Another almost smile hitched at his mouth. Only his nana fussed over him so when she thought he ailed. Daniel frowned.My nana?An image started to form, but frustration snapped through him when it vanished like wisps of smoke.
His wife’s weight shifted from his body, and he tensed. “Don’t go. Stay with me tonight.”
He felt her hesitation, then she touched his arm. Her body lowered and her mouth brushed against his ear. “I’ll stay, but no agitation of the body.”
Dark humor flowered through him. “I promise, no agitation.”
He felt her smile, then she shifted her body away.
“Though it is barely burning, I will put out the fire in the hearth. The smallest of light can increase the pain in your head.”
“The night will be cold,” he murmured, anticipation already curling through him.
“We’ll have blankets,” she said, sweet amusement rich in her voice.
“They won’t be enough. You’ll be cold, wife.”
He could feel her stare on him.
“I’ll have you to warm me,” she finally murmured.
There were several rustles in the room, then she slipped beneath the coverlets beside him. Daniel felt for his wife and drew her into his arms. She fitted against him with such perfection, he had the inane thought that this woman was fashioned precisely for him. “I’ve never slept with a lady before.”
She stiffened. “Surely you cannot know that for certain.”
“I know it,” he said, feeling the truth of it resounding inside. “I’ve had lovers…but not this…” Intimacy, this sharing of oneself by allowing vulnerability. He thought then that sleeping with someone felt like a simple notion, yet it required implicit trust.
How curious.
“I’ve never slept beside another, either,” she said, almost shyly.
He opened his eyes and encountered the pitch-black room. His wife had closed the drapes. Shifting slightly, he smelled her hair, liking the hint of lavender…and sun-ripened peaches. How he wished he could remember her. What had their first meeting been like? Their first kiss…or the first moment they acknowledged they wanted to be with each other in a permanent union? She did not look at him with love or affection…more hunger and wariness. Was it because he did not remember her or was there more to it? Why the hell did she agree to marry him?
Do I even want her to look at me with affection?
Daniel frowned, wondering why even the hunger in his heart felt so elusive.
“Your heart is pounding,” she said softly, pressing the flat of her palm against his naked chest.
“I am wondering about you.”
Thud. Thud. Thud. Her hand jerked against his chest. “What do you wonder?”
“How did we meet?”
Her fingers curled into their side, and he wondered if she knew he could not feel her erratic heartbeat.
“I was hired to cook for a special birthday event.” She delicately cleared her throat. “You were there, standing in the shadows…and the night we met, I felt your regard upon me before I saw you.”
The memory of seeing her wended through him, and without recalling the full picture, he remembered his visceral reaction to her sensuality and lush loveliness.
“Did I introduce you to my family?”
She turned her face to bury it against his chest, as if she wanted to hide from his questioning.
“I never met any of your family,” she said, emotions he could not identify thickening her voice.
Daniel could not promise that he’d not been ashamed of her or offer any reassured explanation of why he’d not allowed her to meet his family, so he remained silent.Hell, do I even have family?The gut-wrenching dread tried to grab hold of him, and he ruthlessly pushed it down.
