“Yes,” Geoffrey said quietly.
He made absolutely no attempt to leave. The silence stretched. Then Geoffrey lifted one hand slowly toward my face, giving me every opportunity to move away.
His fingers brushed lightly against my cheek, tucking one loose strand of hair back beneath my veil with such gentleness that something inside me cracked wide open.
I couldn’t remember the last time someone touched me like I mattered. Not with distracted affection or rushed intimacy squeezed between obligations. Not half-attention while phones buzzed and emails waited and everyone hurried toward the next thing.
But with complete attention, like this moment was enough by itself. The realization hit so suddenly it almost hurt.
Geoffrey’s thumb rested lightly against my cheekbone, his expression unreadable except for the dangerous softness slowly undoing every careful defense I had left.
“Harper,” he said again quietly, like the word itself meant something to him.
I kissed him first. My hand caught lightly against the front of his tunic as I rose onto my toes and pressed my mouth softly against his.
For one heartbeat Geoffrey went completely still. Like a man struck clean through the center of himself. Then he kissed me back. And dear God. Months of restraint unraveled all at once beneath the quietest kiss imaginable.
Geoffrey made a small sound low in his throat that nearly destroyed what remained of my ability to think. One hand moved instinctively to my waist, drawing me closer with slow controlled pressure that somehow felt infinitely more devastating than urgency ever could have.
The kiss deepened. Reverently. Like he had imagined this too many times already. Warmth flooded through me so fast it left me dizzy. His mouth was softer than I expected. The hand against my waist steady and certain. Every inch of his attention focused entirely on me with an intensity so complete it stole the breath from my lungs.
Relief hit me first. Not passion. Relief. The unbearable relief of being found. Of being seen completely by another person and realizing they had stepped closer instead of away.
My fingers tightened in the wool of his tunic as the kiss deepened again, slower now, hungrier only because neither of us seemed capable of stopping.
Outside, winter battered the walls of the castle. Inside, Geoffrey kissed me like a man returning home after a war. Ifelt him lose control of his restraint in increments. The careful composure and the endless discipline. All of it slipping quietly beneath the simple reality of finally touching me.
His forehead rested briefly against mine when we finally pulled apart, both of us breathing harder than the situation probably justified.
Geoffrey still held my waist like he had forgotten to let go. His eyes searched my face with an expression so open it almost undid me completely.
Wonder.
I realized dimly that I probably looked equally wrecked.
The corner of his mouth moved slightly, though the expression looked almost disbelieving now.
“Well,” he said softly.
I laughed once under my breath, breathless and entirely ruined for any other man ever.
“That seems historically significant.”
Much later, after Geoffrey finally walked me to my chamber with both of us speaking far too carefully about entirely unimportant things, I lay awake listening to the storm.
Sleep proved impossible.
Not because the chamber was cold. I’d seen to additional blankets once winter settled properly over Thames, and a small fire still glowed softly in the hearth across from the bed.
Not because of the storm either, though wind moved constantly around the tower like the sea trying to claw its way inland.
I couldn’t sleep because Geoffrey had kissed me.
I buried my face briefly against the pillow with a muffled sound somewhere between delight and despair.
Was I changing history? Had he married someone important?
And yet every time I closed my eyes, I remembered the exact feel of his hand against my waist. The rough warmth of his fingers against my cheek. The careful gentleness of his mouth against mine before restraint dissolved into something deeper and infinitely more devastating.