He leaned in and kissed her once more. “That the wanting doesn’t fade with you,” he explained. He brushed his nose back and forth against hers. “And now you are truly mine. Now there is no going back.”
He kissed her cheek once more, grinned at her and departed her bedroom. Once he was gone, she got to her own feet and picked up her discarded night rail. But as she slid it over her head, she caught her breath, not with pleasure, but with pain. Disappointment.
When he’d said there was no going back, she had seen something in his eyes. Something that had flared there in worry, in upset.
He had made love to her tonight, and she’d had such hopes that it meant a new beginning for them. A start where she might one day earn the same love from him thatshefelt.
Only now she saw the truth. He’d come to her not just because there was desire between them that could not be denied. He’d come because he needed a reason why he couldn’t go back on his word. He had to ruin her so there would be no opportunity to escape the promise he’d made.
She walked to the window and stared into the darkness outside. He had said she was his. And she was.
But he wasn’t hers. And she feared he might never be.
Chapter Twenty
James stood on the parapet overlooking the garden below. In the distance he could see dozens of servants arranging chairs, decorating the gazebo, hustling with flowers and ribbon.
They were preparing the space where he would marry Emma in…he glanced down at his pocket watch…two hours.
He sighed. Everything in the past week and a half had flown by. He’d had a special license to arrange, there had been seamstresses coming and going, looking harried and displeased, despite how much he was paying them to swiftly prepare a gown for his future wife. And there had still been his country party to lord over. Only now it was a wedding party, and the tone of it all had shifted significantly.
The one thing there had not been time for, it seemed, was a moment alone with Emma. He frowned at that thought. He’d been dreaming about making love to her, but she never seemed to be alone anymore. She had even asked Meg to stay in her room with her until their wedding night, thwarting his attempts to join her as he had before.
She was avoiding him.
“Your Grace?”
He turned and stifled a groan at the person who had interrupted him. Mrs. Liston, his future mother-in-law, now stood at the terrace door. She and her husband hadnotbeen avoiding him since the engagement, unfortunately. He’d had the distinct displeasure of spending a great deal of time with them. He had been asked for money, time, introductions, even a cottage on his estate. Never directly, of course, always in a roundabout way that made it seem like their concern was only for Emma.
Oh yes, he had become very familiar with their grasping ways.
“Mrs. Liston,” he said, his tone cool. “You are lovely, as always.”
She glanced down at her gown with a titter. “I would have had a new gown made—mother of the bride, you know—but there was no time. Not that I am complaining.”
His lips thinned as he thought of her words on the terrace so many nights ago. He’d overheard her plotting with Emma to “catch” him. Emma had refused, though it had all turned out exactly as this woman had desired.
And she looked rather proud of it.
When he didn’t say anything, she moved forward. “I would like to talk to you about my daughter’s future.”
He frowned. “As we have discussed before, your daughter’s future is taken care of, Mrs. Liston. She will want for nothing ever again.” She shifted slightly, and James lifted both eyebrows. It seemed they were done dancing around what this woman wanted. She was ready to be more direct. “Ah, I see. You really mean you wish to speak to me aboutyourfuture.”
She nodded and moved closer to him. “Mine and my husband’s.”
James tightened his fists at his sides. Any time he spent with his future father-in-law was a continuing exercise in self-control. Knowing what Mr. Liston had done to Emma, what he hadtriedto do, it made James want to destroy the man.
And now her mother came, asking for a boon for him. For herself.
“I want to make something very clear, Mrs. Liston,” he said softly. “I shall give Emma whatever she desires for the rest of her life. I shall happily do so, for I know her character. I know that she deserves no less. But as for your husband, when this wedding is over, I would not be sorry to never see him again.”
Mrs. Liston’s lips parted and her eyes went wide. “Your Grace—”
He held up a hand to stop her talking. “Enough. I do not understand you. How you can know exactly what he is, how you can hear what he did to your daughter, the future he would have created for her in order to save himself, and still coo into his ear like you are newlyweds?”
Dark color flooded her cheeks and she turned away from him suddenly. “I—” she began. “He—he has promised to change. He has sworn that now that Emma is settled, he will also alter his ways. He will come to London with me, stay in our home there. We will only need a bit of help and he—”
“How did Emma grow up to be so very clever?” James interrupted with a shake of his head. “If you are so foolish as to believe those lies.”
