The Defiant Hearts Series Box Set by Sydney Jane Baily

Author:Sydney Jane Baily [Baily, Sydney Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ePublishing Works!
Published: 2014-10-01T18:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

However, Reed was not going to let her slip quietly away to her room. After they'd tucked the children in bed, he half asked, half dragged Charlotte out onto the front porch into the cool night air. He sat on the swing and pulled her down beside him, her dress billowing about both their legs before settling.

"I'm sorry this happened," he blurted out, and it was the first time Charlotte had ever seen Reed less than composed, except at the mines.

"You're sorry for what exactly?" she asked, her voice low with weariness. In truth, she was not up to the anger that she'd felt earlier; she was as tired as the children, though for different reasons.

"Perhaps you're sorry your fiancée arrived before you finished what you came here to do. Or are you simply sorry you didn't tell me that you had a fiancée before you got caught in a deception?"

She felt rather than heard him take a deep breath.

"I'm deeply sorry that you are hurt. I never meant to mislead you."

She laughed then, leaning her head against the swing and looking up at the stars.

"No, I mean it, Charlotte. I was going to tell you about my situation with Helen the other night," he paused, "and, of course, we were going to talk tomorrow, but we just ran out of time."

His situation with Helen. What an odd way to describe an engagement—though according to John Trelaine, it wasn't a traditional engagement at all.

Charlotte closed her eyes against the winking stars, remembering Reed saying there was something he wanted to tell her, right before he fell asleep on the sofa the night before. But he should have told her before the very first kiss out on the grass.

"Yes," Charlotte agreed, "we have run out of time."

She felt him take her hand from where it rested in her lap, and, as he had done before on her porch, Reed caressed her palm ever so gently with his thumb.

She took it back, clasping her hands firmly together on her skirt.

"You are spoken for," she said, not looking at him. "Everything is different now."

"Is it?" He turned her to face him with a strong hand under her chin. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut. "I don't feel any differently about you. Nothing has changed for me."

She was still as a statue. She could feel the rough rasp of his thumb along her jaw, and she wanted to turn her head ever so slightly and touch her lips to it. Instead, she held her breath.

"Charlotte, look at me."

"No," she said. If she opened her eyes and saw his familiar face and deep blue gaze, she would be lost.

"Charlotte."

Nothing.

Then she felt his lips touch her own. First, only a soft brushing, then another more insistent kiss.

"Charlotte, the situation is not what it seems."

She knew he was talking about Helen Belgrave. She wanted to believe him.

He kissed her again, deeply, thoroughly, and as he pulled away, his teeth caught at her lower lip for just a second.

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