Emilie rose up on her toes, meeting, pressing every curve of her body against Archer’s. A moan sounded low in her throat, the sound filled with a desperate need that she hardly recognized as something that came from her.
Archer’s hands roved over her body, the warmth of them seeping through the fabric of her gown.
The heat of him pervaded every one of her senses. She couldn’t think. Could hardly breathe. Could do nothing but revel in the desire that was coursing through her for this man.
I could drown in this feelin’ for the rest of me life, vows be damned.
The thought was like ice in her veins.
Immediately, Emilie stopped moving. She wrenched her mouth back, taking a step away from her husband so that his arms were forced to drop down to his side.
Archer’s brows knit together in confusion, but she didn’t give him a chance to say anything.
“I cannae do this,” Emilie stammered.
She reached behind her, grasping the doorknob and whirling just as she pulled the door open.
As she turned, she could have sworn that a look of hurt mingled with the confusion that was written so plainly on Archer’s face. But she drove the thought out of her mind.
If she worried about her actions hurting him, she wouldn’t be able to bring herself to leave. And she needed to leave, needed it desperately.
Emilie did not look back at him as she turned and walked as quickly as she could out the door and into the corridor beyond, leaving a stunned Archer staring after her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Ye’re bein’ quiet today.”
Louis’ voice grabbed Emilie out of her reverie. She blinked rapidly, clearing her mind of everything it had been preoccupied with and bringing her back firmly to the present.
She glanced at the small boy, cocking her eyebrow at him.
“What do ye mean?” Emilie asked, playing coy.
She knew exactly what the boy meant. It had been two days since she and Archer had kissed in their bedchambers. As with the first time that their lips had touched, Emilie had spent the following days trying her best to avoid her husband.
It had been easier than the first time, now that she knew the castle better. And now that she had the excuse of truly tending to the children.
But what had been different this time around was that there had been no shame.
Or, rather, there had not been as much shame as the first time she had kissed Archer.
Instead, Emilie found herself frequently fantasizing about the kiss, remembering the way it had felt as his hands had roved over her body, threatening to drive her mad.
Which meant that she was in a much more dangerous predicament than she had ever been within the halls of Castle McGregor.
I have to get back to me plan. Nay more meddlin’ in the business of this family. I need to figure out a way to secure me annulment and be back at the nunnery.
“Ye’ve hardly talked to us all mornin’,” it was Aurora who spoke now, her face quizzical and accusatory. “Ye ken we have studies with Meredith today, and usually ye’d be yappin’ our ears off about everythin’ we were goin’ to learn. But today, ye’ve hardly said a word.”
Emilie sighed, doing her very best to push the thoughts of Archer as far out of her mind as she possibly could.
The twins were entirely right. She had been preoccupied. And, while she might need to start work on annoying her husbandagain, that didn’t mean she wanted to neglect her duties to them. They deserved much better than that.
“Ye’re right,” Emilie said, giving the twins what she hoped was an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry that I’ve nae been talkin’ much. I dinnae sleep well last night, or the night before. And I suppose it’s gettin’ to me.”
That much, at least, was not a lie. She’d been haunting the castle like a ghost, staying up late into the night and hiding in different nooks and crannies within the castle walls, all to ensure by the time she returned to her bed chambers, her husband would be well and truly asleep.
“Well, what can we do to help?” Louis asked, steepling his small hands in front of his face and staring at her pensively.