A Secret Surrender - Darcy Burke Page 0,100
spent much time with him, he’d already determined that the man had a darkness that went deep into his soul. If you looked too long or too hard into his gaze, you felt the emptiness and had to turn away.
Harry was exceptionally glad Selina had left London when she did.
Then everyone came forward to hug Harry and Selina, welcoming her and her siblings to the family. After some time, Mother demanded everyone’s attention. “When will the banns be read?”
“Tomorrow,” Harry answered. “Is that soon enough?”
“Of course. Have you already chosen a day to wed? There is so much to plan. Can we hold the wedding breakfast here? Harry, I’m sorry, but your house is not large enough.”
No, it wasn’t, and he would need to move soon for it wouldn’t support a family either. “Yes, you can host it here if that’s acceptable to Selina?” He looked at the woman beside him, love for her expanding his chest.
Selina nodded. “I’d be honored, thank you. My brother would like to host a ball before the end of the Season—to celebrate our marriage and for Beatrix. He’s purchased a house on Upper Brook Street.”
Harry’s father’s brows shot up. “Indeed?”
“I’m looking forward to supporting my sisters,” Rafe said evenly, wisely answering the question as if Father was referring to Rafe’s intentions and not the fact that he’d purchased a house on bloody Upper Brook Street.
Jeremy handed Rafe a glass of brandy. “Be careful. You will find yourself the toast of your own ball once the young ladies and their mothers set their eyes on you.”
“But he doesn’t even have a title,” Beatrix said.
“He has money and will shortly be related to an earl by marriage,” Rachel said wryly. “That will be enough.”
It was a buoyant, jubilant evening—some, namely his sisters, might even have called it raucous. By the time Rafe had dropped his sisters and Harry on Queen Anne Street, Harry was yawning.
“Are you sure you want to come in for a nightcap?” Selina asked as they walked to the door.
“Yes.” He looked at her intently as Beatrix preceded them into the house. “Unless you think I should go home for once,” he whispered. He’d spent the last two nights here, waking up with the sun to rush home.
Her eyes danced with promise. “I think you should never go home.”
“Minx.” He resisted the urge to carry her into the house and directly up the stairs.
“I’m going up to bed,” Beatrix announced as Harry followed Selina inside. “You can go into the sitting room and pretend to have a nightcap before you creep upstairs, or you could just be efficient and go up now.” She shrugged. “I won’t tell. Good night!” She waved her fingers at them and bounced up the stairs.
Harry chuckled as he drew Selina into his arms. “I don’t need a nightcap, do you?”
Selina shook her head. She caught her lip between her teeth as she unknotted his cravat. “I only need you.”
“I wish it was that simple. You saw tonight that with me, you get an entire, extended, obnoxious family. Are you sure that’s what you want?”
She held on to the ends of his cravat as she tipped her head back. “I’ll admit that when I first met them, I was intimidated. I found them utterly captivating, but also terrifying. I’ve never had a family, not like that.”
“Well, you have one now, and I can’t promise they won’t continue to be terrifying. I can promise, however, they will love you. Though not as much as I do.”
“I still can’t believe you do. I may never believe it, just so you know.”
“Then I will simply have to tell you over and over and over again. I love you. I love you. I love—”
She put her fingers against his lips. “Stop. It’s too much. I am too full.”
“I could make a very lewd remark about how that isn’t remotely true, but I’ll abstain.” He stroked his hand along her nape.
Selina leaned up and tugged at his earlobe with her teeth. “Please don’t. That, I can never get enough of.”
“Skipping the nightcap, then,” he said, picking her up.
“Harry, you’ve carried me upstairs every night.”
He started up the stairs. “And I may carry you tomorrow night and the night after. And the night after that. This is what you’re agreeing to. If you want to change your mind, you better do so before church tomorrow.” He made a face. “But then you’ll have to deal with my mother and sisters.”
She shuddered in his arms. “I’d