He quirked a brow. “Such as?”
“How many questions I have for you.” She paused, studying him before she continued. “Questions I should have asked before now. For instance, I have been thinking about the time after I bear your heir, when you have already returned to Spain. How long will I be required to wait?”
“How long will you be required to wait?” His jaw clenched. “For what,querida? I am afraid I do not follow.”
“Yes, Lord Rayne. That is exactly what I said. Your hearing is commendable,” she drawled. “You mustn’t be so silly. Now, then, have you a length of time in mind, or may I carry on with my life immediately?”
“Carry on in what capacity?” he growled.
She was certain he already knew. His reaction boded well for her plan. “Taking a lover. Or perhapslovers, I should say. I do imagine there shall be more than one.”
His countenance turned thunderous. “More than one, madam?”
Catriona tore her gaze from his and settled the drapery of her pelisse and skirts to distract herself. She had always been bold, but blithely informing her husband she intended to acquire a string of lovers was the sort of daring she had never yet attempted.
“Oh, yes.” She sighed. “I should hardly think one shall suffice. At least a dozen or so, perhaps more. Since I will be allotted so much freedom, it stands to reason I may as well take advantage of it. Does it not? I expect you to do the same when you are in Spain, of course. I will be most understanding.”
She stole a glance at him from beneath lowered lashes, pleased to note he was no longer drumming his fingers against his thickly muscled thigh but gripping it. In the absence of gloves, the ridges of his knuckles rose in stark contrast.
His reaction boded very well indeed.
“You will conduct yourself with circumspection, as befits a countess,” he said.
“Of course.” She paused. “I will be discreet.”
“Prudence is, of course, to be expected. I do not wish for my heir to witness a parade of lovers entering his mother’s bedchamber as if she were no better than a broodmare.”
“A broodmare, you say?” Compressing her lips, she held his gaze. “What a ludicrous thing for a woman to be reduced to. My future lovers will be well reminded I am a woman, with a woman’s heart. That I have feelings. I will choose my lovers wisely.”
His lip curled. “Perhaps this is a dialogue best reserved for another day.”
“This day seems remarkably suited to it.”
“Mierda!It does not.”
“Yes,” she insisted. “It does. Was this not what you intended when you interrupted my solitude?”
He was glaring at her.
She was just beginning to enjoy herself. Here, she thought, was a faint sheen of hope.
“What I intended when I joinedmywife inmycarriage was that we should together draw up the drive to Marchmont Hall for the first time.”
“Mayhap you should have thought of that before encouraging me to drink enough ale to satisfy an infantry brigade last night and then abandoning me before I woke for all the hours up until this one,” she could not resist pointing out bitterly.
“Ah,querida.” A small smile flitted over his sensual lips. “I begin to see. You arecelosa, jealous. Was it the serving wench?”
Yes.And his endless attempts to create a divide between them. And his fierce love for his dead, first wife. And his determination to leave her.
To say nothing of her stupid, careless heart. What she had before her was more proof she was abysmal at finding a man who was capable of caring for her in the same way she cared for him.
But she offered him a smile just the same, determined to remain impervious. “Of course not. I am merely realizing I must plan for my future. Our situation will, of necessity, be concise.”
The thought made her heart ache. Never again seeing him, conversing only through letters… In a short span of time, Alessandro had become important to her. The connection they had developed was real, and she knew it. Only his own stubborn refusal to let go of the past was keeping them from a true marriage. Now that she had him, she did not want to give him up.
Not ever.
“You have not even given me an heir yet,” he said, his accented baritone cutting through the carriage with the force of a whip. “Plan for that first. Before you share anyone else’s bed, you must share mine alone.”
