Maeve’s gasp of pain stilled him as another memory came rushing back.
“Please, stop. You’re hurting me. No. No. Quit.”Corinne’s voice filled his head.
“I’m sorry, darling. I won’t hurt you ever again,” he growled. But he couldn’t pull away. The slightest move, and all would be lost.
“Get off. Get off.”She was screaming.“Don’t touch me.”Her tears were uncontrollable.
“Oh dear. W-we don’t quite fit, do w-we?” she stuttered on a panicked whisper.
“Maeve?”
She froze. “Brandon? Look at me.” Her voice sharpened. Her fists hit his shoulders. “Brandon!”
“Don’t… move,” he bit out, amazed at his stupidity. How could he not have realized? Alymer had been an old man.
She wriggled a little. “Yes. It’s, ah, better… now—”
“Stop—” But it was too late. He pumped, once, twice—and flew over the cliff. He lay there, his trousers barely down, stunned and panting.
She shoved at him, but he was unable to move. “Damn you, Brandon Radcliff. How dare you make love to someone else using my body?”
Harlowe planted his palms, one on each side of her, and lifted away. Angry tears glittered in her eyes.
“You should have told me.”
“Don’t you dare lecture me.” She shoved at his chest, knocking him to the floor in a tangled heap. He rolled to his back, yanked his pants up over his arse, and bent his arm over his eyes.
Her skirts rustled, and he felt her climb over him in her rush to escape.
He shot out an arm, and he grabbed her by the ankle before she could get away. “One minute, my love, we have a few things to discuss.” He jerked, and she stumbled back. He caught her before she hit the floor, using his body as a shield.
Her eyes flashed fire. “You thought I was Corinne, didn’t you?”
“You were a virgin.”
“Well, I’m not any longer, am I? Quit trying to distract me and answer my question. You thought I was Corinne.”
His body deflated with defeat. “I’m sorry. It’s difficult to explain. On our wedding night, she screamed as if I were taking her against her will. She hated intimate relations. It never got better.”
The tension in Maeve seeped through to him, stilling her to an unnatural calm. “She thought you tookher against her will?”
A familiar bleakness saturated him. “I don’t remember touching her again.”
“You mean she became with child after… after one time?” Her voice shot up an octave on a squeak.
Amusement hit him for the first time in… forever. “It only takes once, my dear.”
She appeared truly puzzled by the phenomenon. “Is that possible?”
Harlowe took her face in his hands, his bleakness momentarily lifting, and smiled at her. “Actually, I couldn’t be happier about this new development.”
She struggled to sitting, smoothing her skirts down, flags of scarlet dotting her cheeks. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He sat up, holding her on his lap. “You will,” he said. He gave her a quick, hard kiss. “Now tell me. Why were you a virgin?”
“What was I supposed to do? Go about spouting Alymer was… was…”
“Impotent?” he suggested.
