“No. He courted me with flowers and lovely words. My father, like me, believed him a good man for all there were many years between us. All that changed the day we were married, but as far as my father was concerned, I simply had to put up with my new life.”
“I’m sorry that your life was hell.” He pressed his lips to hers briefly. “But you and Henry will suffer no more.”
“My husband laid with me only to have heirs, and nothing more. He ridiculed me when I did not conceive again after Henry and grew more determined.” She shuddered.
“He is gone, Iris, cry no more tears for him.” He ran his thumbs under her eyes. “I’m sorry that I left, and we did not marry.”
“That was children talking,” she whispered.
“If my parents had not been murdered, we would have married one day.” Monty believed that.
“He left a stain on my soul—”
“It is time for you to live now, Iris,” he cut off her words. “He is gone.”
“And what of you. Will you start to live also?”
“I had decided to leave society and Plunge behind at the end of this season. Now I am not so sure due to the fresh evidence about my parents’ killers.”
“You will never return?”
He shook his head. “Likely not.”
She rose to her toes and pressed her lips to his. Her hands braced on his shoulders, and the gesture was innocent and sweet, and the first time a woman had kissed him.
“Theo?”
“Yes?”
“W-Will you help me to forget him. H-Help me to make new memories.” She stepped back from him. “I don’t want to remember his touch anymore.”
“Iris—”
“I feel like he is imprinted on my body. That I will always close my eyes and feel his weight on me.”
“No, it would be wrong of me… us to do that.” But Christ how he wanted it. Wanted her and her soft, warm curves in his hands touching his naked flesh.
“Yes. I am a widow, Theo. I am no maiden. Show me what can be between a man and a woman.”
“How do you know I can give you that?” The words were raw. He felt like she was opening something he’d kept closed inside him for so long. Exposing the vulnerability he’d fought to keep hidden.
“I see you, Theo. The good man who would never hurt me.”
Iris stood there, pale and exhausted. Some of her hair had come free, but the rest was still pinned on her head. To Theo, she was possibly the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, and she saw him… really saw him.
“Let us bring each other into the light, Theo. Let me touch you as I know you have not been touched.”
She may not be a virgin, but Monty knew she was still an innocent. He shook his head, and she stepped back.
“I’m sorry. I should have—”
“No. I shook my head because you are right, no one has touched me in gentleness. No one has caressed me,” he whispered. “It terrifies me how much I want you, Iris.”
She closed the distance between them once more. Her hands went to his jacket, and Monty watched as she unbuttoned it and then pushed it from his shoulders so it fell to the floor. Her fingers shook as she did the same with his waistcoat.
Monty was frozen, his eyes watching her. The only person since his parents passed to undress him was his valet. Iris was willingly touching him; the thought was humbling, and it scared him spitless.
“Theo.”
