“Mm. You’re beautiful.”
“Beautiful?” He wondered if she could see the flush creeping over his cheeks.
“I thought so from the very first. And when you smiled, it quite set me back on my heels.”
Brandon growled low in his throat and shifted his position until he lay partially on top of Shannon. “I’d like to set you back on your heels now.” A thorough kiss punctuated his statement.
Shannon pushed at his shoulders. “Randy goat.”
Sighing, Brandon fell on his back. “You wound me, spurning my advances thusly.”
“Poor man.”
“Not true,” he denied, rising up on one elbow.
He studied her face, and when he spoke, his voice was deep with emotion. “I’m a rich man. A very rich man.” His gaze wandered from her mouth to her eyes. “You don’t regret our marriage, do you?”
Shannon was struck by the uncertainty in his tone. “I thought you knew better. I regret nothing.”
“I had hoped it would be so. I couldn’t have badgered you so shamelessly if I hadn’t hoped.”
“And there was Parker,” she whispered, reluctant to mention the other reason Brandon had pressed for the hasty wedding.
“Yes. ThereisParker.”
“Do you really believe he remains a threat?”
“I must act as if it were true,” he said firmly.
“Yet Sir James’s investigation yielded nothing.”
They had been over this ground before, yet Brandon no longer felt the sense of impatience he had experienced previously. There was no urgency in his argument now, no need to convince her that her safety was at issue if she did not remain at the folly. Had there been no marriage, Shannon would have left soon to wait out a year of mourning in Williamsburg or perhaps Jamestown. What protection could he have offered her there? Indeed, there were moments that he wondered at his ability to protect her even now. “Neither did Sir James find anything to disprove my suspicions. I can think of no one who had anything to gain by your death except Parker. He would have had the folly if I had been found guilty of your murder. He would have seen that Aurora made it possible.”
“Will we ever have proof, do you think? If it is as you say, then Parker killed my sister.”
Brandon did not want to dwell on what form the proof might take. It was too easy to imagine that his half brother would demand additional revenge for his own mistakes. And Aurora’s death had been a mistake, Brandon thought, for her murder had only made Parker’s pursuit of the folly that much more difficult. “I don’t know,” he answered.
“Parker told Sir James that Aurora left him. If that were true, then my sister’s accomplice may have been someone here.”
Brandon had considered the same thing and dismissed it almost immediately. “Parker lies,” he said tersely.
“So did Aurora,” she reminded him gently.
He nodded. His palm stroked her naked shoulder and arm. “Are you frightened, Shannon?”
“No.” She caught his penetrating eyes and amended her denial. “Sometimes. But not for myself. I’m afraid for you.”
It was nothing less than he expected, and profoundly moved, he lifted her hand and placed it against his chest. “We could go away for a while. Travel. Daniel and Steven have often invited me to Boston.”
“Do you mean it?”
“Of course.”
“But what of your responsibilities here?”
“There is nothing that cannot be done by others for a time. We can leave after the New Year. Christmas is but a week away. I should like to celebrate it here.”
Shannon wanted that also. “Clara will come with us, won’t she?”
