The Matter of a Marquess - Jess Michaels Page 0,17

heart to tease with his siblings like this. It felt so…comfortable. He sighed. “I’ll speak to her now. Assume we’ll both be staying.”

He moved to exit the room, but Robert clenched his arm a little tighter. Their eyes met, so similar, and his brother said, “Whatever you decide, I support you fully. I hope you know that.”

Nicholas froze. He’d created an environment where he was alone, never depending on anyone else for a very long time. Even in his injury and recovery, he’d fought for autonomy. What his brother offered was…bewitching. Still, could he trust it?

He forced a smile. “Thank you, Roseford. I appreciate that.”

He drew a deep breath, saluted the room and walked out. But with every step that would take him to the parlor, his heart began to beat louder. He was going to finally confront the woman who had haunted him for a decade.

And he had no idea how to approach her and save himself from sinking into everything that once might have been.

Aurora clenched her hands at her sides as she paced the room restlessly. She felt Katherine and Lizzie’s eyes on her, watching…judging, even if they did so kindly.

She had been asked a question a moment before. She didn’t have an answer. How could she explain what had happened between her and Nicholas when she wasn’t entirely certain of that, herself? One moment they’d been planning a madcap elopement, all consequences be damned. The next he was gone and she’d been rushed into an arranged marriage with Lord Lovell. Everything had changed, everything she’d wanted had been lost and she’d never been the same.

And yet Nicholas seemed angry with her for their past. Accusatory of her. As the shock of seeing him wore off, she pondered that.

“Aurora?” Katherine said. “You don’t need to tell us any secrets. I think all of us are just confused by this turn of events. All of us are trying to find a footing.”

“So am I,” Aurora admitted. “It isn’t that I don’t want to answer your question. I just can’t. I don’t know the answer. Only Nicholas knows why things turned from a dream to a nightmare all those years ago.”

Before she could say anything more, a shadow appeared in the doorway. She tensed as Nicholas, himself, entered the parlor, his gaze sliding to her immediately and holding there. The shock of seeing him should have worn off by now, but it hadn’t. In this moment, there was no breath. No words. Nothing but this man standing so close and yet leagues away, watching her just as he’d watched her so many times in another lifetime.

Even though she knew his gaze was one of contempt now, it still rolled over her like water, like a memory that had come to life. His eyes were the same as the eyes of that boy she had loved so desperately. The rest of him was so much more beautiful than the boy she had been obsessed with as a young woman. All his angles and edges were sharper and she wanted to…God help her, but she wanted to touch him.

He cleared his throat and the silent spell was broken. “Ladies, I’d like a moment with Lady Lovell.” He held her gaze and his tone softened. “Please.”

She nodded without breaking the gaze, almost completely unaware as Lizzie and Katherine got up and slipped from the room. Katherine stood in the doorway for a moment, and then she shut it behind her, regardless of the propriety of that action. Aurora had never wanted to hug another person so much in her life. She needed the privacy of that closed door more than she needed breath.

He was silent for what felt like forever. She had no idea if that was because, like her, he was struggling to find purchase or if he just had no words to say in the quiet. He looked at her, though. His dark brown gaze never left hers, and it was like all the time in the world hung between them…and no time at all.

“Aurora,” he said at last.

Her knees trembled when her name came from his lips in that deep voice that was the same and different. No one else had ever said it and made her feel so many things with those three little syllables. No one else ever could.

“Nicholas,” she whispered back. A prayer. A benediction. A faint sliver of hope that she had long ago released into the world. Now that little bird had returned and