“One should close his ears, then,” she chided. “I’m happy, George.” But she couldn’t look him in the eye.
“You’re sure?”
“She has told you so, Fowler,” Nicholas stated coldly from the doorway. “And since that is obviously what you came to find out, I shall appreciate your leaving.”
Reggie jumped to her feet. “Nicholas!”
“That’s quite all right, Reggie,” George offered, standing.
“That’sLady Montieth, old chap,” Nicholas said smoothly, eyes bright. “You will remember that, won’t you?”
Reggie was incredulous. “You don’t have to go, George, really you don’t.”
“Oh, but he does, I insist.” Nicholas then turned and bellowed into the hall. “Sayers! The gentleman is leaving.”
Reggie flushed crimson. “I’m sorry, George. There is no excuse for such rudeness.”
“Think nothing of it.” George bent over her hand, ignoring for a moment the indomitable man in the doorway. “It was a pleasure seeing you again, however briefly.”
Reggie waited only two seconds after George slipped out of the room before she emitted a cry of rage, her cobalt eyes shooting sparks at Nicholas. “How dare you? DidIthrowyour whoresout? Did I?” She barely paused for breath. “You are insufferable, sir, utterly!” she raged. “Is this another preposterous rule of yours? First you refuse to allow my family to visit here, and now my friends are not welcome!”
“I would not call an old love a friend,” he retorted.”
“He was not an old love. And you are a fine one to talk, with four ofyourold loves sleeping in this house last night. Why, you were probably even with one of them—or more than one!”
“If you had shared my bed last night, you would know where I was.”
Her mouth dropped open, then angrily snapped shut. Share his bed after she had caught him with another woman? He was annoying her on purpose. Well, he’d succeeded in rousing her fury.
She squared her shoulders. “Your disgraceful behavior has made up my mind for me, sir. I refuse to live another day with such a churlish boor. I am going home.”
That brought Nicholas up short. “Thisisyour home, Regina.”
“It might have been, but you have made it intolerable.”
“You’re not leaving,” he stated flatly.
“You can’t stop me.”
“I can indeed do just that. See if I don’t!”
Silence followed. They glared at each other, and then Regina stalked out.
Nicholas’ shoulders drooped. Why the bloody hell had he lost his head like that? He had intended to coax her back to her old self, then woo her into his bed tonight. Everything could have been right by tomorrow. What the everlasting hell was the matter with him? She was right, his behavior was insufferable, and he didn’t even begin to understand it himself.
Chapter 38
THE door crashed open with a resounding bang. Reggie swung around from the vanity seat, brush still raised to her hair.
“What? No trunks packed yet?” he rasped.
Reggie slowly put her brush down. “You’re foxed, Nicholas.”
“Not quite, love. Just enough to realize I’ve been pounding my head against a stone wall for no reason.”
“You’re spouting gibberish.”
He shut the door, leaning against it, his amber eyes on her face. “Consider this. The house is mine. The room is mine. The wife is mine. I need no more license than that to take her to bed.”
