She shook her head, as if she knew a secret truth. “I’ll still keep her from hurting you. And I’m glad you keep your own room.”
She left before he could say more. He leaned back, lacing his fingers behind his head.
It was growing late.
Sandra might be mistaken about many things, but he did seem to have a serious problem with Skylar regarding the activities she chose to keep hidden from him. He didn’t know how to solve that problem, but he couldn’t spend much more time now pondering it. He needed to gather a few personal belongings if he was going to ride out tomorrow.
He left the office behind for his own bedroom. He pulled a bedroll from beneath his bed and gathered his razor, strap, and brush from the dresser. He mulled over the information regarding his wife’s day, trying to determine just how to handle her. How to approach her.
How to leave her.
He realized he’d been fooling himself. He couldn’t leave her.
Just as he reached that conclusion, he was startled by a soft tapping at his door.
He threw it open, amazed.
He wasn’t going to have to approach his wife.
She had come to him.
Skylar stood there. She was wearing some kind of a night garment, but one quite different from what she had worn before. This was all silk. Deep blue, very low-cut in front and in back. Where it didn’t blatantly hug her body, enhancing every perfect curve, it seemed to shimmer around her. Her hair was down, brushed to a flowing, golden sheen. She appeared elegant and soft. Dignified…and sensual. The gown had been chosen with care. As had her perfume. It was musky and…seductive.
Her smile was charming and hesitant.
The rapid rise and fall of her breasts and her labored breath belied the very lightness of her smile.
He could tell that she was appalled to be here.
But she wanted something. Yes.
He wondered just how far she’d go to get it.
CHAPTER 12
She hated being here. She wanted to crawl beneath the floor.
It was all the worse because she realized she might be attempting this course of action too late. It seemed he wearied of her at last. He hadn’t come near her last night. Had he slept here with someone else who didn’t mind that sometimes he slept elsewhere?
Was he perhaps expecting that someone now?
“Yes?” he inquired politely.
“May I…enter this sacred domain?” Skylar asked, wincing as she realized that her query had been half flirtatious and half very dry.
He stepped back mockingly. “Do come in. Indeed. I am stunned by the honor of your visit.”
Skylar walked nervously past him, crossing her arms over her chest, then allowing them to fall as she realized it was a defensive gesture, hardly seductive. She forced a smile onto her lips, turning to survey the room as she did so. She extended a hand toward the connecting doorway to the library. “What a wonderful place.”
“I’d give you a tour, but it’s evident you’ve taken one on your own.”
“I never actually took a tour,” she said pleasantly.
“What do you want, Skylar?”
She grated her teeth together beneath her smile. Hating him. This was sheer misery to begin with, but he was making it immeasurably harder.
“I just heard this evening from Megan that you are planning to leave in the morning.”
