Authors: Dark Desires
Darcie screamed, unable to look away as Lord Albright took what felt like an eternity to fall before landing with a sickening thud on the cobbled road. He lay limp, like a sac of soiled linens.
With a gasp of horror, she averted her face, turning it into Damien’s shoulder. But for Damien’s ingenuity, that would have been her fate.
He cradled her against his chest, infinitely gentle. Finally, he let her go and climbed down from the top of the carriage. Then he reached up and lifted her down as well. Shrugging out of his cloak, he wrapped it around her shoulders. He kissed her lips, her cheeks, her eyes, then drew back, gazing down at her with great tenderness.
“Come. It is time to go home.”
At the sound of footsteps they turned and found Inspector Trent approaching them. “I’ll need to ask some questions—”
Damien slashed the air with his hand in a curt gesture of denial. “Tomorrow will be soon enough. You may call upon me in the evening,” he said, his tone brooking no argument.
Without waiting for a reply, he beckoned to Abigail and led Darcie to the waiting carriage. Abigail hesitated and then approached, her gaze sliding to John, who stood to one side holding the open door.
She looked to Damien and said, “You have always been kind to me, and it is for that reason that I cannot come to your home. Think of the scandal.” Her voice was thick with unshed tears, her shoulders bowed with the strain of the past hours.
Damien laughed shortly, his brows rising. “You speak to me of scandal?”
Darcie bit her lip against the urge to laugh at the incredulous tone of his voice, for so raw were her emotions that she feared she would lose control entirely.
“You are my wife-to-be’s sister. You belong in her home. My home.” His words fell into the night air.
“Wife?” Darcie gasped, her head jerking up in surprise as the enormity of his words penetrated her mind. “I—”
Smiling at her, Damien smoothed a wet tendril of hair from her brow. “I never did get to tell you about what I did with my day. I acquired a special license.” His grin broadened. “I trust tomorrow morning will not be too soon?”
In all her imaginings of a life with Damien, she had never allowed herself to imagine this.
“I have no words,” Darcie whispered.
“You only need one,” he responded dryly. “The word is yes.”
Over his shoulder, she caught sight of Abigail, smiling at her with unfettered joy.
Darcie’s pulse hammered in her ears. “Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.”
She threw herself in to his open arms, crying, laughing, her lips seeking his.
“I was so afraid I had lost you, so afraid you would fall...” His eyes were the windows to his innermost sentiments, his love glowing there for her to see. “So afraid I would be too late.”
Her heart expanded near to bursting. “You were there to catch me when I fell.”
“So I was.” He smiled. “And I always will be.”
The light of the street lamp shone over his wet golden hair, making it gleam, almost as though a halo of light surrounded him. Darcie was reminded of the very first time she had seen him, when she had lain in the roadway, and at the sight of him had thought an angel had come to lead her home.
She drew in a deep breath, letting the rain-washed air fill her lungs, fresh and clean and new. A smile curved her lips as Damien’s hand sought hers, his fingers twining together with her own. Their eyes met, and then their lips, as a silent communication passed between them, one of strength and love and trust.
Darcie let herself fall into the wonder of his kiss, thinking that she had not been so very wrong that long ago night. Damien was her angel, and in his love she had found her home.
Epilogue
Twelve months later
Darcie opened her eyes. Across the room, the dying embers of the fire glowed red. She wriggled beneath the covers. Her body ached as though she had run for miles without pause. She did not regret the discomfort; she had earned these aches with sweat and pain and joy.
With effort, she rolled to her side. Her slow movements were enough to wake the man sleeping next to her. He lay on his side, facing her, and as he opened his eyes, he smiled.
“How do you feel?” he asked. He was fully clothed in the garments he had worn the previous day. Only his boots had been removed. His hair was messy, his clothes rumpled. He was unutterably beautiful. To her, he always would be.
“Tired. Sore.” She rested her palm against his stubbled cheek. “Happy.” Incredibly happy.
“I love you,” Damien said, “my brave, wonderful girl.” He had never expected to love her, had not thought he was capable of such. She knew that. And she knew that made his love all the more precious.
“As I love you,” Darcie whispered. She chose not to point out that she had been anything but brave. She had screamed and dug her nails into his wrist, and she had sworn she would not live through the night.
A loud, insistent squawk demanded her attention. Damien was already up and rounding the bed before she had managed to roll over. For a moment, they both stared down at their newborn daughter in her cradle. She stared back at them, eyes wide, one fist crammed in her mouth.
“Hungry, my darling?” Damien lifted the baby from the cradle while Darcie lowered the neck of her gown and bared her breast. She sent him a shy glance as he set the baby beside her then crawled onto the bed to join them. Shyness evaporated as the baby’s mouth found her nipple and latched on. Darcie cried out, stunned by her daughter’s exuberance.
She looked up to find Damien watching her.
“Kiss me,” she said.
He leaned close and brought his mouth to hers, his lips warm and smooth and gentle. For the moment, she would let him be gentle. But in a matter of weeks, once she was healed and well, she would know his passion once more. She had no doubt of that.
“We need to discuss a name,” he murmured once the baby had done feeding and Darcie had changed her nappie. He cradled his daughter in one arm and his wife in the other. The early morning sun crept through the drapery to touch the bed with bright fingers.
Darcie shook her head. “No discussion. Her name is—”
Her words were cut short by a commotion in the hallway. She heard footsteps pounding and Poole’s voice. “Most irregular,” he insisted, sounding affronted.
“Irregular or not, I must see her!”
The door burst open. “Inspector Trent,” Poole intoned, his expression pained. “And Mrs. Trent.”
“Mrs. Trent. I never tire of hearing that,” the inspector said with a grin at his wife.
Darcie’s heart swelled at the sight of her sister’s answering grin. She remembered the day Trent had taken Damien to Bow Street for questioning. She had hated him for that. But she could hate him no longer, for he made Abigail happy. They were still newlyweds, just one month married. Trent had proposed almost immediately, but it had taken a further ten months for him to make Abigail believe in love once more.
“There she is,” Abigail cooed, taking a step toward the bed, her gaze locked on the baby. “Oh, there she is. Oh, Darcie! She’s perfect. She’s beautiful.” She pressed her hands to her mouth, her eyes welling with tears. “Have you decided on a name?”
Darcie’s gaze slid to Damien. “Theresa,” she whispered. For an instant, everything else receded. Abigail and her new husband faded, as did Poole and the rising dawn. There was only Damien and the happiness she saw in his face.
“Theresa,” he echoed, and his lips shaped a perfect smile. “Theresa Abigail Cole.”
-THE END-
About the Author
National bestselling author Eve Silver has been praised for her “edgy, steamy, action-packed” books, darkly sexy heroes and take-charge heroines. Her work has garnered starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, plus two RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Awards, and in 2007 she received Library Journal’s Best Genre Fiction Award. The first book in Eve’s Otherkin/Sins series, Sins of the Heart, was recently nominated for the Romance Writers of America® RITA® Award. Eve lives with her husband, two sons, an energetic Airedale terrier and an exuberant border collie/shepherd. Learn more at
www.EveSilver.net
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Books by Eve Silver:
Historicals:
Dark Desires
His Dark Kiss
Dark Prince
His Wicked Sins
Seduced by a Stranger
Paranormals:
Demon’s Kiss
Demon’s Hunger
Sins of the Heart
Sins of the Soul
Sins of the Flesh
Body of Sin
Novellas:
Sin’s Daughter
Trinity Blue
Kiss of the Vampire in the anthology Nature of the Beast
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