Lord Hunter's Cinderella Heiress by Lara Temple

Author:Lara Temple
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Hunter watched Charles bend over Nell’s shoulder as he leaned to turn the page of the Illustrated Collection of Thoroughbreds balanced on Nell’s lap, his hand so close to a flaxen curve of hair resting on her nape that if she breathed in deeply the man’s fingers would tangle in it. From the easy intimacy of Charles’s posture it was obvious Nell’s scold after Griffin’s attack had shifted the balance between them and for once Welbeck’s eagerness in her presence didn’t appear at all forced.

His own absence today had probably helped as well. He hadn’t joined her or the Welbecks the previous evening and had spent the morning down in Wilton, but he had known he had to show his face eventually, if only to tell her he had decided to return to London. She was safe enough with the Welbecks until her father came for her. Safer than she was with him. It hadn’t taken the recurrence of his nightmare that night to remind him that he was still paying the price of allowing himself to care for people who were too weak to care for themselves. It was only getting worse. This time she had also been at the centre of his dream, walking blithely towards a rearing, raging black beast while he tried to stop her, weighed down by Tim’s pain-racked body. He had saved neither of them and had awoken shivering, his nightshirt soaked in sweat.

He should have left right away, but he had gone to Wilton instead and now it was too late to drive to London today. Besides, he had to face her and tell her he was leaving. The problem was he had no idea what to say to her after his outburst the previous evening. He had never lost his calm like that, not even when the pain and guilt at failing the one person in the world he needed to protect above all had still been so raw he had thought it would submerge him. He still didn’t understand why he had lashed out. So what if she had seen through him and shown him a little compassion? That was her nature, the same impulse that drove her need to worry about Daisy or her schoolgirls. Nothing more. There was no reason for it to have felt like danger. Not from her, but from something inside himself. Something dark and sluggish had stirred in response to her warmth and the invitation to share, something he knew very well was not to be set loose.

He shouldn’t have gone into her room in the first place. He was already raw when he reached the paddock, worrying that she might have gone to see that devil Griffin, or perhaps been accosted by someone. She was far too trusting when around horses and someone might misread her warmth as an invitation. The relief of finding her safe by the paddock had been overtaken by something else as he stopped to watch the peculiar courtship between her and the filly.

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