Always staying a step back, always the observer.

And he’d seen the way she’d watched Seth. With love, and with longing, and again from a distance.

So as not to intrude? To protect herself? He thought it was a combination of both. He wasn’t quite sure exactly what went on in her heart, in her mind. But he was determined to find out.

“I think I might be in love with you, Sybill.” He said it quietly as he stretched out beside her. “Damn if that doesn’t complicate things for both of us.”

SHE WOKE IN the dark, and for a moment, just a flash, she was a child again and afraid of all those things that lurked in the shadows. She had to press her lips together, very hard, until it hurt. Because if she cried out one of the servants would hear and might tell her mother. Her mother would be annoyed. Her mother wouldn’t like it that she’d cried about the dark again.

Then she remembered. She wasn’t a child. There was nothing lurking in the shadows but more shadows. She was a grown woman who knew it was foolish to be afraid of the dark when there was so much else to fear.

Oh, she’d made a fool of herself, she thought, as more memories slipped through. A terrible fool of herself. Letting herself become upset that way. Worse, letting it show until she’d had no control, none whatsoever. Instead of maintaining her composure, she’d rushed out of the house like an idiot.

Inexcusable.

Then she’d cried all over Phillip. Wept like a baby right in the front yard as if she’d . . .

Phillip.

Mortification had her moaning aloud, covering her face with her hands. She sucked in a gasp when an arm came around her.

“Ssh.”

She recognized his touch, his scent even before he drew her against him. Before his mouth brushed her temple, before his body fit comfortingly to hers.

“It’s all right,” he murmured.

“I—I thought you’d gone.”

“I said I’d stay.” He slitted his eyes open, scanned the dull red glow of the bedside alarm. “Three A.M. hotel time. Should have figured it.”

“I didn’t mean to wake you.” As her eyes grew accustomed to the dark, she could make out the sweep of his cheekbone, the ridge of his nose, the shape of his mouth. Her fingers itched to touch.

“When I wake up in the middle of the night in bed with a beautiful woman, it’s hard to mind.”

She smiled, relieved that he wasn’t going to press her about her earlier behavior. It could just be the two of them now. No yesterday to mourn over, no tomorrow to worry about.

“I imagine you’ve had a lot of practice.”

“Some things you want to get just right.”

His voice was so warm, his arm so strong, his body so firm. “When you wake up in the middle of the night in bed with a woman, and she wants to seduce you, do you mind?”