“Yes, I suppose,” he murmured.
She then pulled the coverlet back on the bed and glanced at the blankets one more time to make certain they were secure then climbed under the covers and turned on her side, pillow bunched beneath her head and stared at the blanket that separated her from the Earl of Wyndham.
She had heard rustling on the other side and wondered if he had not been concerned that she was present and had disrobed to put on a nightshirt.
Her husband had never worn one but surely Wyndham did, especially in a situation such as this.
Except, he had not known the sleeping arrangements until they arrived.
What if he had nothing to wear and nothing was covering his chest any longer?
Heat swept up her body and Caroline silently lectured herself not to think of Wyndham’s chest or any other part of his anatomy.
“May I ask something of you?”
“Yes,” she answered slowly.
Just because she was having impure thoughts about Wyndham did not mean he thought of her as anything more than his mother’s companion to be forgotten once he was gone.
“Please call me Sterling.”
Her face heated with the very idea. It was too personal. “I could not.”
“I am rarely called by my name, tonight being an exception, and we are sharing a cottage, sleeping in the same room, so I believe formality is no longer necessary.”
But it was. Being on a first name basis was too personal…intimate. Yet, she couldn’t make herself voice the objections.
“I shall call you Caroline and you will call me Sterling.”
She was certain she heard a smile in his tone.
“It would be nice to hear my name for change instead of my title such as when we were at dinner tonight.”
“Your mother addresses you by your given name,” she reminded him.
“That is different. She is my mother, and as you and I seem to be becoming friends, in addition to these sleeping arrangements, you should call me Sterling and I shall call you Caroline.”
Caroline was not at all comfortable doing so but… “If you insist…Sterling.”
“I do, Caroline.”
Warmth swept through her and Caroline realized that she was in trouble. Not only did she want Wyndham, but she was beginning to like him more than she should. There was no future and thus, she must limit her emotions to a temporary friendship, if that, because she was still far beneath him.
Oh, she should not have thought about being beneath him because it conjured other images. This was going to be a very long night.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sterling barely slept.Caroline did not snore, but he could hear her soft breathing. And every time she moved, the bed creaked and he wondered if she would sleep better if she did not have to do so alone.
The temptation to slip through the blankets and seduce her was nearly impossible to ignore, but he did not leave his bed.
Who could blame him for wanting her? She was beautiful, put together perfectly, kind, intelligent, and mature. And, she was not innocent, but had been married and birthed a daughter, so it would not be as if he were ruining her.
He feared that she would reject him, which would make for a very awkward day in Stellenbosch, and an even more uncomfortable day as they traveled back to Wyndview Farm.
His thoughts of Caroline and how he would like to be in her bed, after he had lifted the hem of her nightrail and tossed it on the ground, had him aching with need.
In fact, even when he finally was able to sleep, his dreams were filled with her. If matters continued to progress in his manner, he may need to find privacy to release some of the tension that had developed before he…well…that would be rather embarrassing.
