Winter's Heat: A Nemesis Unlimited Holiday Novella by Zoë Archer

Author:Zoë Archer [Archer, Zoë]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Romance, Historical, Historical Romance
Amazon: B00DK44LI0
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Published: 2013-10-22T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

As Ada and Michael crested the rise, the jagged outline of the ruin rose up against the charcoal sky. They approached, and she could make out the actual structure. A square tower with an empty window joined with a tumbled-down chamber, it seemed the medieval design was supposed to invoke the era of knights and ladies. An absence of roof kept the whole building open to the sky and the elements. Weeds poked through the stones of the walls.

Michael picked at some of the stone, and it disintegrated into dust. “It was a pretend ruin once, but now it’s a real one. And somewhere here, Larkfield’s hidden the valise. We need to search for anything that looks like it’s been disturbed recently. You stand as lookout while I search.”

“I think you’ve been around Simon too long,” she answered. “You’re starting to sound like a former commanding officer.”

He smiled quickly, but didn’t look apologetic. “In our little army, I’ve got seniority.”

Her response was to give him a mocking salute. “I’m only following your instructions because I made the suggestion first, not because you’re the senior officer.”

They broke apart, and Ada acted as sentry while Michael combed over the ruin. She picked up a branch that had broken from a tree, and held it like a club, in case Larkfield should appear.

It was easier to focus on the mission than think about the unresolved tension between her and Michael. And the confusion within herself. She’d always had such defined ideas as to what she wanted and how to get it, but ever since she’d met Michael, her neatly ordered world had broken apart. He wasn’t necessarily the cause, more like what a scientific fellow she’d met at the mercer shop had called the catalyst. Was she a housemaid with aspirations to become a housekeeper? Was she a shopgirl who hoped to open a place of her own, perhaps with a husband as her partner? Or was there something more, a restless need for a thing she couldn’t define? Maybe letting her voice be heard?

And there was Michael himself. She couldn’t figure how to respond to him, or what she wanted from him. Simply opening her heart to him again would lead to more pain when he inevitably disappeared on another mission. Women didn’t have the luxury men did—men could take lovers as much as they liked. But women always bore the consequences, either in the form of a baby or a ruined reputation, or both. Even if none of that mattered, Ada knew herself well enough to understand that she couldn’t take a man to her bed just for physical pleasure. Her heart would get involved, leaving her with emptiness and sorrow when he left.

It would be so much worse with Michael.

She threw a surreptitious glance over her shoulder. He moved with purposeful, sleek motions, tall and lean. Impossible for her to forget the athletic power of his body pressed against hers as he’d climbed down the side of Covington Hall. The thought made her own body respond, heat flooding her, sensation tight along her skin.

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