How do you mean to do that, you fool?One of his demons taunted from somewhere in the shadows.
By loving her -a softer voice gave back…beautiful and precious, but barely there. A whisper on the wind racing through the cold night beyond the shuttered windows.
He is very good at loving…at winning and holding a woman’s heart.
Better yet at giving his own.
Marmaduke wheeled toward the row of night-battened windows, his nape prickling. He strained his ears, listening hard, but heard nothing save the muffled wash of the sea and the wind’s keening echo.
And then the wind sped on to harry some other corner of the night - taking its echo and, asshe’dmeant to do, some of Marmaduke’s doubts along with it.
A chill swept down his back, but he shook it off with surprising ease, for, of a sudden, a wondrous warmth spilled through him and he simply knew he could win his new bride’s heart.
Knew he could make her love him.
And for more than his renowned skill at tupping.
He tossed that barb into the dark shadows of a particularly menacing corner - one that seemed needy of a firmly spoken reprimand.
Then, before his doubts could mass force against him again, he dropped to one knee and began removing his new bride’s slippers. “Are you ready to be loved, Caterine?” he asked, meaning anything but the physical act he was about to perform on her.
“I am ready to be kissed, aye,” came the wrong reply.
Refusing to face defeat, Marmaduke tossed aside her slippers. “And how would you like to be kissed? Shall I draw deep and fully on you?”
And how shall I win your love?his heart echoed.Shall I batter down your defenses with a passion so fierce every resistance will be futile?
Lifting her skirts, he began stroking her calves, the backs of her knees. “Or would you prefer barely there little licks across your sweetness? Feather-light kisses to drive you wild with bliss until you can stand no more?”
Or shall I win you with a tender wooing? Ply your heart with the lightest of touches until it melts into my waiting hands?
“What would you prefer?” she asked, her heart tripping at the intense way he looked at her.
As if he meant so much more than the mere words.
And as if the unspoken ones already worked some strange and heady magic on her.
“I prefer a little of both,” he said, his only falsehood being that he preferred a great deal of both.
And so…
He stood, drawing her to her feet. “Take off your clothes, Caterine,” he said. “I would see all of you.”
“As you will,” she agreed, exquisite anticipation eddying through her as she untied the lacings of her bodice and eased her arms out of the sleeves. That done, she let the gown shimmy to the floor where it pooled around her feet.
Her chemise quickly followed.
Seemingly at ease with her nakedness, she stood before him, her arms at her sides. “And now?”
“Now, my lady, we begin the journey I hope we’ll enjoy every day of our lives.”
Chapter 42
“Ajourney?”
Caterine glanced across her bedchamber at the still-unshuttered windows of the alcove, her gaze on the cold, dark sea. “Now is no time to venture anywhere. Winter is coming, and-”
“You misheard me.” Marmaduke reached out and trailed his fingers over her just-bared breasts. “The journey we begin this night is exploring each other.
