Lost to the Night (The Brotherhood Series, Book 1) (25 page)

She gasped and swallowed visibly, her head jerking back in shock and he wanted to scream and curse. In his shame, he shuffled back, his gaze falling from her wide eyes.

“Don’t hide from me,” she suddenly said rushing around the bench to stand in front of him. “Let me look upon your face.”

“It is the face of a beast.”

“No, Alexander. It is the face of the man I love.” She put her hand on his chest, and his heart pounded against his ribs. “I love you, and I want you to know that I’m not afraid.”

He struggled to believe her pretty protestations. His faith in all things just and equal having deserted him. Still, he longed to hold her close, to kiss away his fears.

Alexander raised his head, and her hand moved up to caress his cheek. Her fingers trembled against his skin, and he found he admired her all the more for her courage. Blinking back a torrent of emotion, he covered her hand.

Desire, love and longing pulsed through him.

Eve looked tenderly into his eyes. “Please say something. Say you forgive me.”

He was suddenly overcome with the urge to release all his pent-up emotion.

“I … I love you,” he said softly. “You are everything to me, which is why I want you to forget you ever met me. Let your life be free of this hideous burden.”

He watched a tear trickle down her cheek and guilt flared.

“I have something to ask of you,” she said lifting her chin.

“Ask what you will. But know I only desire your happiness.”

“Good,” she said, her voice sounding strong, more confident, “because I want you to marry me. I want you to be my husband, my lover, my friend and companion. Let me live here with you. We shall spend the nights together. During the days, you may sketch me whilst I sleep.”

Marriage?

The sense of remorse that always accompanied unobtainable dreams burst through him. In his wild and vivid imagination, he could almost picture the blissful scene.

“There’s more to this affliction than my strange countenance.” His voice sounded more natural as his features returned to their human form. “Things beyond your comprehension.”

She smiled up at him. “You don’t like the sun, and you drink blood.”

“Elliot told you?”

“He also told me about the golden-haired lady.”

Alexander sucked in a breath. “She’s no lady. But those things are not what trouble me most.”

“Tell me. Tell me everything.”

Unable to resist the urge clawing away inside, he took her face in his hands and caressed the soft skin. “What if I can’t control the beast inside? What if you grow more frightened of me each day? I couldn’t bear to see fear in your eyes.”

“I’m not afraid anymore.”

Alexander snorted, recalling the harrowing image of her fleeing through the chamber door in terror. “You may say that now, but what if the episodes become more frequent? In a year, things might be different.”

She put her hands on his chest and all of his fears melted away. “What if you tire of me, Alexander?”

He pulled her into his arms and held her tight. “My love for you has no limits,” he said stroking her hair.

Eve looked up to gaze into his eyes. “I would rather spend every day loving you than spend a lifetime alone. And I
would
be alone, Alexander, for there will never be another. Not for me.”

At some point in his life, he must have done something wonderful to deserve the love of an angel. Struggling to contain his raging emotions, he brushed his lips across hers, the brief touch causing their passion to flame.

“Let us make each night we spend together more precious than the last,” he said, his voice brimming with desire as he surrendered to the light.

She stepped away from him, a coy smile playing on her lips. “Then let us begin right now, with a swim.”

Alexander scanned her dress. “We’ll need to be less encumbered.”

They stripped off their clothes in great haste. He helped her with buttons and undergarments before throwing their discarded items on the bench.

Holding hands, they walked down to the river’s edge; the moon’s incandescence casting a silvery sheen over their bare skin. As Alexander helped her down into the water, swimming was the last thing on his mind. But the cold was biting, his desire momentarily overshadowed by the sharp shock and he pulled her into an embrace to ease her shivering limbs.

“We should move if we’re to keep warm,” he said as desire burst forth again with its usual intensity and he poured it all into a devilishly sinful kiss.

In the water, they were weightless, and she wrapped her legs around him with ease. “Don’t wait,” she whispered against his mouth, her thigh brushing against the only part of his anatomy impervious to the cold. “I want to join with you—now, tonight, forever.”

“Your happiness is all I seek,” he said, as he positioned himself and pushed inside her, giving her everything she needed. “I love you.”

She threw her head back, her perfect breasts ripe for the offering, and he took her nipple into his mouth as he thrust deeper.

“I love you,” she said between breathless pants.

As she cried his name in the wild throes of her pleasure, one thought pushed to the fore.

He was no longer a lost soul wandering the darkness.

He had found his way home.

Epilogue

“It took a little mind manipulation,” Alexander said, “but the bishop had no choice when faced with the wrath of an earl. He insisted that I call the next morning, although he soon understood that the evening suited me much better.”

“And now she’s your wife.” Leo nodded over to Eve as she chatted with their guests. “You’re a braver man than I.”

Elliot patted him on the back. “You’re definitely lucky. I doubt there’s another woman alive who would choose to marry a man plagued with our afflictions. Your wife is a true original.”

Alexander glanced at Eve with pride. Sensing his gaze, she looked up and smiled. “She’ll always be unique in my eyes, but there’s nothing original about love.”

Leo shivered visibly. “Just hearing the word makes me want to run for the hills.”

“Have no fear,” Elliot said with a chuckle. “The day either of us declares love will be the day the sun fails to rise.”

“I used to be just as cynical.” Had Eve not thrown the stone through his window, he’d most likely still be brooding in his chair. “Nothing can prepare you for such a delicious form of agony.”

Leo’s eyes widened. “It’s the agony that terrifies me. That constant pining I hear so much about.”

“Trust me, your day will come. Although I have a strange feeling, Elliot will be the first to fall. And I shall look forward to the day with eager anticipation.”

Elliot scoffed. “You’ll be waiting an exceedingly long time, my friend.”

Alexander sipped his brandy, but it still made the muscles in his throat spasm.

“If you drank it more often, you’d soon get used to it,” Elliot said. “I’m assuming it was your idea to have an informal supper as opposed to dinner.”

“My wife thought it would save me having to explain why I’d not touched a morsel. I did nibble on a sandwich, but I spat it into the plant pot when no one was looking.”

Although that wasn’t quite true. Mrs. Shaw had witnessed the whole thing, but it seemed nothing could erase the smile she’d worn for days.

Leo’s eyes bulged. “Who’s that?” he said nodding to a pretty lady with honey-gold hair. “She is trying to act all demure though I swear she keeps looking over here.”

“That is Mr. Hartwood’s niece and she is strictly off bounds.”

“This penchant for golden hair worries me,” Elliot said. “If I’m not mistaken, I’d say you have unresolved issues from your traumatic experience in Bavaria.”

Leo screwed up his nose. “Don’t be so ridiculous. I have no preference when it comes to women. I’ll take them any way I find them.”

“Prove it,” Elliot said with an arrogant grin. “I’ll wager twenty pounds you end up bedding a golden-haired goddess at the masquerade tomorrow night.”

Leo thrust his hand out though there was a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. “Done.”

Alexander chuckled. Perhaps there was no hope of either of them finding a life companion and the thought reminded him of his pressing problem.

“Can I speak to you both alone, in private?”

They looked at him with burning curiosity. “Of course,” they said in unison.

Alexander led them out into Mrs. Penrose’s garden before coming to an abrupt halt next to the cherry tree. As expected, his mind was instantly flooded with the memory of Eve and it seemed a fitting place to ask for their pledge.

“There is something I must ask of you,” Alexander began, and he could feel his heart beating hard in his chest.

“Don’t tell me,” Elliot said, showing his impatience. “You want us to accompany you to Bavaria. You want the golden-haired woman to turn Evelyn.”

“No,” Alexander cried, scowling to show his disgust and shaking his head to reaffirm his position. “I would never want that for Evelyn. If you had the plague, would you want to infect those you love?”

Elliot had the decency to look ashamed. “Bringing us out here … I just thought—”

“I want you to kill me,” Alexander said quietly.

“Kill you!” both gentlemen said before their mouths fell open.

Elliot frowned. “But I thought you were happy with Evelyn?”

“I am so deliriously happy I can hardly contain it.” Eve was his life. Nothing else mattered to him. “I want to make a pact. When Evelyn takes her last breath and is no longer of this world, I want you to kill me.”

“But why?” Leo said. They were the words of someone who had never experienced great emotion. The depth of his feelings for Eve went beyond anything even he could comprehend, and he’d rather die than walk the nights alone.

Alexander smiled. “Because I do not want to live a day on this earth without her. Because I want to hold her in my arms for all eternity.”

Elliot smirked. “Perhaps you should take up poetry as you have a very eloquent way with words.”

“Does that mean you’ll do it?”

“What if we make a pact, and you change your mind?” Leo asked.

“I won’t. But if it eases your conscience, each year I will express my wishes in writing. Then there can be no mistaking my intention.”

Elliot narrowed his gaze. “Does Evelyn know this is what you intend to do?”

“Not yet.” He held out his hand to them. “I ask my brothers to take my hand and seal our pact.”

Elliot looked at Leo. “I swore to honour the brotherhood, and so I must honour our brother’s wishes.”

“Very well,” Leo nodded, and he shook Alexander’s hand.

“You are an unusual man, Alexander,” Elliot said gripping his hand firmly. “But I swear to do as you ask.” He paused and then added, “Besides, it means you’ll always be part of the brotherhood. I had a sneaky suspicion you’d run away with your wife never to be heard from again.”

Alexander smiled. “The thought had crossed my mind.”

“Here you all are.” Eve’s voice cut through the darkness, and she came to stand next to him, threading her arm through his and hugging it tightly. “Forgive the intrusion but I’ve come to steal my husband away.” She glanced at the cherry tree, a coy smile touching her lips and he knew what she was thinking.

Flicking his gaze towards the house, he silently dismissed his friends. “We’ll be in town for another week before we head back to Hampshire. I’ll call on you before we leave.”

“Come, Leo,” Elliot said draping his arm over his friend’s shoulder. “Let’s go inside and discuss our wager.”

Once they were alone, Alexander drew Eve into an embrace and kissed her softly. “So, you’ve come to steal me away,” he whispered against her mouth. “I can’t wait to discover where we’re going.”

She looked up into his eyes, and he felt her love warm his soul. “It’s somewhere you’ve been before,” she said, taking his hand and pulling him down beneath the cherry tree, “a heavenly plane where our hearts can soar freely.”

Bunching up her dress, she sat astride him.

“I always like it when you’re in charge of the journey.”

She gave a pleasurable hum as he rained kisses down her neck. “I hope all our nights will be as magical as this.”

Alexander let the warmth of her love embrace him, his heart bursting with unimaginable joy. “Oh, I can promise you they will be.”

Thank you!

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Lost to the Night
.

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Slave to the Night
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