Nicole Jordan by The Passion

Author:The Passion [Passion, The]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-05-24T22:02:15+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

He made me feel intensely alive. He made my heart sing and set my blood on fire.

Two evenings later, Aurora received a glimpse of Nicholas’s renewed purpose. She had already retired to bed when she heard a soft clink against her window pane, then another. Her startlement quickly turned to dismay when she realized someone was throwing pebbles and trying to get her attention.

Knowing it could only be Nicholas, she went to open the window and peer down. He stood in silver shadow beneath the oak tree, looking up at her.

Her heart did its usual somersault. She hadn’t seen him at all today; in fact, she hadn’t left the house. A hard rain had prevented her morning ride in the park, and Raven had had an afternoon engagement with her aunt. But the clouds had cleared and now a bright moon drenched the night.

“What are you doing, loitering beneath my window?” Aurora demanded in a whisper.

“I’ve come to rescue you and take you for a drive,” he answered less quietly.

“In the dead of night?”

“It isn’t even midnight yet. And you’ve been trapped inside all day.”

“I have already retired for the night.”

“Do you mean to invite me up there?”

“Of course not!”

“Then you had best come down here.”

“Nicholas, I am in my nightclothes.”

“I don’t mind,” he said with a wicked edge of amusement to his voice. “Get dressed and come down, Aurora. You don’t want me knocking on your front door and waking the servants, I’m certain.”

His implied threat exasperated her. “I have no intention of being alone with you in the middle of the night.”

“I thought that might concern you, so I brought a lad with me. He’s holding my horses as we speak. And I have a curricle.”

When she hesitated, he called up softly. “Craven. What harm can there be in going for a spin? I can hardly ravish you in an open carriage.”

What harm, indeed? Aurora thought wryly. She would be mad to put herself at the mercy of a reckless and charming rogue.

But as usual Nicholas would not take no for an answer. “Come down, love, before I have to climb up there and fetch you. I will meet you at the back entrance.”

He turned and disappeared into the shadows, giving her no further chance to protest. Short of shouting after him, she was helpless to try to make him see reason.

With a sigh of exasperation, Aurora stepped back from the window. She could scarcely believe she was actually considering going for a midnight drive in the dark with Nicholas Sabine. And yet she couldn’t deny the forbidden appeal of it. What in heaven’s name was happening to her? Before meeting Nicholas she’d always been sedate and proper, a model of decorum. But now she was behaving like a wanton.

And what is so wrong about that? a voice in her head prodded. You have been sensible and proper all your life. You can be a little risqué for once.

Feeling very much like the Frenchwoman in the journal

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