A Certain Darkness by Anna Lee Huber

Author:Anna Lee Huber [Huber, Anna Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2022-06-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

Happily, the night passed without any further incidents other than our own mutual intentions being played out. We woke to the sound of rain being flung against the windows by the wind and a heavy gray mist covering the river. It was the type of conditions the Dutch called dog weather for some reason unknown to me. Though seeing as the British had approximately thirty-seven ways to describe rain and forty-two ways to say gloomy—half of which also made little sense—I figured I had no room to criticize.

I was just summoning the impetus to rise from the warm cocoon of our bedding and prepare myself for the cold soaking we would endure once we ventured outside when there was a knock on the door.

Sidney groaned into his pillow. “Tell Nimble to go away.”

“That’s not Nimble, darling.”

He fell silent, taking a moment to recall we weren’t at home in our flat in London, so the person rapping couldn’t be his valet. Gathering himself, he pushed up onto his elbows and scrubbed his face with his hands. “Right.” He turned to look at me and my heart flipped over seeing him in such a rumpled state. His normally restrained dark hair curled about his head in messy abandon, and his jaw was dusted with dark stubble.

He took one look at my likewise bare shoulders and thoroughly tumbled appearance and his lips curled into a rather pleased grin. “I suppose I should get that.”

“Well, I’m certainly not going to answer the door in all my deshabille,” I retorted.

Just then there was a swoosh of sound. Clutching the covers to my chest, I sat upright to look toward the door while Sidney rolled onto his side and pushed up to do the same. On the floor just inside the door lay a white rectangle someone had slid underneath. My mind began to churn with the possibilities of who the sender might be, and so I began to separate the duvet from the sheet, wrapping it around me as I tried to rise from the bed.

“Stay, Ver,” Sidney urged, reaching for my arm, but I pulled from his grasp. “Just leave it lay a little while longer,” he cajoled, collapsing back into the bed. “I’ll make it worth your while.”

I laughed. “I’ll be right back,” I assured him, scurrying across the carpet to collect the paper before diving back into bed.

My husband made short work of unwrapping me and readjusting the duvet so that it covered both of us while I struggled to keep the letter from his grasp.

“Sidney,” I scolded and then ruined it by giggling as his hands brushed up my sides. “Just let me read it.”

He rolled me over, hovering above me. “Only after I get a proper good morning kiss.”

“A proper one?”

He smiled. “Or a thoroughly improper one. Your choice.”

I cupped his jaw, the bristles prickling my fingertips as his lips melted into mine for a long, leisurely kiss. One that I knew was meant to make me forget the

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