He rolled his eyes as if I were talking about something as silly and inconsequential as my fondness for lederhosen. “We’ll talk about that later, but first”—his eyebrows danced—“let’s race.”
I chuckled and shook my head. Darn he was good at lightening the mood, a hundred times better than me. “Okay, but this time wait until I finish counting to three—” I wasn’t sure if he heard the last part because I’d already taken off and was firing ahead with all engines burning. I wasn’t above cheating, at least the kind that gave me an edge over him in a foot race. The house was in sight when a stream of bluish-white light rushed past me, like a comet falling in the night sky.
He had the gate swung open and was leaning against the fence with a smirk on his face when I screeched to a stop in front of Joseph and Cora’s. Looking ever so innocent, and quite pleased with himself, he motioned me through the gate. “You were saying, my love?”
I skirted past him. “You’re impossible,” I whispered.
“Impossibly fast you mean,” he whispered behind me.
Although it couldn’t have been later than ten or eleven, all the lights inside were off and I’m sure Joseph and Cora had retired early to grant William and me a semblance of privacy.
He turned to me, about to pick me up as we journeyed up to the second floor roof, but this was likely the only time I’d ever refuse his offer. I winked and leapt onto the roof like I’d been doing it was second nature. He was beside me the next second. “You’ve been spending way too much time with Patrick,” he said, easing open my bedroom window without making a sound. “After you.”
I grabbed the top of the window sill and swung in, feeling a little immature in my attempts to be a show-off, but I’d learned a lot this past month in strength training and I was eager to show the man who seemed capable of anything and everything what I was capable of.
Not playing coy about it, I headed straight for the bed, but his arms wound around me before I made it to my destination. “You know, I really love the sound of Mrs. Bryn Hayward,” he said, his mouth against my ear. “Dawson is quite lovely too, but Bryn Hayward just has a certain something about it.”
I twisted in his arms and looked him hard in the eye. “Did you really not hear what your dad said tonight?” I asked, not regulating my voice. “Or are you just choosing to ignore it?”
“I heard everything he said tonight, Bryn, and I’m not choosing to ignore it either,” he said, running his hands up my back until they reached the end of my ponytail. “I’ve taken their decision into consideration and have made my own decision.”
“What decision is that?” I asked, already knowing.
“We did it your way, Bryn. I petitioned the Council every chance I got and their answer has been no every time.” He tugged at my ponytail gently, lowering his voice. “This time a very final no, as we were both informed of. So now it’s time to make our decision as to how much longer we’re going to let the Council be the puppeteers of our lives.”
I looked down and felt myself fumbling for words. “Yeah, but this time they said—”
“They said no,” he answered.
“But they might say yes the next time,” I fired back, not ready for this battle because I knew he was right. We’d never be granted a Betrothal and I’d promised him I would give up and leave with him if the conventional means failed. The thing was, I hadn’t anticipated the conventional means to fail us so quickly.
“They said no, my love,” he whispered, his eyes filled with apologies. “I’ve made my choice and you know what that is. Now you must make yours.”
My throat tightened to the point my rebuttal couldn’t make its way to the surface. I would have far preferred the tongue-tie effect brought on by a different activity.
“When I meet with the Council in the morning for my mission orders, I will speak with them one last time regarding us, but I’d like your promise that if they deny us once more . . . you can let me know what your choice is.”
Words were still impossible, so I just nodded my head when I wanted to be shaking it. I wasn’t ready for this crossroads, but either way, I had to be prepared to tell William tomorrow if I was ready to run away with him for the rest of our eternities.
“Then let’s not speak another word tonight,” he whispered, winking at me while pulling me down onto the bed on the first and last night of our reunion.
CHAPTER THREE
WEAK SPOT
I felt warmth and a male presence, but neither was being emitted from the one who should have been beside me at this unholy hour in my bed while I was a quarter of a yard of lycra away from being naked.
“So how is it?”
“How’s what?” I grumbled, blinking my eyes open.
“Waking up to the sight of the man you’re secretly in love with.”
I tossed a pillow at his face. “Anyone ever mention you’re a bit full of yourself, Patrick?” I asked, adjusting the mess of hair off my face. “Don’t you ever knock?”
“Not when my student is fifteen minutes late for her morning training,” he said, eyeing my training attire that had ended up in a pile in the corner. The swimsuit, to my dismay, had stayed on.
“And I thought I told you yesterday there would be no training when William was home,” I said in my no-nonsense tone, although all it did was invoke an eye-roll from him.