Dying to Marry Him novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Last Night

The third night came, and with only a few blank pages left, I had no time to be afraid of them.

Loretta, the nurse and the two girls were in their rooms with the doors shut.

Rook came in at the usual hour, ducked under the frame and sat.

I did not open the notebook.

"Your heroine would have run by now," I said. "That's what you told me."

"I did."

"Tonight she takes off her dress."

His bare hand tightened on the arm of the chair.

"The dress is Gilt's," he said, low. "Anything you write tonight, the house will read."

"Then let it read."

I opened to the first blank page and wrote small and fast.

I said every word aloud as I wrote it.

"The man stands up. The woman stands in front of him with her hands on his chest. She undoes his gloves."

He stood. His chair scraped back, and I crossed the room until I could feel the heat coming off him.

I pulled the glove off his right hand. His left was already bare.

"He takes off the coat," I said, and he did, folding it over the chair with those long, careful fingers.

Underneath was a gray shirt, open at the throat.

Through the gap I could see a long white scar across his ribs.

"He unlaces her dress. Slowly, with both hands."

His fingers found the laces at my back, and I heard them go one by one.

His breath came uneven and loud.

The dress slid down my hips and pooled on the floor.

"She wears nothing under it," I said, and then it was true.

I stood bare in front of him, and every candle in the room burned gold.

"Look at her," I said, and I heard my voice break.

He looked.

He took a long time, and I let him.

Nobody had ever looked at me for that long without wanting something else.

"I have no words for this," he said.

"Then don't. Just do what I say."

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