On no.
His blood ran warm and surged through his body. His heart leapt through his chest. His body shook as it tried to contain the impulses that rippled up his spine and through his limbs. And none of that was to mention what was happening inside his pants.
He was still nibbling her ear. He was still squeezing her waist. And he knew as he knew anything that if he wanted it, he could have pulled her into him, found her lips, and kissed her as if their lives depended on it. What was more, from the way she started to moan and melt into him, Thalia would not have objected.
Should he try again? Was now the time to make good on their agreement? Oh, how he wanted to…
But Caspian, ever the picture of decorum and self-control, did not like how it felt to lose himself like this. He wanted his wife like nothing before, but he did not want to succumb to his urges because it terrified him what he might become once he did.
His breathing was ragged. His tongue licked Thalia’s ear, and she moaned and her hands went to his waist. He chuckled deeply and squeezed her tighter…
“That will do.” Somehow, through sheer strength of will, Caspian took a step back and released his wife. “For now, anyway.”
Thalia stood frozen. Eyes wide. Body trembling. Looking like she was not in her own body, for how still she was. And all the while, her chest rose and fell as if she had just run a mile.
“As I said…” Caspian straightened and did what he could to look as if the moment had no effect on him. “We will be attending more social events from now on, and you had best prepare yourself for them.”
With that, Caspian turned and strode down the hallway. He walked as if in triumph, but in his mind, he was running.
That was too close… another second of that and who knows what I would have done? No, that’s not true. I know exactly what.
Caspian had suspected going in that this marriage was dangerous, and now he knew it for fact. If he was right, it was only going to get worse from here. And even Caspian did not know if he had enough self-control to keep his impulses at bay.
Chapter Eleven
Thalia appeared at the top of the staircase, dressed in her dazzling gown, radiating feminine beauty the likes of which she had never allowed herself before.
Her gown was dark blue and trimmed in silver; the trimming came alive across her skirt in a floral pattern meant to evoke images of icicles in a snowstorm. It was tight around her waist, low across the neck, and billowing over her legs. She paired it with silver gloves that came to her elbows, crystal jewelry on her neck and in her ears, and a tiara that had her feeling like a queen.
When she appeared at the top of the stairs, she paused and allowed Caspian to drink her in. He was standing in the foyer and when he saw her, he tilted his head and looked up to see her standing there.
She smiled at him, expecting one in return. More than that, she expected him to gape and gawk and lose himself in her beauty. She shone like the sun, she glowed like the moon, and Thaliaknew that this moment right here might come to define their entire marriage.
“We are running late,” Caspian said when she appeared. “Quickly now.”
Her face dropped. Her shoulders slumped. And she nearly turned around and walked back to her room.
I know that he is attracted to me. I know that he wants me. He might claim that he was only pretending to be that way toward me, but I saw it in his eyes, and I felt it in his touch. He is not nearly as controlled as he wishes himself to be.
For three days now, Thalia had been unable to erase that moment they shared from her head. How effortlessly Caspian had transformed before her eyes, turned into a seducer the likes of which she thought to be impossible for her cold husband. He had swept toward her, pulled her in close, purred in her ear and nibbled her lobe, all while making her body tremble with a sense of desire that she did not know she was capable of feeling.
It was enough to tell Thalia that there was more to her husband than she had originally believed. And it was enough to tell her that this month would not be a complete waste of time.
The problem, as she now saw it, was eliciting that same reaction again. From both her husband and herself.
“Oh, are we?” She stayed at the top of the staircase and fluttered her eyelashes. “What’s the rush?”
“I will not be the last one to arrive.” He looked at her a final time, his expression controlled, and then he turned away. “Come now, do not dally.”
It did not help that for those few moments, Thalia had felt attracted to her husband beyond measure. Indeed, she had wondered these last three days what might have happened if he had attempted to bed her then and there. Would she have said no? Did she have that much control?
I suppose it doesn’t matter now, does it. Caspian is back to his old self, and I sense deeply that the other side of him isn’t about to rear its head anytime soon.
A shame really…
“Well then, we best hurry.” Thalia forced herself not to sulk and she started down the steps toward her waiting husband. And while he seemed to be purposefully not looking at her, she did catch one or two stray glances.
To some, it would be nothing. But for my husband? He might as well have been gawking with his mouth hanging open.
