Free Forget Me Not by Melissa Lynne Blue

suspiciously she ensured he wouldn’t be pulling anymore tricks, quickly shucked the old clothes and dragged a shift over her head. Lifting the worn but serviceable set of stays she chewed her lip apprehensively, her eyes flicked to Brian waiting patiently on the edge of the bed. It would be impossible for her to successfully lace the stays without his help. Oh, God, I cannot do this, she rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. A man had never seen her in her underclothes. Steeling her courage, she wiggled into the stays, and pulled a petticoat up over her waist.
    “Uh, Brian?”  She cleared her throat. “Could you, um, turn around please?  I need your help.”
    His broad back pivoted and her heart leapt into her throat. She didn’t want him to see her this way, or… did she?  Reluctantly she admitted her apprehension did not stem from the thought of him seeing her under such inappropriate circumstances, but the thought of him further mocking her, or finding her undesirable. Her heart slammed with such force she was sure her ribs would crack. Brian stood to face her with none of the earlier teasing mirrored in his expression. His eyes, so perfectly green, burned into hers. He looked as unsettled as she. Slowly he crossed the room an expression akin to pain, perhaps panic, marring the lines of his face. Lydia didn’t know what to make of it.
    “Of course I’ll help, love.”  His tone was soft and spread over her like butter and cream. This man’s voice was better than any physical caress.
    She showed him her back, lifting the heavy mane of hair from her back. His fingers danced nimbly over the ties, and her flesh burned through the shift where his knuckles grazed. “You seem to have had plenty of practice lacing women’s under things,” she taunted.
    Brian coughed, choked, and finally cleared his throat. Lydia smirked, secretly pleased to have knocked him off balance. “You don’t really want me to answer that, Miss Lydia.”
    The stays in place she turned a cheeky smile to him. “I suppose a gentleman would never kiss and tell.”
    He moved forward so quickly she gasped, her back slamming against the wall. He leaned over her, arms braced on either side. “And who is to say I am a gentleman?” he murmured huskily, a cloud of palpable danger enshrouding him.
    Voice trembling she replied, “Would you have me believe you are a rogue then, Mr. Donnelly?”  Her eyes dipped to his lips just inches from her own.
    Brian’s head tilted, his gaze dragging the length of her face, down her throat to the gentle swell of her breasts. “What would you like for me to be?”
    Her breath hitched in panic. A man had never looked at her this way; as though the whole of the world ceased to exist save for the two of them. All she knew was the heat of his body, the steady in and out of his breathing, and the intense smoldering of his eyes. Heat flushed through her. She was on fire. For him. And in a way she’d never known to fantasize about.
    “While you decide,” he murmured, scraping his feet slowly backward, “I suggest you finish dressing so we don’t keep our hosts waitin’ overly long.”
    Lydia snatched the empire gown off the chair back hardly caring if he watched her finish dressing. Within moments her appearance assumed a level of normalcy but the storm roiling within her body was yet to calm.
    Brian stopped her at the bedroom door. “Harvey and Anna will probably ask how long we’ve been married and questions of the like. I plan to tell them we’re newlyweds, as for the other questions just let me answer them, all right?   I don’t want them gettin’ wise to our disguise.”   He turned toward the door, but pulled back at the last moment. “One other thing,” he murmured, a thoughtful expression adorning his face. Deftly he plucked a thin leather cord from his neck and slid a simple gold band into his palm. Funny she hadn’t seen it hidden beneath his shirt sooner. “This was me mothers.”   He