Her womanly channel was still rippling up and down his shaft when he spent inside her.
A few moments later, he felt the tension seep from her body. As she relaxed, so did he. With her eyes still closed, her kissable lips formed a wide smile.
Not wanting to crush her, Matthew collapsed to the side. A moment later, he covered them both with the counterpane as their skin chilled while the heat of their desire ebbed and cooled.
And then the door flew open.
Chapter Thirty-One
“Ah-ha!I have caught y—” The woman’s voice broke off mid-triumph.“Oh!”Lady Varley added with surprise before stepping back and treading on the foot of another woman behind her, who exclaimed in pain.
Startled, Purity fervently wished her husband had taken the time to lock the door and not merely kick it closed. Regardless, she knew the best course of action was to remain calm. Before she could speak, Matthew was propped upon his elbow, talking to the woman as if they were meeting upon the street.
“Lady Varley, can my wife and I help you in some way? Otherwise, I must insist you turn around and take your maid with you.”
Purity knew it wasn’t a maid but the witness Lord Varley had mentioned.
“Where is my husband?” Lady Varley asked.
“I haven’t the foggiest idea,” Matthew said. “Perhaps he is at home, waiting for you. Have you tried looking for him there? For I assure you, he’s not here. Why would you think he was?”
He didn’t spare Purity a glance, trying to draw all the attention to himself, as if she wasn’t truly there. Perhaps he hoped she would toss the counterpane over her head and hide, but it was too late for such modesty.
Lady Varley still looked shaken. Evidently, she had been expecting to find her husband.Wantingto find him, in fact, in their unhinged plan to punish Matthew.
Yet Lady Varley couldn’t be driven to help her husband wreak vengeance because he’d lost his first fiancée. Thus, Purity decided her ladyship must be using Lord Varley to soothe her own jealous ire.
What a pair!
With a green-eyed gleam shining from her eyes, Lady Varley had recovered from her shock and swaggered into the room, hands on her hips. The truth dawned on Purity — the womanstillwanted Matthew for her own.
“Foxy, Foxy, are you really going to settle for this insipid girl?” Lady Varley swished closer.
Behind her, her friend, whom Purity recognized as Lady Saunders, dithered in the doorway. Clearly, the scandal she was there to see had not materialized. Instead, she was merely intruding upon a newly married couple.
“I can see she has some appeal in a dewy, fresh way,” Lady Varley continued, “but you’re a man of experience and exotic tastes. In a fortnight, you’ll be sniffing around some other bitch.”
“I beg your pardon!” Purity said, sitting upright while clutching the bedclothes to her chest. “Such foul language is uncalled for. It is not only unladylike but demeans the speaker far more than the one of whom you speak. Yet it also offends the ears of anyone within hearing. Don’t you agree, Lady Saunders?”
“Oh, well, I...” She trailed off and disappeared out of sight.
Purity directed her attention once more to Lady Varley. “Shame on you.”
The woman gawked, clearly never having been ashamed of anything.
Even Matthew, who’d probably never been told to feel an ounce of shame either, turned his handsome head to stare at her.
Purity didn’t care. Despite lying naked in bed, having recently been tricked by one man and being tupped by another, she believed deep down that proper manners and good behavior were the thread that held the cloth of society together.
Without such, all would be incomprehensible bedlam, a chaotic place in which she would rather not exist.
“As I understand the history between you and Lord Foxford,” Purity continued, “you shared a fleeting affair, very brief, one whichyoudidn’t wish to end. But to your continued dissatisfaction, he broke it off. The fortnight before he went sniffing elsewhere was what happened toyou!”
“I don’t know that I was sniffing anywhere, my love,” Matthew interjected.
Purity gave him a quelling stare and continued, “I shall not discuss my own history with my husband, but I think you ought to grow a spine of iron, face the facts plainly in front of you, and stop sniveling over Lord Foxford when you are married to Lord Varley. It is most unbecoming and, frankly, degrades the entire female sex. Have you considered that?”
Lady Varley’s mouth opened once, then twice, before she snapped it closed.
