Elle clutched Remington’s leash as she climbed the castle’s front steps three hours later. Priya had given her a thinly-veiled warning to keep a closer eye on him from now on. Apparently, he’d been picked up by a truck driver almost five miles away, trotting down the middle of the road like he had somewhere important to be in a neighboring town.

Now that she knew how far he’d gone, Elle felt even luckier to have gotten him back. She also thought she might have an idea how Remy wound up at the shelter in the first place. He seemed happy here at the castle, which meant he might just be a wanderer at heart.

Elle certainly understood that instinct, understood it better than most.

Megan came running down the hall to greet them. “I’m so glad he’s back.”

Remington wagged his tail, bounding toward Megan, seemingly unaffected by his thirty-six hours on the lam. She crouched to greet him, and he leaped into her arms.

“I’m going to have to be so much more careful with him now,” Elle said.

“We all will be. We should be extra careful with all of them. It could spell the end of the program if it happened a second time,” Megan said with a decisive nod. “And while I’m not optimistic we’ll be in business much longer, I’d like to end on a high note, not as the irresponsible people who lost a shelter dog.”

“Agreed.” Elle’s fingers tightened reflexively on the leash. Behind Megan, she caught sight of the Ballisters. “Oh, Margie!” She raised her voice to carry across the lobby.

Margie turned to look in her direction, and a wide smile spread across her face as she caught sight of Remington. “You found him,” she said as she walked over.

“We did. He had quite the adventure yesterday.”

“Oh?” Margie raised her eyes to Elle’s inquisitively.

“He was picked up across town and brought back to the shelter, none the worse for wear, luckily.”

“Well, that’s good news.” Margie bent to rub behind his ears, and Remington bounced around her, licking her face, hands, anything he could reach in his excitement. “I was so worried about him.”

“So were we,” Elle told her. “I need to get him settled first, but if you’d like to visit with him later today, I can set that up for you guys.”

“Oh, well…” Margie gave her an apologetic look. “Actually, Luke and I were talking about this earlier, and we kind of feel like we dodged a bullet with him now that we know he’s a runner. He’s obviously a great dog and so adorable, but we’re in and out of our house all day long with our kids and can’t be worried about him sneaking off on us.”

“I totally understand,” Elle told her with a smile. She excused herself and took Remington upstairs. She went into her bedroom—being extra careful to shut the door behind her—then sat on the floor, took Remy in her arms, and cried.

Just a little bit.

Then she picked herself up and went on with her day. And the next day. Things were really picking up at their inn inside Rosemont Castle. The following weekend, they were booked solid. With Theo’s blessing, they hired extra help for Beatrice and Mary in the kitchen, which really helped when Ruby visited her family in Florida. Megan flew down for her visit a few days after Ruby got back. Their trips kept Elle busier than usual, but she loved every moment.

She and Theo fell into a sort of routine with their relationship, with lots of stolen moments around the castle during the daytime. Two or three nights a week, they’d go on a date, and she would sleep over in the guest house.

Five weeks after opening their business, they adopted out their first Fairy Tails animal: McLovin the cat. Ruby quickly replaced him with two new recruits from the shelter. Shiloh the lab mix followed a few days later, finding a home with an energetic young couple visiting from North Carolina.

As excited as Elle was that they’d finally had their first successful adoptions, she wanted so badly for Darcy and Remington to have the same luck. They were such wonderful dogs and deserved their own families to love and spoil them, although she was certainly enjoying loving them in the meantime.

“Dinner tonight?”

Theo’s hushed voice interrupted her thoughts, drawing Elle away from the computer screen she’d been staring blankly at for who knew how long.

“I’d love to,” she answered, turning her head toward the doorway.

He stood there in black slacks and a gray button-down shirt, one hand at his throat as he loosened his tie. “I asked Beatrice to send a tray for two to the guest house. I thought maybe we could stay in tonight.” The look in his eye made her press her thighs together in anticipation.

She raised an eyebrow. “Awfully presumptuous of you, requesting the tray before you’d asked me.”

“What can I say? I’m an optimist where you’re concerned.”

“And for good reason.” She stood and walked to him, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. “It sounds perfect. Just tell me what time to be there.”

“Seven?”

She nodded. “I’ll see if Megan can keep the dogs for me tonight.”

“Okay.” He gave her another kiss and left, headed toward the front of the castle.

Elle pressed her fingers against her lips, preserving the warmth of his kiss. She hadn’t expected this when she’d come to Rosemont Castle. Honestly, she’d never spent a lot of time thinking about men and relationships and all that. It hadn’t been a priority for her, something to think about in the future once she’d gotten herself all sorted out. Finding her path in life seemed more important than finding a man.

And now, here, she’d found both…and was poised to lose them almost as soon as she’d found them. She and her friends only had a month left at Rosemont Castle. The date loomed ever larger, like one of those countdown clocks engraved in her mind. Leaving was going to be so hard on so many levels, both personal and professional.

But she couldn’t let it get her down. Her life had already taken too many unexpected twists and turns to try to predict what was coming. She’d kept as much emotional distance from Theo as she could, but she knew she was going to get hurt when they parted ways. She also knew she was resilient enough to survive it when the time came.

She finished work and headed upstairs to tend to the dogs, bumping into Megan in the hallway outside their bedrooms. “Do you mind keeping an eye on Darcy and Remington for me tonight?”

Megan grinned wickedly. “Not if it means you’re shacking up with the eligible earl again tonight.”

“It does.” Elle felt her cheeks warm. “Thanks.”

“No thanks necessary. You’d do the same for me.” Megan waved a hand behind her as she disappeared into her room. She didn’t have a new foster dog yet, but Elle had watched Shiloh for her several times while she was out with Sean.

Elle headed into her room to change into running gear. If she was going to leave her foster dogs with Megan tonight, at least she would leave them well-exercised and ready for a good night’s sleep. First, she took Remington for a long jog around the castle grounds, then doubled back to get Darcy, and the three of them took a leisurely stroll down to the gazebo and back.

By the time she’d showered, dressed, and fed them, it was almost seven. She stuffed a few essentials in her duffel bag and headed for the guest house.

“I’m around back,” Theo’s voice drifted out to her when she knocked on the door.

She followed it to the patio behind the guest house. A fire was going in the firepit, and Theo sat lounging in an Adirondack chair beside it. The flames cast deep shadows across his profile, dancing over his cheek and jawbone and flickering in his eyes. She crossed the patio to press her lips against his.

“Hey,” he murmured against her lips. “How was your day?”

“Good, but it’s even better now that I’m here.” She straightened and walked to the back door to set her bag inside.

“I could say the same.” He stood and walked to the small table at the edge of the patio where one of Beatrice’s silver trays sat, covered, beside a bottle of wine. He poured two glasses and handed one to her. “Hungry?”

She nodded. “I’m always hungry for Beatrice’s cooking.”

“I believe we’ve got pheasant tonight with garlic mashed and some spring vegetables.”

“I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten pheasant before. It sounds very English,” she said with a wink as she sat across the table from him.

Theo leaned forward and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper, “It tastes a lot like chicken.”

He set a plate in front of her and the other at his own seat. Overhead, the sky had taken on the purplish hue of dusk. Insects hummed from the woods behind them, and the fire crackled nearby, sending flickering shadows across the table. Along the tree line, fireflies blinked as if the whole forest had been lit with fairy lights. She sipped her wine and felt peace radiate through her body.

She lifted her glass and tapped it against Theo’s. “To perfectly romantic dates at home.”

“I suppose this place is fairly romantic,” Theo commented as he took a bite of his dinner.

Across the table, Elle gave him an amused look. “Fairly romantic? Rosemont Castle is the most romantic place I’ve ever seen, but I actually meant your back patio. With the fire and the fireflies, wine, fancy food…it’s pretty damn romantic.”

“And here I was worried you’d rather go out.”

“Nope. This is perfect.” Elle sipped from her wine as the fire danced in her eyes. She had on a gray dress that clung to her figure in all the right places, her hair long and loose down her back.

He hadn’t given tonight much thought. Mostly, he’d just wanted to have her all to himself and had even felt a bit selfish about it. “I’m glad you think so.”

“You must be hard to impress,” she said, still with a teasing light in her eyes. “I mean, growing up in a castle, knowing someday you’ll be the earl. What could possibly impress you after that?”

“You do, for one thing.”

She said up straighter. “Me?”

“You’re smart and driven and passionate about the things that are important to you. That’s a quality too few people possess, myself included. But when I’m with you, I want to find that kind of passion. I want to find something that makes me spit fire the way you do when you’re fighting for your causes.”

She swallowed and pressed a hand to her mouth, her eyes gone suspiciously shiny.

He took a sip of his wine, feeling suddenly that he’d said too much, wishing he could take the words back.

“That’s…that’s maybe the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” she said finally, her voice thick, as if it had been dampened by the tears still shining in her eyes. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” And now he didn’t want to take the words back at all, because she was looking at him like he’d given her something rare and beautiful, and he wouldn’t have traded it for anything in the world.

“I think you know what one of your passions is, though.” She reached across the table to rest her hand on his.

He cleared his throat. “I, ah…I wanted to talk to you about that actually.”

“Oh?” She cocked her head slightly to one side, and his gaze dropped to the column of her neck, all that smooth, pale skin just begging to be kissed…

“I have to fly to London next weekend for an event with the Langdon Family Foundation. I’ll be meeting with the other members of the board beforehand.”

“And they’ll expect you to announce your charity.” Elle filled in his blanks effortlessly.

“Yes. And I was wondering if you might like to come with me.”

Her eyes widened, and she sat, speechless, staring at him for the second time in five minutes.

“Since you’re so taken with Rosemont Castle, I thought you might enjoy the chance to see our estate in England and the work our family does there.”

“I…I’d love to,” she said, still looking completely gob-smacked, “but wouldn’t that kind of shine a spotlight on our relationship? I mean—”

“Well, you could attend as Rosemont Castle’s property manager, if you prefer, but I wouldn’t be sorry if a few rumors about us got out at this point either.”

“You wouldn’t?” She sipped from her wine, staring at him intently. The sun had dipped behind the trees now, leaving them in the hazy glow of sunset.

“I don’t intend to make a public statement about our relationship, but I don’t want you to feel like I’m hiding you either, Elle. I’d be honored to have you attend the fundraiser with me.”

She sat up straighter in her seat, seeming to glow as brightly as the sunset behind her. “In that case, my lord, it would be my pleasure to attend the ball with you.”

Theo owed Beatrice for tonight, big time. After they finished their entrée, she sent down another tray that contained two servings of blackberry cobbler, à la mode and still warm from the oven.

“Oh my God,” Elle said softly when he carried the tray onto the patio.

The sun was long gone now, but between the light that filtered through the door and the firepit, they had enough of a glow to eat by.

“It’s going to taste as good as it looks,” he said as he set down the tray, then leaned in to nip at her neck. “The same could be said about you.” He almost wished for more light to be able to see the flush no doubt creeping over her skin, but he could see it in her eyes, the warmth of arousal combined with the tiniest bit of embarrassment at his dirty words.

“Well, in that case…” She dipped her spoon into the cobbler and brought it to her lips with a look that knocked the knees right out from under him. And then she moaned.

He dropped into his seat, keeping his eyes on Elle as he scooped out a bite of his own cobbler. “Keep eating like that, and we won’t even make it to the bedroom.”

She swallowed, her gaze locked on his. “Keep feeding me like this, and I might end up falling for Beatrice.”

He laughed, an unexpected sensation that paired nicely with the lust curling through his gut. “Beatrice is happily married, you know.”

“A shame,” she said before spooning another bite of cobbler into her mouth. Vanilla ice cream dripped down her chin, and before he could stop himself, he’d leaned forward to lick it off.

His tongue slid across her skin, tasting salt and then the cold sweetness of the ice cream. “Delicious,” he said as he leaned back.

Elle shifted in her seat, her gaze dropping to his lips. “Okay, Beatrice is forgotten.”

“Glad to hear it.” He took a bite of cobbler, enjoying the play of tart and sweet almost as much as he’d enjoyed the flavor of Elle’s skin mixed with the ice cream. “This isn’t my dessert.”

“No?” she asked.

He shook his head, allowing his gaze to drop to the swell of her breasts beneath her dress. “I intend to savor you last.”

“Oh.”

He saw her lips form the word, but no sound left them. She shifted again in her seat, looking like a goddess as the fire cast flickering shapes and shadows across her features. She took the last bite of her cobbler and pushed the dish away, her eyes catching his.

He stood from the table. “I have to put out the fire. Why don’t you go inside and make yourself comfortable?”

“Fair to say that’s the only flame you’ll be dousing tonight,” she said over her shoulder as she walked away.

Indeed.

He put the fire out in record time and brought their dinner tray inside with him, leaving it on the kitchen counter to be dealt with later. As he turned toward the hall leading to his bedroom, he saw Elle’s gray dress draped over the back of the couch.

Fuck. His blood heated, pumping need through his veins.

Her bra lay in the hallway. Her panties hung from the door knob.

And he just might not survive this. He pushed the door open to reveal Elle in the middle of his bed, naked, and his cock hardened inside his trousers.

She rose onto her knees, her cheeks flushed with desire. As he watched, she sucked a finger into her mouth, releasing it with a wet pop before trailing it down her stomach.

“Hurry,” she whispered in a tone that was pure sex.

He stripped out of his clothes so quickly he heard a button ping against the hardwood floor. As he sank inside her, his only rational thought was that nothing else in his life compared to the way he felt whenever he was with Elle.