As the valet removed the towel from around Adam’s neck and began to pack up the assorted implements, Adam studied himself in the mirror. He was a decent-looking chap, had all his teeth. His form was fit and muscular. It wouldn’t be immodest to say that women would find him attractive. Moreover, he was sure he was a man of sexual experience. He knew what pleased him…and knew he enjoyed a woman’s pleasure as well.
Stuck in bed, with Gabriella hovering so close, he’d entertained quite a few fantasies. The notion of burying his face between her thighs, for instance, gave him an instant cockstand. He had a loin-firing curiosity to know if the hair on her mound was as lovely and pure a shade as the fiery locks on her head. If she tasted as sweet as she looked. If she was as talkative during sex as she was in daily life, if she would beg him with hot, breathy words to make her come…
He regained his focus. He was no namby-pamby idiot. What little he knew of his history painted him as a man who knew what he wanted and went after it. He’d built himself an empire and had his own personal blend of shaving soap, for Christ’s sake.
By comparison, how difficult could it be to get Gabriella—his wife—to resume conjugal relations with him? In his gut, he knew that getting her in bed wasn’t just about slaking his lust. It was about establishing his claim, of making her his in the most primal way so that neither of them had any doubts about whom she belonged to.
It was about making this marriagerealbecause, Christ, he wanted it to be.
The solution struck him: he would plan an intimate night for them. He’d set the scene for a romantic interlude. Supper, flowers, a musical serenade—and agift. Everyone knew that trinkets were the way to a female’s heart, and he was as rich as Croesus, wasn’t he?
“Is there anything else, Mr. Garrity?” Quinn inquired.
“Yes, actually. Do you know where I purchased jewelry for my wife in the past?”
“You have accounts at all the finest jewelers, sir. But for special occasions, you favored Rundell, Bridge, & Co. Shall I send for them?”
Adam cocked his head. “The jeweler will come to me?”
“Given your patronage over the years, I’d suspect Misters Rundell and Bridge would set up shop next door if you ask them to.”
At least I did one thing right.
“Have them come this afternoon, when Mrs. Garrity is out visiting her father,” Adam said. “The gift is to be a surprise. And send Burke up. I want to discuss tomorrow night’s supper with him.”
“Very good, sir.”
As Quinn departed, Adam continued to plot out his plan…to seduce his wife.
17
In the drawingroom the following afternoon, Gabby poured tea for her three guests. To her right, Tessa Kent, a slight, raven-haired beauty shared a divan with Emma, the Duchess of Strathaven (and Tessa’s sister-in-law). Maggie Foley, a cinnamon-haired widow and the future bride of the Duke of Ranelagh and Somerville, occupied the curricle chair to Gabby’s left.
“You’re always a wonderful hostess, Gabby, but you needn’t have gone to the trouble,” Emma said, waving at the cart and sideboard laden with cakes, sliced fruits, and a cold collation. “You already have your hands full looking after your husband.”
“Swift Nick appreciates the feast,” Tessa said.
Her poppy-colored carriage dress was cut to conceal the swell of the babe she was expecting next year, and curled up against the barely detectable bump was Swift Nick, her beloved pet ferret, whose dark mask of fur and searching gaze gave it the look of an inquisitive bandit. She broke off a piece of cheese for Swift Nick, who snatched and gobbled the morsel.
Tessa’s choice of pet was as unique as she was. For despite her delicate exterior, she was a force to be reckoned with. Her grandfather was a powerful cutthroat who ruled the London underworld and, as the Duchess of Covent Garden, Tessa did her part to bring order and justice to the territory she oversaw. It spoke volumes that even a man as influential as Adam respected her authority.
“It was no trouble. And Mr. Garrity’s ever so much improved,” Gabby said. “Indeed, he’s chafing at the doctor’s instructions to stay in the house, which is how I know he’s on the mend.”
“When Strathaven’s injured foot kept him confined to the house, he was like a caged tiger.” Over the rim of her teacup, Emma’s brown eyes were knowing. “The staff went into hiding.”
Since Adam had been prowling around the house, poking his nose in everyone’s business, Gabby had a feeling that her own servants would have liked to do the same. Poor Burke, in particular, had been mortally offended when Adam questioned his accounting of the household silver. She’d spent no little time smoothing the ancient butler’s ruffled feathers.
Despite his impatience with his own recovery, Adam was improving at lightning speed. Day by day, he was stronger, more commanding, more like his old self. Yet he was also…different.
Thinking of the changes sent a wave of foreboding through Gabby. She didn’t know what to make of them. Of the fact that her husband was, in some ways, a stranger. The awareness reaffirmed that she might not know him at all, a notion that pained her heart.
“I’m so very glad to hear that Mr. Garrity is feeling better.” Maggie’s hands curled in her olive satin skirts. “Ransom and I owe him more than we can ever repay.”
In the other’s emerald eyes, Gabby saw sincerity and no little guilt. She knew it was because Adam had been hurt whilst helping to rescue Maggie and Ransom’s daughter, Glory. Although Maggie and her duke were newly engaged, Maggie had divulged that they’d had a brief affair some years earlier, Glory being the result of it. It was only recently that the lovers had reunited and His Grace had discovered that he had a daughter.
While Gabby had known Emma forever and Tessa for a few months, she’d only recently become acquainted with Maggie. Normally, she’d be intimidated by a woman as beautiful as Maggie, but the other’s no-nonsense manner had put her at ease. Maggie’s late husband had apparently been an older, ailing gentleman, and she’d run his fossils shop for many years, even digging for bones herself along the Dorset coast where she’d lived. One had the sense that Maggie’s life hadn’t been easy, yet she’d persevered and now she was to marry the man of her dreams.
Gabby didn’t want anything hanging over her new friend’s happiness.
