In fact, his hands slipped between the material and her skin, skimming up over her ribs and cupping her breasts as he bent in to kiss her neck.
Tori leaned into his touch, the tingles he was sending through her body happily distracting her from the moral dilemma buzzing around her head.
She needed to make a decision soon, she knew that. But maybe not right now. Maybe she could have this with Jasper just once more, just one more perfect night in his arms, before she had to ruin it all.
Tori turned and kissed him, and let him blot out all her thoughts for a while.
* * *
Whatever weirdness had been between him and Tori that morning faded away the moment Jasper touched her. Whatever she’d been hiding from, she wasn’t running any more.
At least, until afterwards.
‘A guy could get a complex, you know,’ he said, as she slipped out of bed and pulled that damn dress back on. ‘The way you’re always so keen to get out of bed with me, I mean.’
The smile she flashed him didn’t quite reach her eyes. ‘We don’t want to be late for the party.’
That’s not why you’re running.
Trouble was, he didn’t know the real why. What was Tori hiding now? Too many secrets, all over again. And just when he thought he might have uncovered the last of his family’s secrets.
‘I suppose you’re right.’ Jasper sat up, lounging against the bedhead for a moment to watch her dress. If she wanted to pretend that everything was fine, he could do that. But he knew it wasn’t just her clothes that were going back on.
Her mask was in place too. Her defences, her armour.
She was hiding again. Even this morning, she hadn’t pulled the drawbridge up so completely.
So what’s changed since then?
‘I haven’t seen you all day,’ he observed as she shimmied the dress over her hips. He forced himself not to get too distracted by the motion, or the bare skin on display, but he couldn’t stop himself looking. ‘What have you been up to?’
Tori shrugged her bare shoulders. ‘You know. Work. Lots to do for the party tonight.’
Except she hadn’t been anywhere around the hall when he was looking for her, and, as far as he knew, the party had been almost entirely organised by his mother’s event planner, same as every other year.
Tori backed up to the bed, that same zip dangling. This time, he did it up. Putting temptation out of reach, and completing her retreat into her armour all over again.
‘What about you?’ she asked, crossing again to the dressing table. He watched her reflection in the mirror as she threaded long silver earrings through her lobes.
Like chain mail.
Was everything about this woman armour? ‘Did you talk to your mother?’
The question jerked him out of his reverie. ‘I did, actually.’
‘And?’
And she’s been lying to me my whole life. Just like you’re lying to me right now.
‘And it turns out there was more to the story than I realised. She knew all along that Felix was the earl’s son.’
Tori spun round to face him, her eyebrows high. ‘Really? And she still let them stay?’
‘It was her idea, apparently.’ Jasper swung his legs off the bed and reached for his trousers. ‘She forgave him the affair, and didn’t want Felix to suffer.’
‘Huh.’
Jasper looked up to see her brow creased in a frown. ‘What?’
‘She forgave him. Like, properly. I didn’t see that coming.’
‘What were you expecting?’ Jasper tilted his head to the side to watch her as she considered her answer. Maybe her mask wasn’t quite as complete as it usually was—or perhaps he’d simply learned to see through it, somewhat—because her thoughts were almost telegraphed across her expression. Confusion, doubt, and something Jasper couldn’t quite put his finger on. Something that might even have been...hope?
‘I don’t know. Maybe that kind of grudging forgiveness where people say they understand because it’s too late to say anything else. I mean, what difference could it make now, being angry, when the misdeed is almost thirty years in the past and nothing can change it? But she forgave him then, right when it happened. I... I just didn’t expect that.’
‘Neither did I,’ Jasper admitted.
What did it say about them that neither had considered that sort of unconditional forgiveness as even a possibility?
‘So...does she not want to go to Stonebury?’ Tori asked.
Jasper shrugged. ‘To be honest, I didn’t get the chance to ask her. I think it’s definitely worth keeping it as an option, though. I mean, it’s hard to predict what the media reaction will be. These days, a child out of wedlock isn’t nearly so much of a big deal. But keeping it a secret for so many years...’
‘There’s a story there, and they’ll want to tell it.’
‘Exactly.’
‘How are you...how are you feeling?’ Tori asked, after a moment, and Jasper couldn’t shake the sensation that there was something more than concern behind the question. As if she was trying to get a read on a business competitor or something.
Either way, he didn’t know how to answer.
‘I... I don’t know yet. It took me five years to come back here after I found out about Felix. And now learning that my mother knew all along, that she’s not going to stop my father making it public... I haven’t processed it all yet. I spoke to Felix earlier—for the first time in five years. I guess that maybe I’m coming to terms with the facts of it all, and that Felix, at least, wasn’t to blame for what happened. But it’s the lying and the secrets I can’t move past. You know?’
‘I know.’ Tori’s voice sounded raw, more than just an agreement. But before he could ask if she was okay, she pasted on a smile and held a hand out to him. ‘Come on. We’ve got a party to get to. There’ll be plenty of time for introspection and misery later.’
Her words were light, joking. But somehow they still sounded like a prediction.
And more than ever, Jasper felt the festive party spirit slipping away from him.
CHAPTER TWELVE
DOWNSTAIRS, THE PARTY was in full swing. The air hummed with classic Christmas tunes from the band, the singer a glamorous redhead who made everything sound sultry, and the waiters circulating with trays of champagne were being kept very busy. The Flaxstone Christmas party was always a highlight of the local social calendar—and normally of Tori’s too. In a room full of people, she could forget that she was alone for Christmas, usually.
But not this year. This year, she felt more alone than she had since she’d left the Moorside, eight years ago. Because this year, she had someone to lose.
And she knew in her heart that she’d already lost him.
Jasper, returning son and heir, had been swept away by family, friends and acquaintances who hadn’t seen him for five long years. He’d tried to keep her on his arm to start with, but she’d shaken her head and slipped away, indicating that she was heading for the canapés.
Mostly, she’d just needed to es
cape.
She needed to get everything straight in her head. A project list, the same way she always began any new project the earl delegated to her. Before she could start work, she needed to know the parameters.
Mentally, she ran through her usual checklist. After all, business was what she knew best—far more than people or relationships. And in the end, weren’t they more or less the same thing? Interactions and negotiations and compromises—only on life choices and personal futures, rather than business proposals and property.
So, first up: what did she already know?
That was easy. She ticked them off in her head, half wishing she’d brought her notebook with her to write them down.
One. She knew that she felt more for Jasper than she’d felt for anyone since Tyler. A lot more. However much she’d tried to pretend to herself otherwise. She wouldn’t be feeling this mixed up about the earl’s offer otherwise.
Two. She knew that Jasper would be leaving for the States again in the new year. And she knew that she couldn’t risk another long-distance relationship, not after Tyler.
Three. She knew that Jasper struggled to forgive even those he loved most. The man definitely knew how to hold a grudge.
Four. She knew that Jasper would feel betrayed if she left Flaxstone to run Stonebury with Felix. She couldn’t fall in love with him, give him everything he needed, and go after what she needed too. She’d tried that before with Tyler, with disastrous results. This time, a relationship with Jasper—assuming that was even what he wanted—would mean either her leaving Flaxstone and the opportunity at Stonebury to be with him or...what? Asking him not to go back to a life he’d established overseas? To overlook the fact she was working with, supporting and hiding his half-brother—using the very plan she’d developed with him for protecting his mother? None of those options seemed likely.
So. Not a pretty picture so far. But there was one more thing she knew, too. She pulled a face as she made herself add it.
Five. She knew she wanted the job at Stonebury. She knew she was the best person for it, that it would rocket her career forward, and, most of all, she knew that she’d earned it.