be a life born from this night . She sent the silent prayer toward the distant stars, then went limp, exhaustion creeping along her limbs.

Tyburn nuzzled her cheek and pressed a soft kiss there before he eased his weight off her. Using the last of her strength, she struggled to catch his arm.

“Please don’t leave . . . please .”

“I’m only going to lock the door, lass. I canna have yer servants finding me here come the dawn.”

He slipped from the bed and crossed the bedchamber to lock the door. Then he returned to the bed and tucked her beneath the covers. She watched him through half-lidded eyes as he removed his clothing and settled in beside her. With a chuckle, he pulled her close and tucked her up against his side, moving her until she had a comfortable pose cuddled around him, fitting perfectly. She wanted to stay this way forever.

She wanted to ask him how he’d found her and what would happen tomorrow, but being in his arms right now was such a relief and a quiet joy that those questions no longer seemed important. She quickly slipped into sleep.

Rafe held Diana in his arms, refusing to move or breathe lest he wake her. The wan light of the moon made the pearl on her necklace shimmer like a dewdrop from the fae realm. The hold this woman had over him was nothing if not unnatural. Perhaps she was a fae, a princess from the seelie courts in those stories he always told Isla before bed.

“Oh princess fair, give me your laurel crown and show me the way to love immortal,” he murmured in her ear. He’d forgotten, for the moment, to use Tyburn’s Scottish accent, but she was too deep asleep to hear. He stroked the wisps of dark hair that danced along her cheeks, and something within him seemed to waken long-dead embers in his heart.

“Diana...” Rafe whispered her name. The very sound of it seemed to cast new sparks of longing and desire into those embers, teasing it to a flame.

This beautiful, smart, resourceful, and brave hellion who dared breathe fire at a wicked highwayman was also such a fragile creature who doubted her own amazing strength and beauty. It made no sense. The light within her was so bright that it obliterated the darkness within him.

He’d played out a dozen fantasies he’d had about her tonight, but he still had a thousand more. He could bed this woman forever and a day and it still wouldn’t be enough. He would have given his soul for such a gift. But alas, he was all too aware of how mortal he was, that he would not have forever with her. But he vowed to cherish every second life would give him with this woman.

My Diana.

Rafe dozed lightly, too afraid of the coming dawn to surrender fully to sleep. When at last he knew he could wait no longer, he left her in bed, nestled warm beneath the covers. He pressed a kiss to her lips, then he removed the pearl necklace from her neck and bound it back around his wrist. She had given this piece of herself to him, and he would never let go of it.

He gave little thought to the money she’d stolen now. He would steal more for himself and Isla. Because he had seen her face when she’d spoken of her debts, and he’d seen the shame and fear on her face that being without money had caused her. The last thing Rafe would do would be to press her for it, not when it was so clear that she truly needed it, perhaps far more than he did. He even left the horse that she had taken that morning from the stables. He had a few more, after all. What was one more left in Diana’s care?

In truth, coming here tonight, finding where she lived, finding her, was all that mattered, not the money. He’d needed to see her, to kiss her, to see if the fire between them hadn’t burned only for one night, and now he had his answer. She was in his blood, in his soul, filling every part of him with wonder and longing. He’d imagined nothing fantastical about what had happened between them a month ago—everything he’d felt that night was just as true as what he felt this night.

As he crept out the window and slipped down the vine-covered trellis beneath her window, he felt like a foolish Romeo, but he couldn’t stop smiling. He found his horse grazing in the field where he’d left him, climbed atop the saddle, and rode for home.