His mouth crashed against hers, demanding everything she had to give. She surrendered it, only breaking away when an orgasm hit her like wildfire. She gave a keening cry and he echoed the sound as he poured himself deep into her body and then dropped down against her, his hands gently smoothing over her arms, her fingers dragging through his hair.
And in that moment, there was peace.
“Someone should design a settee better suited for such things,” Matthew complained as he dragged Isabel half across his body and she settled her head against his chest.
She laughed, the tension that had started between them in the portrait gallery bled away by passion. “That is called a bed, Your Grace. You have a very nice one just upstairs.”
“A bed,” he repeated. “Fascinating. Perhaps we should move one into every room in this house. Just in case.”
She glanced up at him, her expression both laced with humor and interest. “An unexpected design choice that I’d hate to explain to guests.”
“I’m certain they would determine the use on their own,” he drawled.
She sighed, and for a moment both were quiet. The silence allowed him to relive their earlier argument once more. She had asked him about Angelica and his first reaction had been to push her away. To leave unsaid the painful topic of his last night with his former fiancée. But now, with Isabel’s hands smoothing over him, with the vanilla scent of her hair teasing his nostrils, he knew he was wrong to hide the truth from her.
Especially when it had impacted virtually every moment between them since.
He steeled himself and said, “Angelica and I had a sometimes…heated relationship.”
She went stiff and looked up. She was working to make her expression passive. “How could you not? You are irresistible and she was stunning.”
He shook his head as he realized what meaning she’d put to his words. “No, not like that. Not like…this. Of course, I was attracted to her, to be certain, but we—we never, that is to say we hadn’t…”
Her eyes went wide as she looked up at him. “No?”
“She was a lady and we were to be married.” He shrugged. “To do so seemed wrong at the time. I thought we had a lifetime.”
She nodded. “I suppose you did. But if you don’t mean heated in that sense, then whatdoyou mean?”
He frowned. “She would occasionally get upset when I didn’t do as she liked. That was what happened that night. The last night. We were all at the estate in Tyndale and she demanded I go out with her onto the lake. She said something about the moonlight. I was in the middle of something. I considered it important, though to be honest, I don’t even recall what it was now.” He shook his head. “And she…she…”
“Had a tantrum,” Isabel finished, not cruelly but with certainty.
He glanced down at her. It was actually rather nice to talk to someone who had known Angelica so well. He could be direct where he was careful with others. Slowly, he nodded. “I suppose that is what you might call it.”
“She did that sometimes,” Isabel said with a shrug.
“With you too?” he asked.
“Yes.” She chuckled as if the memory pleased her. “With everyone. She was passionate, as I’m sure you know. She was fierce, in both how she loved and how she demanded. Just determined to change everyone’s mind to her way.”
He smiled faintly. “That is exactly right.”
“But she was never…cruel,” Isabel continued swiftly. “She was just as likely to use honey to get what she wanted as that big dose of vinegar. She’d smile and please and cajole and suddenly I was an ally on her side. Of course, the next time I needed one of my own, she was the first to jump up and link arms with me. She was a force of nature in that regard.”
“She was. And often I gave in, just as it sounds like you did. That night, I didn’t. We quarreled,” he said, trying to block out the images that had begun to fill his mind. “And a while later her maid came to me to inform me that Angelica had gone out without me. Of course, that was meant to make me follow, and I did, still fuming from the ugly words we had exchanged and her foolhardy devotion to doing exactly as she wished.”
He focused, trying to regather himself. It must have taken him a long while, for Isabel reached out and threaded her fingers through his. She squeezed his hand gently. “And what happened then?”
“She was in the middle of the lake by the time I reached it,” he whispered. “In this tiny little boat that was only meant for children. And when she saw me, she stood up, to prove to me that she would do as she pleased, I suppose. The boat rocked and…and…”
Isabel caught her breath. Tears had filled her eyes. “It capsized,” she said. “Oh, Angelica.”
He nodded. “It was so far out, so far away. I raced to her, fully clothed, pushing through the water. She went under again and again as her gown got heavier and heavier. By the time I reached her, she had been under for a while. I couldn’t find her in the dark. I was frantic, diving under to search for her. At last I touched her hand and there was this huge moment of hope. But when I hauled her to the surface, she was limp and cold. I kept saying her name as I took her to shore, but there was nothing I could do. Nothing I could do. She was gone.”
Isabel reached up, and it was only when she gently wiped his cheek that he realized he was weeping. For the life he had lost. For the guilt he had carried. For the woman who’d had her bright and vibrant light snuffed out over a foolish fit of pique. Isabel’s cheeks were also wet and her eyes sparkled with even more tears. For her cousin, but also for him, he could see. Not tears of pity, but empathy.
“I would have traded places with her, Isabel,” he murmured. “You know I never harmed her. I hope you know I never would have. Ididlove her.”
