The position caused her breasts to rise above the water’s surface, each slight movement making it lick at her hardened nipples. If she had any shame at all, she would settle lower in the water, but she rather liked the manner in which her husband was looking at her just now.
As if he wanted to devour her.
His gaze dipped to her breasts. “Perhaps I was merely attempting to improve my view.”
Cupping her hand, she sent a small wave of water in his direction. It landed with a splash against his hair-stippled chest. “That was quite naughty of you.”
He raised a brow, sensual promise oozing from him. “I could be naughtier if you wish it.”
Oh, she knew he could.
She sent another splash at him and settled on her derriere once more, bending her knees at her side to keep her feet safe from his devious fingers. “But first, we must talk.”
“Mmm.” The naked desire on his handsome face told her he was not nearly as concerned with such niceties as she was. “We have already talked.”
“More,” she insisted. “I want to know about what you have planned for tomorrow with Papa.”
Tenseness crept back into his jaw and shoulders. “Your father and brother will accompany me to my rooms at dawn.”
Elysande could have kicked herself for ruining the moment, but there had been a period of time when her mother and sisters had insisted upon speaking with hersansthe gentlemen. Ostensibly to interrogate Elysande and make certain she trusted Hudson and that she did indeed believe his innocence. She had vowed that she did, knowing how odd her assurance likely sounded. She had devoted her life to learning the way mechanical parts functioned and discovering new ways of making them work better together. She had never been a romantic like her sisters and her mother. Instead, she had been like Papa.
And yet, also like her father, she had fallen in love. Precision, mathematics, reason, logic, science…she knew now that pursuing those passions did not preclude her from seeking out another. Hudson had taught her that. She hoped she had reassured her sisters and mother that she was happy in her marriage and that she knew the man she had married was honorable and good.
“And what else?” she asked, because she fully intended to be a part of whatever they had in mind.
“Your father will attempt to compare my handprint to the other print.” His teasing air had vanished.
She regretted chasing it away, but she also knew that she needed to focus on the battle they faced. “I will accompany you.”
“No, Ellie.”
His voice was gentle, but he had denied her. She did not like it.
Elysande’s back stiffened, and she drew herself up, taking care to make certain her breasts remained beneath the surface of the water. The bath was transparent enough, but somehow, remaining beneath the surface mollified her affronted sensibilities.
“You cannot order me about,” she countered sternly.
“I would never dare attempt so.” He reached for her, his hand settling on her kneecap. “I am suggesting that it is not a place for a lady.”
“I was there before,” she pointed out.
“Once was enough, and I should not have presumed to take you there then either.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I am not a fragile society flower, Hudson. I may have been born a lady, and I may have learned all the silly, supposedly feminine accomplishments intended to make me the perfect duchess, but I have also spent the last few years at my father’s side in his workshop. I have learned the way electricity works. I have toiled with my hands, and I have been dirty, and I have had oil-stained hands and dresses. You once told me that you are nothing like my set, and that may well be true, but I am not like them either. I never have been, and I never shall be.”
She was quite impassioned as she finished her speech, uncertain of where it had emerged from. Perhaps from her suppressed outrage that she lived in a world that believed women—regardless of their intellect and passions—ought to pursue only the traditionally feminine roles allotted them, as wife and mother. Papa loved her, but she did not fool herself that his edict she marry had been founded in anything other than the same antiquated notions. He valued her mind and her assistance with his inventions and in his workshop, but he also wanted her to be what society expected of her. To marry.
And she had done so to please her family and to facilitate her sister’s happiness.
Hudson’s arms were around her waist, plucking her from her madly whirling thoughts as he pulled her into his lap. She went without a struggle, settling against his chest but still feeling quite mulish.
He kissed her crown. “Of course you are nothing like the ladies in your set. Indeed, I doubt any of the women in your family are. I value your intellect and I know you have had oil-stained dresses.”
At this declaration, she had to interrupt him. “You do?”
“Yes.” Another kiss to the top of her head, this one lingering. “There was a distinct odor of it on the day I came to settle the marriage contract.”
Oh. So hehadsmelled it, then. He had not said a word. And he had offered for her afterward, making that bargain with her on the terrace.
