“Get out.”
A startled jerk of her head turned into a shrug. Her coy expression wavered. “I know you don’t mean that, Robert.”
“On the contrary, I very much do.” He had to grit the words out through clenched teeth. “I want you dressed and out of my bed.”
“Oh? Want to remove my clothes yourself?” She came up on her knees in the middle of his mattress, silk and lace a puddle around her. “I’m still wearing enough for you to have the pleasure.”
Robert closed his eyes. His pulse pounded. His whole body leaned toward the siren on his bed. His body, but not his mind, and never again his heart. “I won’t do it, Cinthia. You’re Dunreid’s now.”
“Am I?” The harsh edge to her tone brought his eyes open. “I’m a piece of property, then? A man’s possession? No longer my own?”
“That’s not what I mean.” His words came out too soft. She was so beautiful in the candlelight. How many years had he waited to have her? “You’re his wife.”
“Yet, he can take his pleasure where he will.” She brought her hands to the coverlet and crawled toward him across the bed, eyes on his. “Why can’t I? Why can’t we, Robert?”
He couldn’t help but watch the way she moved. Why couldn’t they? He shook his head to clear the spell she wove. “Maybe that’s how you and Dunreid want to live, but I don’t.”
“You mean me to believe that once you wed, you’ll never stray?” Her silken voice was soft again, teasing. She reached the edge of the bed and rose to her knees. “Not even a little?”
“I will wed for love, and I will never stray.” He could barely make out his own words.
She opened her arms wide. Pale-blonde hair cascaded down her back. “I’m offering you everything you always wanted. What we always wanted.”
Robert took a step back. “No,” he croaked, throat dry as ashes. He gave a more vigorous shake of his head. “This isn’t what I wanted. I wanted breakfast every morning. I wanted to watch our children grow.” He took another step back. “I wanted a life together.”
“We can still have a child, and he’ll be a viscount someday.” She smoothed her hands down her frame and angled her face to look up at him through thick lashes. “You can’t tell me you don’t dream of this.”
“Of bedding the woman I once loved so she can raise my child as another man’s heir?” The sound that wrenched from his throat bore little resemblance to laughter. “That is not my dream.”
Her lips turned downward, muting their bowlike perfection. Blue eyes narrowed. “It’s that Scottish chit, isn’t it? You’re both enamored of her. My husband because he thinks she’ll be a fertile little whore and you…I thought you simply wanted to take something from him, but now I see you fancy yourself in love.”
Robert blinked. In love? An image of Emilia’s open, smiling face, blotted out the treacherous beauty before him. Framed in sun-kissed tresses, that face was all things good.
“You think she’s better than I am, don’t you? That she’s sweet, innocent.” Cinthia’s tone was harsh now, ugly. “Well, you’ll come around once she betrays you. She’s no match for Dunreid’s persistence. He’s like a fox hound with the scent. You’ll never best him, Robert. You aren’t man enough to take what you want before he can. Once she’s his, you’ll come crawling to me, brokenhearted and alone, and I’ll have what I need from you.”
Her hard voice stole through him, cooled him, settled his hammering pulse. “Is that the way of it, Cinthia? I wasn’t man enough to keep you?”
“You weren’t, and now you aren’t man enough to take me,” she snapped.
He crossed to the bed, anger alive inside him. “I mourned our future, Cinthia. I wept for it, like a dead lover, but I am not the one who killed it.” He raked his eyes up and down her frame, and saw not beauty, but a desperate, vulgar display. “I’m glad Dunreid came along. He stopped me from making the greatest mistake of my life.”
She gasped, white-faced.
Robert turned away, a bit surprised to find he’d left the door open. He shrugged, for his servants may as well hear. Perhaps his response to her would reassure them.
“Robert.” Cinthia’s tone pleaded.
He didn’t turn back. As he strode from the room he said, “I’ll send a maid to help you dress. I already have carriage ready.”
A string of invectives followed him down the hall. Cinthia’s shrillness faded as he jogged down the steps. He found Edwards in the foyer.
“Send someone to assist Lady Cinthia back into her garments,” Robert said. “I’ll be in my study. Let me know when she’s gone.”
“In your study, sir?” Edwards’ face pulled down with worry. “Will you need a new decanter of scotch, then, sir?”
Robert frowned. Would he? Emilia’s smile flittered through his mind. “No, Edwards, I think not.”
