“Never.” The bedclothes rustled as he retrieved his dressing gown and then procured from its pocket a handkerchief. Tenderly, he blotted away every trace of his lust. “I only hoped to excite you.”
She placed a finger beneath his chin and turned up his face. “You did...”
Such dark eyes. Richly fertile, muddied earth. She could become easily mired. She wasalreadymired. Bound to him in a world of their own making. Eden in a castle armory.
“...Paint another.”
He lifted a brow. “Don’t encourage me.”
“Without shameyou said.”
“Without shame,” he repeated. “Doubtless, I can come up with something that will curl your toes. At present, however, I must recover.”
She smiled. “I look forward, then, to your future efforts.
He tossed aside the soiled linen and laid back down, folding her against his chest.
“I wonder,” she mused, absently tracing his collarbone, “if shame is the reason men need some women to be angels and others, whores...”
His body tensed in response to the word.
“...If,” she continued, “awoman’snature is at fault, then men can absolve themselves of blame.”
“I don’t think of you as either.”
“Either?”
“An angel, or...that other word.”
Could he not even say it? “Our contract says otherwise.”
“Hang the contract.” Anger roughened his voice. “Hera...I apologized for my anger that night. I never meant things to progress in that manner.”
“I know,” she said. “I understood, though not at first, that I had insulted your sense of honor.”
He sighed. “But do you knowwhy?”
Could it be because he really had wished to ask her to marry him?
The conversation had slipped into dangerous territory. She reset its course. “You didn’t seem surprised when I told you I wasn’t…untouched.” She edged away from what she feared would be a confession. And she was too undone, too hopelessly open, to rebuff him as she must.
He frowned. “I don’t suppose Iwassurprised.”
“Did Ilooklike a fallen woman?”
He bubbled his lips as if perplexed. “Not particularly. But you did call yourselfMrs.Montrose.”
“You never believed I was wed,” she retorted. “Nor did you think I was telling the truth about my name.”
“Actually, Ihopedyou hadn’t been wed—but I knew very little about you.” He shifted. “Why do I feel as if there is ice beneath my feet? Very, verythinice.”
She exhaled, snuggling closer to his side. “You’re right. Let’s not spoil this moment.” Perhaps she had sounded peevish. “I didn’t mean to say that your lack of surprise was a fault, per se.”
“Per se?”
“I don’t expect you’d understand.”
He lifted her hand from his chest and threaded his fingers through hers. “Why don’t you explain?”
