He smiled and another new sensation bloomed over her, onethat felt suspiciously like the early stirrings of love. Dear heavens. She wasdoomed.
Chapter Six
“You cannot possibly be serious.”
Simon stared at his fiery-haired wife and decided that,whilst she looked particularly exquisite in a brilliant-blue afternoon frock,her American sensibilities were rotting her brain. Exceptional ability as apoetess or not, she was fit for the madhouse. She appeared quite sincere, herviolet eyes huge and bright, pinning him to the spot. From her elaboratelystyled curls to her silk shoes, she looked every inch the proper marchioness.He longed to muss her up, undo a few of her buttons, bend her over a settee andsink inside her hot, wet flesh. Devil take it. He shook the thought from hismind. He bloody well couldn’t always be making love to her. Could he?
“Of course I’m serious, Sandhurst.” She smiled and he wantedher all the more. “So are you. That’s the problem. It’s occurred to me thatI’ve never even heard you laugh.”
Hadn’t she? He pondered her statement for a moment,supposing that he didn’t find much levity in the world. “Laughter is forfools,” he snapped, irritated. She had invaded his home, his thoughts and, dearGod, very nearly his heart. Why did she have to be so damn lovely, so sweet andkind? It would have been better had she been a shrew.
Maggie gave him a look that he fancied she saved formotherless kittens. “Laughter is for people who are happy.”
What was he to say to that? He frowned at her, thinking heshould have simply acted on his instinct and ravished her. “What on earth hashappiness to do with walking about in the rain?” he demanded, returning to herridiculous idea that they go for a walk in the rainstorm that was currentlysoaking the countryside. “I daresay drowning one’s self in thunderclouds andmud puddles isn’t going to incite either laughter or happiness.”
She had the cheek to whisk away his statement with a gestureof her small hand. “Nonsense. It’s not thundering and you’ve never lived untilyou’ve danced in the rain.”
“I suppose you’ve never contracted a lung disease either,”he quipped, unable to help himself. Christ, he was actually beginning to becharmed by her madness. Somehow, she was at her most fetching when she wassmiling and daring him to step beyond the boundaries behind which he’d livedhis entire life.
“Truly, Simon.” She pursed her luscious lips together inthat way she had that made him want to crush her in his arms and kiss her.“What good is life without a spot of fun?”
He scowled, confounded by his intense reaction to her. Itwas mad. Ludicrous. There was no reason he should want this woman he’d swornnever to bed, fewer reasons to be enthralled by her odd sense of adventure. Shewas everything he was not. Young, idealistic, filled with laughter and hope andinnocence. Ready to give in to her desires, to forget about the strictures ofsociety that said a husband and a wife ought not to love each other. She caredfor him despite his abandonment of her, despite his admittedly cool nature. Shewas the fire to his ice and, damn it, she was melting him. He had to take careor he’d be burned.
He forced his mind to focus. What had she said? Ah, yes.More mutton-headed prattling about fun, of all things. “That sounds as if it’ssomething Nell would say.”
Pink blossomed over her cheeks, telling him he’d caught herin her own game. “She did say it. But she was utterly right.”
“If you want fun,” he growled, closing the distance betweenthem and sliding his arms about her sweet wasp waist, “I’ve something else inmind. It doesn’t involve rain, but it does involve undoing all seven hundred ofyour buttons.”
Her eyes widened, darkening with the passion he’d come torecognize. She was not immune. He slid his palms over the silk of her back,moving up to her nape. Her hair was so damn soft and smelled of roses. His cockwent painfully erect. To hell with rain and dancing. He wanted her on the carpetof the library, beneath him, his cock slipping deep inside the slippery pinkdepths of her cunny.
“I believe you’re making a jest, my lord,” Maggie said,sounding as breathless as he felt. “Your eyes are almost twinkling withmerriment.”
Perhaps she was making him maudlin. Perhaps he was just astouched as she was. Whatever the case, he rather found he didn’t mind. Desireslid through his body, mingling with anticipation. He gently tipped her headback. “Nonsense. You know very well I don’t jest, and if my eyes are shining,it’s merely because I’m imagining you in the nude.”
Her pretty lips parted. “You won’t have me nude until you’vegone out in the rain with me.”
Again with the rain nonsense. Very well. She could have himstanding in an icy rain for the rest of the afternoon, and he didn’t think itwould cool the fervor roiling through his blood. He wanted to have her, and ifit meant doing as she asked, he gladly would. Anything to ease the persistentache in his trousers. “You win, my dear. I’ll venture into the weather withyou.”
She clutched his arms in her excitement, apparently shockedthat she’d managed his surrender. “You will?”
“I will.” He dropped a quick kiss on her mouth, unable tohelp himself. But with one kiss, he inevitably wanted more. “But only for amoment, you outlandish woman.” He couldn’t resist another kiss, this onelingering longer than the first. She opened to him and his tongue swept inside,tasting her, claiming her. She was his, by God. His senses were filled withher, the sweet scent of her perfume, the softness of her lips, her breathy sighfilling his ears, the sensation of her hands finding their way to his chest.Dear God. Perhaps the rain would dampen his ardor. He certainly hoped so, forshe was growing more necessary to him than air, and it scared him like thedevil. With great reluctance, he broke off their kiss, even if he suspected shewould have allowed him to prolong the interlude.
He looked down upon her, his odd little wife who had come tomean so much to him in such a short amount of time. The wife he hadn’t botheredto see in over a year. It seemed impossible now as he gazed at her brazenbeauty. She gazed back at him, mutual passion reflected in her glazed eyes. Shecaught her full lower lip between her teeth, almost as if she were strugglingto compose her thoughts.
“Shall we?” he asked, wanting to get her peculiar requestout of the way as soon as possible to make way for more pleasant pursuits.
She blinked. “Truly?”
Did she think him that much of an arse? He supposed hecouldn’t blame her. He had not been kind to her for most of their marriage. Intruth, he wasn’t sure he could be kind. Part of him couldn’t believe he wasdeigning to indulge her silly fancies.
He cleared his throat, his insides all bollixed up. “Truly.”
“You won’t be sorry,” she promised, even though he wasaltogether certain he would.
But somehow, none of his reservations mattered. “Let us bedone with it,” he said solemnly, not wanting to allow her to see just howdeeply she affected him.
She wriggled free of his grasp, much to his dismay,appearing suddenly like a fairy. Her entire face brightened, becoming evenlovelier, if at all possible. She grabbed his hands, tugging him in her wake.“Come along,” she tossed over her shoulder as she headed for the double glassdoors at the end of the library that led into Denver House’s extensive gardens.“If you tarry any longer, I fear the rain will stop.”
