Something had shifted in him. Gradually, perhaps. He couldn’t say. He only knew the truth of it in that moment. His attraction to her was no longer just physical but something deeper, something purer, something...ineffable.
The word teased his mind, dancing around just out of reach, driving him mad.
As a man of action, maybe if he examined what the feeling encouraged him to do, he could name it. What was it?
He gazed down at Anne snuggled in his arms, and he had an overwhelming desire to see her smile. To make her happy. To protect her, defend her. Pamper her.
From the first moment when she’d startled him on the terrace of Hartridge House, she’d bewitched him. First in body and now, in soul.
Like a child peeking out from behind their hiding place, the word made itself be known.
Love?
No. It couldn’t be. It seemed ludicrous. How could he love this woman he’d known less than a month?
He wasn’t incapable of love. He loved his parents, even as strict and demanding as his father was. Perhaps respected was a more accurate word. He loved Honoria and the girls. But that was fraternal and paternal love.
But romantic love? What was that even like? He’d cared for Margery. He wasn’t sure romantic love had ever crossed his mind during their marriage. They’d certainly never said those words to each other.
As he stared into Anne’s blue eyes, his heart ached, and far from being painful, it was sweet. She not only satisfied him physically, she completed him, as if a piece of his heart had been missing and she’d just reinserted it.
A gentle breeze drifted in from the surrounding water and cooled their naked bodies dotted with perspiration from their shared passion. The air around them held a buoyant sort of wonder. The realization swept over him like a sudden tide then hit him hard, right in his aching heart.
He loved her.
Hefeltit. Knew it. Deeply, down to his bones. This was what being in love was like.
Joyous.
Chaotic.
Confusing.
Frightening.
What if she couldn’t love him back? What if in confessing it, he exposed too much of his real self and Anne rejected him?
Much like Anne’s unwilling utterances, if he said it out loud, it would become real. Something he couldn’t deny, even to himself. And facing another failure in his life was too great a risk. He would wait and keep it to himself.
A secret more dangerous than the hidden passages in his home.
CHAPTER 29
Anne snuggled closer and hid her face on Colin’s chest. Oh, how she wanted to tell him! To shout it to the whole world.I love Colin Bell, Viscount Manning.Her Lord Grumpy-Trousers. Who would have imagined?
For a moment, she froze in his arms, wondering if, yet again, she had vocalized her thoughts.
But Colin appeared lost in his own thoughts. As his fingers tenderly traced lines up and down her arm, his mind appeared far away.
“Colin? What is it?”
“Hmm?” He stared down at her, his gaze refocusing.
“What were you thinking about?”
A beat passed before he smiled and kissed the tip of her nose. “I was thinking we’d better dress and go back to the house before someone hunts us down.” He rose and held out his hand to help her up.
They dressed in silence, with Colin helping to fasten her gown.
