Olivia—the dratted traitor—had eyes only for the savior who intended to provide her with a superior lure for their impromptu fishing tournament. “You must join us, Lady Rayne. How can we have a tournament with nothing but two people? Lord Rayne will hook the worm for you, will you not, my lord?”
Her husband’s gaze was upon her, dark and fierce and burning, touching her deep inside where she wanted to keep him from trespassing. “My lady, would you prefer to set your lure?” he asked solicitously, holding up a long, wriggling creature for her inspection.
“No, thank you,” she declined, quite disgusted at the prospect. “I am certain fishing is generally considered the sport of gentlemen for a reason, Lord Rayne. Whilst I applaud your efforts to bring us here and show us the land, perhaps we would be better served to return to the main house.”
“I doesn’t want to go anywhere,” Olivia protested instantly, holding her fishing tackle in her small right hand as if it were a weapon she was capable of wielding.
“I do not wish to go anywhere,” both Catriona and Alessandro corrected simultaneously once more.
They stared at each other.
“That’s what I said,” Olivia argued stubbornly.
“Come,” her husband said then, gifting her with one of his rare smiles.
She stared at his outstretched hand, distrust curdling her every thought.
“I caught fish here when I was a boy,” her husband said softly, his gaze burning into hers, finding all those places she never wanted him to see. “It will be a few mindless hours of entertainment, and I know all three of us could benefit from just such a thing if you will but allow it. Tell me you will.”
Catriona cast a glance toward their charge, mindful to keep the girl from overhearing their exchange. “Alessandro…”
“Querida,” he returned, his voice knowing.
Oh, how he could find his way beneath her every defense.
“I am not touching a slimy fish,” she informed him. “Nor will I touch a wriggling worm.”
His grin deepened, rendering him even more beautiful than before. “I knew you would see to reason.”
She succumbed to a lesson she had learned some time ago. When the Earl of Rayne smiled, resisting him was futile.
Chapter Twenty-Two
After dinner, Alessandrofound himself at the door joining his chamber to Catriona’s. He had not attempted to come to her since the night he had brought her the dinner she had missed. But the afternoon had proven a resounding success.
Thepicarohad won the tournament, albeit with a little help from Alessandro’s lures and knowledge of the best places to fish in the river. Not much had changed at Marchmont since his last time in residence there, save the incompetence of the steward he had once trusted. They had brought home half a dozen trout. Olivia had been grinning from ear to ear.
But the greatest victory of all had been his.
He had won back his wife’s approval.
The way she had gazed upon him all dinner had been enough to make him want to kiss her, then and there, before the servants dancing attendance upon them and Olivia, who had been invited to the table to enjoy the fruits of her labor.
It had been only the presence of thepicarowhich had kept him from doing what he wanted. What he was going to do now. She had chanced to whisper in his ear she would be expecting him later, and he had not needed to hear the invitation twice.
He rapped on the door once.
Once, as it happened, was all he required.
“Come in,” his wife called.
Her husky voice sent an unexpected ripple of longing straight through him. Her mouth had been taunting him all day. Kissing her had become an obsession of his. Bedding her was not far behind.
All in the name of obtaining his heir,por supuesto.
He opened the door, crossed the threshold, and stopped when a wall of lust came barreling down upon him with the force of a herd of wild horses. Catriona’s brown curls had been unbound, falling around her shoulders, and she wore a night rail that was the wickedest combination of innocence and decadence he had ever seen.
It was a virginal white, but the fabric was transparent. He could see all of her through that wispy veil, from the pink buds of her nipples to the dark curls of her sex. The décolletage revealed the creamy swells of her full breasts, the seductive curves of her waist. She was beautiful to him, from the inside out. So beautiful, she almost brought him to his knees.
