“I am glad that things are progressing. I wished they hadn’t happened at all,” she admitted ruefully. “But it finally feels as though Meldrew’s arrest is now just a matter of time.”
“We will get him, Hetty. He won’t get away with what he has done,” Charlie assured her.
“Just stay safe,” Hetty whispered in a voice that trembled with need.
Before he could speak, she captured his head and drew him down for a very thorough kiss.
He was initially shocked at his wife’s boldness, but the strength of the desire that swirled around them rendered all thought impossible.
Hands clawed at material in a desperate search for fevered flesh beneath.
Desperate to draw him nearer, she clutched his shirt, and relished his mastery with a moan when he answered her silent plea and settled over her. She moaned when he drew the covers down, and quickly removed the rest of his clothing before he lay back down beside her.
Words weren’t spoken, but then they weren’t needed as they surrendered to the temptation that carried them both away on a tide of desire that confirmed to both of them that their futures did indeed lie together.
“Where are you going?” Hetty murmured an hour later, when Charlie placed a gentle kiss on her shoulder and moved to sit on the side of the bed.
A dark frown settled over her brow as she watched him gather his clothing.
Deep inside, she knew.
“Charlie?” She prompted when he didn’t immediately answer her. “What is it?”
Charlie dropped his boot back onto the floor and took a deep breath before he turned to face her.
She looked so thoroughly ravaged, tousled, and downright beautiful that he cursed Meldrew, and his presence in their lives. Charlie wanted nothing more than to climb back into bed and surrender to the passion once more, but the need to remove Meldrew from both of their lives was just too great to ignore.
The quiet snicker of horses outside was enough of a prompt to remind him that his colleagues were waiting to leave.
First though, he had to break the news to Hetty. He knew that she wasn’t going to like what he was about to tell her.
“I am going after Meldrew,” he declared quietly, and mentally winced when she stared at him in horror.
“Wally and Simon?”
“They have to stay here.” He reached out, and picked up several strands of her beautiful, tell-tale red hair thoughtfully. “They have to. This beautiful hair is too much of a giveaway.”
“You don’t have to go,” she challenged. “He tried to kill you too. You should stay here with me.”
“I am going to be fine. I-”
“How can you say that?” She argued. “He nearly had your head in a noose the last time you crossed paths with him.”
Her temper surged, in spite of her delicious sensations he had left her with. She wished she was in a position to demand that he stay, but she couldn’t.
She knew that it was i
nevitable that at some point there would be a confrontation between him and Meldrew. She was also painfully aware that, for the sake of the men sitting awaiting death in Derby jail right now, Meldrew’s arrest couldn’t be postponed any longer than it ought to be.
“I have to do this, Hetty,” Charlie growled. “I need to look that bastard in the eye when he is arrested. I need to be the one to put him behind bars. It is my job.”
Hetty stared at him, momentarily lost for words. She knew that Charlie’s job was a very large part of who he was. If she hated his job, she hated him, and that wasn’t possible.
It couldn’t ever happen, because he held such a very large part of her heart; he was her heart.
“Just stay inside, and stay safe, darling. I need to do this. I will be back as soon as I can,” Charlie murmured.
He used his body to nudge her backward until she lay back down, and leaned over her. He kissed the doubts from her lips and, when she went limp beneath him once more, he leaned back to look down at her.