Desire Me Now (20 page)

“She has vowed to marry another far more powerful than you,” Jeremy insisted.

“I don’t think I have made myself clear.” Nick let go of her brother, and he fell
to the ground. “You’re the only one in the wrong, Berwick. I suggest you back the
fuck off or next time, I will not hold back from delivering the justice you truly
deserve.”

“Your threats do not scare me.”

“Consider it a promise.”

Mrs. Coleman wrapped her arms around Amelia, whispering soft words that Amelia didn’t
hear as she watched Nick. He was forcing her brother away from her, making him walk
backward.

“You so much as threaten a hair on any of my employees’ heads, and I will have you
strung up by the balls before you can say boo. Stay away from my house and away from
your sister.”

“This isn’t over.”

Nick took a few steps toward Jeremy, who backed up and fell to the pavement again.
He put his hands up in front of his face to protect himself, but Nick didn’t strike
out again. “Get out of London, or I will send some friends for a long visit to the
hovel where you have holed up.”

Nick didn’t spare her brother another word but gave Jeremy his back and walked carefully
toward her, as though afraid she’d take flight.

Nick was one man she would never run from. How could she? She was in love with him.

That thought froze her to the spot.

“Let us get you back inside. We will call the doctor to ensure you’re well,” he said
evenly, as though the rage had fully leeched out of him now that he was focused on
her. His arms smoothed over her arms. His touch was so gentle and careful.

“I need a minute with him,” Amelia said. He let her go, though he didn’t go more than
an arm’s length away from her.

“Only a minute,” Nick agreed. “I don’t want him getting any ideas.”

She nodded, understanding his hesitancy.

Looking at her brother’s bloody and beaten face, she said, “I am sorry, Jeremy.” She
truly was. She wouldn’t want this kind of thing to happen to even her worst enemy.
“Just . . . just stay out of my life. I have never asked you for anything. But no
good will come of your being here. I have a life here. A home. Please, leave me alone.”

Her brother laughed, the sound sinister and dark. She’d known that would be his response,
but she still had to try to get through to him. “Take your platitudes with you. You
owe me, Amelia. Make no mistake—you will pay your debts.” He ended with a ragged,
hacking cough.

“She has no debts to you, Berwick,” Nick said.

Amelia knew her brother better than anyone. If he wanted to play dirty, she could
expose him for the man he really was—expose his debts to their fullest. Expose him
for the terrible things he’d done to good people. She almost wanted to dare him to
try but bit her tongue.

Instead, she turned into Nick’s arms and looked up at him, searching his eyes, which
were still focused on her brother.

“Can we go home?” she asked.

Nick simply lifted her in his arms and carried her back home.

“I
am sorry about everything that happened,” Amelia said.

Nick cupped the side of Amelia’s face with his bloodied hand. He hadn’t left her,
not even to wash or to look after bandaging his knuckles. When they’d entered the
house, every single person of the staff was waiting for them. Nick had instructed
Devlin to fetch the doctor and Huxley to follow her brother to see where he went.
Marney had promised to bring supplies to them so they could wash any cuts and tend
to any other damages. Then Nick had brought her into the parlor and sat next to her
on the sofa, as though afraid to let Amelia out of his sight again.

Nick clasped her hand. “You could not have known he was waiting for an opportunity
to kidnap you from the steps of your home.”

She shook her head. He was wrong. She should have at least guessed at the danger of
leaving the house alone. “I cannot make excuses for acting stupid. You and Huxley
knew what kind of threat he was. That was why you made sure someone was always home
with me.” She closed her eyes, hating the trouble she’d caused, hating what Nick had
done to defend her.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Amelia. I know my words cannot mean
much when I have promised to protect you and failed. I will do everything in my power
to keep you safe from this moment forward.” He pulled her into his arms, tucking her
head between his shoulder and neck.

“You didn’t fail me. I failed myself by not being more vigilant. You were there to
stop him.”

“We will track your brother’s movements. He will not catch any of us unaware again.”

“Jeremy will not stay away. I know my brother better than anyone. Once he’s made up
his mind on something, he will pursue it like a rabid animal.”

Nick’s hand caressed her back, soothing away her stresses. Her head hurt, her lip
was sore and tender, and her body felt like it had been used as a punching bag. But
she didn’t want to be anywhere else but in Nick’s arms. When she was with him, she
felt safe. She felt loved.

There was that word again. Did he feel for her what she felt for him?

“Everyone saw what you did, how you treated me. How will we carry on?” she asked.

“I don’t care what anyone saw, Amelia. The thought of almost losing you today broke
something inside me. I have wanted you from the first moment we met. And that might
make me a cad of the worst sort, but it’s the truth. And since our first kiss, I knew
that our finding each other was meant to be. I do not question the insanity of such
a statement; I just embrace it. I will fight for you. And if that means hurting your
brother for trying to take away what belongs to me, than that is what I will do.”

Her breath caught and a thin trail of tears washed down her cheeks. It wasn’t a promise
of forever, but it was a declaration that for now, she belonged to him. Even after
everything that had happened. And she had been afraid he’d ask her to leave after
the trouble she’d caused.

“There are so many secrets between us. So many things that seem to continually come
at us.” She wasn’t sure what else to say to him. While she’d been forthcoming about
her past, there were details she’d left out, sparing him from the brutality her brother
had delivered.

“If there is one thing we have, it is time.” Nick traced his hand down the side of
her face as he lifted her. “I have been forthcoming with you from the start, Amelia.
I don’t intend to shut myself off from you now.”

A heavy knock came at the parlor door. Amelia hated to share Nick with anyone right
now. She wished they could lock themselves in here, but the household was in a bit
of a panic after the events of the afternoon.

“Can we not leave it?” she asked, wanting selfishly to spend more time with him.

Nick chuckled and called out, “Come.”

Amelia sighed and pulled herself away from Nick.

How had her life changed so drastically in the course of a week? She barely recognized
the woman she’d become, barely knew the woman she thought she’d always been.
That
Amelia seemed like some other woman. Someone who was weak and afraid. She was neither
of those things now.

Mrs. Coleman came into the room carrying a bowl and pitcher, as well as some linens
and ointments. She set up her items on the table in front of Nick.

“Clean up Amelia first,” he said when Mrs. Coleman reached for his knuckles. Nick
stood up to pour the heated water into the basin.

“Poor child,” Mrs. Coleman said, clucking as she dunked a few of the linen strips
and then dabbed away at the blood on Amelia’s face. She winced when Mrs. Coleman blotted
the wet cloth against her lip but held still for her ministrations, just wanting them
to be over. “I expect the doctor will be here soon. He will have to look at that goose
egg on your temple.”

Tentatively, Amelia ran her fingers over the bump at the side of her head where her
brother had given her a good wallop. She hissed in a breath when she touched it, not
expecting it to hurt as much as it did. “That explains the headache pounding behind
my eyes.”

Mrs. Coleman studied Amelia carefully. “The dress is ruined, don’t think it can be
mended much either.”

Amelia looked at herself. Blood and dirt covered her. Her dress was torn along both
shoulders and down the arms. The front was full of runs and holes. She hadn’t realized
just how awful she looked, hadn’t realized how bad the tumble really was, until she
saw the damage of her clothes and the scrapes on her arms where the material was torn
away.

“I suppose not,” she said as she stood. The motion made her dizzy. Nick grasped her
arm and held her steady. “I was not expecting that.”

“You took quite a blow. We’ll have to watch you for the rest of the night, make sure
you really are unharmed.” There was a deep thread of worry in Nick’s voice.

“Mrs. Coleman, can you see to his hands?” Amelia asked.

The housekeeper pulled Nick down beside her and had him dunk his hands in the bowl
of water. It turned pink, and then Mrs. Coleman dried them off and spread an ointment
on them.

Amelia walked over to the window and cranked it open to let in some fresh air. She
took in a few deep breaths, fearing that she would lose consciousness at any moment.
The last thing she needed was to give Nick another fright. She held on to the frame
of the window until Mrs. Coleman finished attending to Nick and packed up the supplies
she’d brought to the parlor.

The sky had turned a deep scarlet with a lilac line streaked through it.
The light in the darkness
, she thought ironically.

Nick’s past was likely as complicated as hers, maybe more so when she thought about
the scars that covered his back. If they could get through today without destroying
what was between them, then she felt they could conquer anything that stood in the
way of their relationship and their future.

If the events of the day had taught her anything, it was that she was thoroughly in
love with Nick Riley. Irrevocably, head over heels in love.

Alone again, Nick stood behind her, his arms circling her waist under her arms. His
chin rested lightly on top of her head. “What has you deep in contemplation?”

“Us.”

“If anyone in the household has guessed what you mean to me, they will not say anything.”
He thought she was worried about what everyone thought.

A ghost of a smile played on her lips. She wanted to turn in his arms and tell him
that was the farthest thing from her mind. “It is a conflict to be both your secretary
and your lover.”

“I don’t give a damn, Amelia.” She heard the frustration in his comment and didn’t
want him to think she doubted what was between them.

She turned in his arms and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. The spattering of
blood had been wiped away. “Well, I do not give a damn either.”

Nick kissed the side of her mouth, her cheek, her forehead. “Good.”

“Nick?”

He pulled away so he could look at her, a question in his eyes.

“I want you to know something.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t want you to feel obligated to return any sentiments, but I think you should
know that I love you. I know it’s sudden, that it does not seem possible—”

Nick kissed her full on the mouth. He nibbled at her upper lip, and pressed light
kisses on the lower, where it hurt too much for her to reciprocate. Releasing her
with a growl, he pulled her tightly into his arms. Her head rested against his chest,
and she could hear the heavy pounding of his heart.

“Nick?” She tried to lift her head but he held her close, almost as if he were afraid
to let her go.

Very quietly, he said, “You are my world, Amelia. If there is one thing I can promise
to prove my devotion to you, it is that we will sort out your brother and make sure
you’re free of him.”

Amelia didn’t care about her sore lip anymore. She turned her head and pressed a kiss
against his heart. “We will do it together.”

For the first time in her life, Amelia felt like she was home. But it wasn’t home
without Nick. And she would do everything in her power to keep him in her life. Because
that was all that mattered to her now.

Keep reading for a sneak peek at
DESIRE ME MORE
available August 2015
from Avon Impulse!