For he would always remember the feel of her tears gathering on his neck, the warmth of her nestled within his arms, the taste of her on his tongue.

When he pulled back, she smiled at him, causing the ache in his chest to increase.

“You have a way of distracting me from my troubles.” Gratitude was mirrored in her eyes.

“I’m at your service anytime you require distracting.”

A small half laugh. A blush that turned her pale cheeks a rosy hue. It occurred to him to have the walls repainted that shade so he was always reminded of her.

For several long minutes, she merely held his gaze, and he held hers, as though words were no longer of any consequence. She looked away first. “I have to leave now.”

He almost asked her to stay, to spend the remainder of the night in his bed. Not that he would do anything other than hold her. While he was desperate to possess her, he didn’t think she was yet of a mind to be possessed by him. She wasn’t yet thoroughly seduced.

So he untangled himself from around her and assisted her in climbing out of his lap. After slipping into his shirt, he watched with fascination as she tidied her clothing. Then he laced her back up.

She didn’t bother with her hair. Merely returned the mask to its place so she was once again safe from recognition. Still, he escorted her down the hallway to a private stairwell that led to the foyer, so she wouldn’t have to traverse through the gaming floor. Retrieving her wrap from the girl at the counter there, he draped it around her shoulders and ushered her out into the night, to the carriage that waited for her.

When they reached it, she faced him. “I apologize for making such a spectacle of myself.”

“No need for apologies, sweetheart. But I do hope you won’t allow any discomfort you might be feeling regarding your tears to prevent you from returning.”

Reaching up, she skimmed her fingers along his jaw that was shadowed with bristles now. He could hear the rasp of them over her skin. “Tomorrow.”

He handed her up into the carriage and closed the door. As the vehicle rumbled down the street, he watched it go, wondering how he could possibly seduce her half as much as she’d seduced him.

When Selena reached her bedchamber door, she hesitated, not wanting to deal with Winslow tonight if he was lurking about like a miscreant in the shadows of her room. It was quite possible he might look at her and know what she’d been up to. In spite of her tears, she felt as though she still glowed from Aiden’s ministrations, and she wanted to hold those sensations close, take them with her beneath the sheets.