‘Well, no, probably not,’ Jasper admitted.
Maybe he was wrong about the wider public’s appetite for aristocratic scandal, but he doubted it. And even if he was, local society would definitely care. That was the society Lady Flaxstone cared about most.
He’d take his mother away with him to the States if he could, but her fear of flying verged on the phobic, and she’d be miserable away from her own country. He hadn’t really thought beyond getting her settled at Stonebury, but if Tori took on the project personally, he could definitely see himself visiting regularly...
‘So I only have to put up with you and your cruel pie eating for another few weeks, I figure,’ she said, staring longingly at his pie.
Rolling his eyes, Jasper loaded up the fork again and held it out across the table to her.
‘Really?’ she asked, eyes suddenly bright. From the excitement on her face a person couldn’t have been blamed for thinking he’d just offered her the crown jewels, or a sparkly engagement ring.
‘Go on,’ he said indulgently.
Tori’s eyes fluttered closed as she wrapped her mouth around the fork. ‘So, so good,’ she muttered as she chewed.
Jasper had to agree. If it meant he could see that look of bliss on her face every day, he’d start shipping in Henry’s pies by the dozen.
Or maybe he’d just concentrate on finding some other things he could do for her that made her look that way...
Tori swallowed, opened her eyes and smiled at him. ‘Thank you. I know how hard it is for you to share.’
‘Is that another not so subtle hint that I should talk to my mother and/or half-brother?’ Tori hadn’t exactly been restrained on the subject until now. Despite her comment, he trusted that she knew him well enough that the issue of going from only child to youngest son wasn’t the problem here. According to the will he’d found, his father intended to split the inheritance fairly equally between them, with Flaxstone going to Jasper, and as the only legitimate son the title was his by law anyway, whatever his father did.
‘Yes,’ Tori admitted. ‘But not tonight.’
That surprised him. ‘No? How did I earn this reprieve? By giving you pie?’
‘Basically.’ She gave him an impish grin. One that reminded him of the first night they’d ever spent together—before all the secrets that had torn his life apart. ‘But mostly, I want you to finish this bottle of wine with me.’
Something in her smile gave him hope. ‘And then?’
‘Then...maybe you’ll walk me home?’
‘I can do that. It’s only gentlemanly, after all.’ Then he reached behind him, grabbed another knife and fork from the drawer, and handed them over. Pushing his plate to the centre of the table, he waited for Tori to help herself to his pie before taking his own mouthful.
Maybe he could get good at sharing after all.
CHAPTER TEN
FLAXSTONE HALL WAS silent as they let themselves out of the back door, and followed the darkened path towards Tori’s gatehouse cottage. Tori wasn’t sure if it was the wine or the sneaking around that made her want to giggle so badly. But she and Jasper were both grown adults, and it wasn’t as if they hadn’t done this before, anyway.
Memories of the last time they’d snuck down to her cottage only made her feel warmer despite the chill of the night.
God, what was she doing? Was she really going to invite Jasper in for a nightcap—and more?
Well, yes. Yes, she was.
Because he might be leaving soon, but that was probably a good thing. The Jasper she’d got to know over the last week or two was far too tempting, too risky. Given long enough she knew she could fall for him—and fall hard.
It was, she could admit now—to herself, anyway—exactly what she’d been afraid of five years ago. He was so gorgeous, so charming, and had a way of making her feel as if she were the only person in the world when he flirted with her. If she’d let her defences down for a second she could have found herself in love with him, and ripe for having her heart broken like all the others girls he’d paraded through Flaxstone.
That was why she’d run away, after their night together. She’d had to protect her heart. And if he’d woken up, sober, in her bed and still wanted her, still smiled at her the same way he had the night before, she’d have been a goner. And if he hadn’t...well, Tori wasn’t entirely sure that wouldn’t have been worse.
But now, now she was older, wiser, and she knew this thing had a time limit. She could risk one more night with Jasper, as long as her head and her heart both understood that was all it could be.
Because even if he stayed, she wasn’t looking for love, not again. And she definitely wasn’t looking for a long-distance relationship. She’d tried that with Tyler and—she wasn’t thinking about Tyler tonight.
She wasn’t thinking about the past or the future tonight.
She was thinking about right now, and how good Jasper’s arm felt around her waist as they stumbled down the path, and how much she wanted to kiss him again.
Stay in the moment, Tori.
The security light Felix had helped her install, after a fox started getting into her bins, flared to life as they crossed the threshold into its sensors. Jasper jumped, making Tori laugh, until he wrapped her up in his arms and suddenly she didn’t have the breath for laughter.
‘So, I’ve walked you home,’ he said, his forehead resting against hers as he looked down into her eyes. ‘This is the part where you have to decide if you want to invite me in or not.’
And even though she’d already made that decision, the moment she’d asked him to walk down to her cottage with her, Tori hesitated.
‘Do you want to come in?’ she asked.
‘More than anything.’ She could hear the sincerity in his voice. ‘God, Tori, you have to know I’ve been thinking of practically nothing but kissing you again ever since—’ He broke off.
‘The other day at the Christmas market?’ she guessed, but Jasper shook his head.
‘Since you kissed me at the Moorside,’ he admitted. ‘Even though I knew that wasn’t about me, that it didn’t mean what I hoped it might mean, I couldn’t stop thinking about how incredible it felt to have you in my arms. And imagining all the things I’d do if I got the opportunity again, when the timing was better.’
He’d been thinking about her since then? Even when they’d been clashing in his father’s study, or when she’d been working for too many hours straight on the proposal and had rubbed her eyes until her mascara had smudged into black rings around her lashes and she hadn’t noticed until she’d got home?
He’d been thinking about her. The same way she’d been thinking about him.
Imagining him.
‘The timing seems pretty much perfect right now,’ she said, the words coming out breathier than she’d intended.
‘That’s exactly what I thought.’
He met her gaze head-on as he lowered his lips to hers, obviously watching for a sign that she wanted him to stop, or take things slower. But she didn’t, so she raised herself up on her tiptoes to meet him halfway, falling into a kiss that seemed to have been years in the making.
It hadn’t been like this the last time they were here, Tori realised. She hadn’t known him then the way she did now—hell, he wasn’t even the same person, really. Too much had happened in the last five years.
But in a way, she was glad he’d left, after that one night they’d spent together.
Because it meant they could be the people they were now, and they could have this perfect, mind-blowing kiss.
After long, long, blissful moments, Jasper pulled back, putting just enough distance between them to whisper. ‘So. Are you going to invite me in?’
Tori smirked. ‘Invite? I think I’m going to have to insist on it.’
Jasper grinned back at her, his eyes bright and alive like she remembered from before he’d left Flaxstone.
‘Works for me,’ he said.