But he lingered a moment anyway.
She remained the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. And even now desire pulled his muscles taut.
It wasn’t precisely about the arrangement of features, which were inarguably lovely when considered together and separately: her bold hair and her soft eyes; her full pink mouth and her long slender neck; her generous curves and her clean, sharp jaw. She was a mesmerizing study in contrasts.
From the first he’d felt her as much as, or more than, he’d seen her. Something happened to hisinsides when she was near. He’d come to think of it as his entire being pulled toward her, the way the moon relentlessly lures the tides to the shore.
But perhaps even this feeling hadn’t any of the profundity he’d ascribed to it.
After all, he’d been shot because there was a war on. That had merely been a consequence of circumstance, with lifetime ramifications. Perhaps how he felt around her was only that. Perhaps because he’d no other experience of love, he’d built it into something grand in his head.
Perhaps a brute like him ought never to have aspired to a woman like her.
Even an imbecile knew that if you closed your fist around a little flame in an attempt to keep it, you extinguished it instead.
And, of course, you also got burned.
He gently laid her slippers on the braided rug next to the bed. As if by way of apology for being the cold bastard who had caused her to throw them.
He found no relief from his own pain by punishing her with coldness. Only a weariness, and a nice little smattering of self-loathing.
Hehadmeant to take care of her for the whole of her life.
And even though she’d betrayed him, he still, somehow, felt like he’d failed her.
He’d never asked Mr. Lawler or anyone else to spy on her. But in his subtle, almost admonishing way, Mr. Lawler had included informative little sentences in his expense reports: “As Mrs. Brightwall never spends an entire evening away from home or entertains guests at night, I am confident the expense of a new gas lamp will be offset by the reduced need for firewood.” That sort of thing.
But she was young. He had no doubt she was passionate. There would come a day when shewouldbring a lover home.
He did not think he could bear that.
Enough was enough. It was time to settle the thing between them, so they could move on with their separate lives.
And the day when he’d wanted to be alone was long past.
He settled the coverlet over her, making sure to cover her stockinged toes.
By the time she’d stepped out of the bath a pair of cheerful maids had hauled up the stairs for her, a small trunk of clothing had arrived—Magnus had arranged for the town house maids to pack and send over day and evening dresses and all the furbelows that went with them, including hairpins. She’d devoured two scones clearly baked in heaven’s ovens and the accompanying slices of cheese, cold chicken, and soup. She drank half a pot of tea.
She was warm, clean, fragrant, and fetchingly outfitted in a bronze silk day dress when Magnus handed the newspaper to her.
Brightwall the Beast’s Feral Bride Takes on the Army
Now we know why Brightwall keeps his bride hidden away: she runs amuck when let off her lead. It took an entire battalion to contain her when she took it into her head to help steal a carriage.
The illustration accompanying the little passage depicted her with arms and legs whirling. Her mouth was twisted in a snarl.
Her hair, however, looked wonderful. It was lusciously arranged. Not a lock out of place. Rowlandson, the infamously, caustically witty caricaturist, had outdone himself.
It was the most peculiar sensation. Half of her found it so transcendently funny she nearly elevated out of her body. The rest of her was so scorchingly embarrassed she wished the ground would open up beneath her and suck her under.
She lifted her eyes to her husband’s. He sat across from her at the little table near the window in the room.
And for a vanishing instant, humor crackled and arced between them.
In other circumstances—or if they were different people—they might be able to laugh at this together now.
She cleared her throat.