“Don’t, Lena.” He did look back at her then, this incredible woman who had stolen his heart. “It’ll only get harder if we continue to see each other.”

“It’s hard now, Aiden. When I agreed to this stupid plan Winslow concocted, I always thought I could just walk away. I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you.”

He slammed his eyes closed as those five words—fall in love with you—words no other woman had ever bestowed on him, washed over him, through him, around him. How powerful they were. How humbling. How breathtaking.

If he gave them back to her, if he told her how much she meant to him, they would be lost. Forever. Irrevocably. Lost.

He was her secret. That made him easier to love. How much more difficult would it be with Society’s censure surrounding them?

He opened his eyes. “Words easy to utter within the safe confines of the shadows. My businesses succeed because I know what people want to do in secret. A duchess can have a bit of the rough with no one the wiser. A bastard can have a duchess. What can seem wonderful in the dark can have dire consequences in the light. You deserve better than a life hidden away from even those you care about.” Such as her sisters.

When his clothes were set to right, he reached out and cupped her chin, pressed his thumb to her lush lips. She hadn’t bothered to cover herself but just sat there like a nymph tempting the gods, and it took all his inner strength not to glide his hand over her silky skin. “Goodbye, sweetheart.”

While everything within him urged him to stay, he strode from the room leaving nothing behind except his heart.

Chapter 24

Selena sat on a wrought-iron bench in the garden, watching as Connie and Flo played a game of croquet, their squeals and laughter floating around them. Beside her, Alice was reading Through the Looking-Glass.

A week had passed since she’d seen Aiden, a week in which loneliness had been a constant companion, in spite of her sisters’ presence. She slept with her arms folded around the pillow that carried his scent, but the fragrance was fading with each breath she inhaled. A time would come when the only aspect of him that remained in her life was the child presently growing in her belly. She would forever be grateful for that gift. Still, she missed Aiden with an ache that hurt her chest.

She glanced over at Alice. “I’d have thought you’d have finished reading that book by now.”

With a Cheshire cat–like smile, Alice lifted her head and looked at her. “Oh I have. I’m simply reading it again. Would you like to borrow it?”