He stroked his slightly shadowed chin. “Let me see. Your mother wore a tobacco-colored coat with a fur trim, ermine, I suspect.” He smiled. “I particularly noticed the fur because I thought it impractical, and her large fur muff made me suspect at first that she’d brought along her Pekingese dog.”
Laura giggled. “And her hat?”
“I’m not good with such details.” He thought for a moment. “Black with gold trim, I think.” He waved his hands over his head. “More ermine somewhere on it. Entirely too much fur I would say, although I don’t confess to being up on the latest fashion.”
“Are corseted waists still in fashion?”
“I was pleased to observe many in evidence.” He lowered himself beside her, and his lips brushed below her ear. “Don’t tell me waists are in danger?” he asked, his voicehusky.
Desire heated her blood. She should not let her handsome husband roam free in London. What was she thinking? Thoughts fled as his gaze settled on hermouth.
“Are we done talking?”
“Yes.” Her voice was barely a whisper, as she responded to hiskiss.
“Have you missed me, sweetheart?”
“Yes.” If only he needed her as much as she did him. “Yes, Nathaniel, very much.”
She couldn’t maintain her anger and moved to bring him close in the way that worked, at least for now. She pulled at the belt on his dressing gown, and after he shrugged out of it, she pushed him back onto the bed, leaning over him, seeking to take the upper hand to gain some sense of power over him. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He lay acquiescent, allowing her to have her way. Even as she swept her hand over the smooth olive skin of his chest following the trail of dark hair down to boldly touch his arousal, she expected him to take control. But she had a way to surprise him with the knowledge gained from thebook.
Laura kissed her way down his muscled stomach, and his soft dark hair brushed her cheek. How good it felt to kiss him there, his erection both silky and hard. Passion coiled deeply within her, her need for him tightening her stomach. Breathing hard, she gasped and rejoiced when his hands settled in her hair and he moaned. Amanda might have a claim on his heart, but in this earthly pleasure, at least, Laura sensed her power. In this bedroom, he was truly hers.
“That’s so good,” hemurmured.
Growing in confidence and eager to learn what he liked, she ran her tongue along the hot length of him and took him in her mouth. He groaned, his arousal growing even harder beneath her fingers andlips.
Nathaniel suddenly pushed her away. He sat up, his dark eyebrows slanted in a puzzled frown. “Where did you learn to do this?”
He looked so furious and unapproachable. Did he believe she’d been unfaithful? Laura wanted to berate him, but she held her tongue, needing to understand what drove him. Was it Amanda’s behavior with Mallory, innocent or not, that made him sosuspicious?
“It’s in a book.” She gestured toward the volume on the table beside thebed.
Nathaniel snatched it up. Turning the pages, his smile widened. “The Perfumed Garden!” He chuckled and shook his head. “My bewitching wife!” His heavy-lidded eyes gazed appreciatively over her naked body. “Shall we read it together? A different chapter every night?”
Thrilled by his response, Laura could onlynod.
He seized her bloomers and pulled them down, throwing them on the floor. “We write our own chapter tonight.” He gently pushed herdown.
He began to explore her body as if trying to commit to memory every small part of her. Murmuring her approval, she abandoned herself to the whirlwind ofsensation.
“I love the soft skin on the inside of your thigh.” His fingers found the folds covering her sex. When he probed gently, he stoked the fire already alight within her until she bit her lip to keep from cryingout.
“No. Please. I want to…” Averting her face to hide her blush, she eased him back and climbed astridehim.
“Yes.” His eyes gleamed. “That’s good, sweetheart.” He pushed intoher.
She had dreamed of being in some way completed by a man, but she had never imagined such pleasure as this existed. Leaning back against the pillows, he cradled her buttocks and rocked her against him. On her knees, Laura let all her defenses go. She rose and fell and directed her own pleasure, watching as raw need darkened his gray eyes. Their rhythm increased as she raised her hips to meet each thrust. She was growing close to that exquisite ending she sought when he withdrew. He moved her to the edge of the bed. Her legs cradled against his hips, he drove into her. She was barely aware of her mews of pleasure as he led her to the brink and she toppled over with a cry. Soon, he followed with agroan.
Nathaniel lay close to her, breathing hard. She rested her head on his chest, her quick breaths filled with the smell of his skin, his maleness mingling with his bergamot cologne, and listened to his slowingheartbeat.
“I rather like you in a rage.” He propped his head on his hand. “Now tell me what’s made you so unhappy.”
Her anger had fled as a deep, expansive warmth spread through her. Comfortable in his arms, she’d begun to wonder if she’d been unfair when he’d come home so exhausted. She sleepily talked of inconsequential things, leaving those more important matters for a better time. She could not destroy their closeness with intrusive questionsnow.
Her eyelids drooped. Fighting sleep, she tangled her fingers in the tufts of dark hair on his chest. Time might solve many of her concerns, although some did demand answers. Even though she sounded like an unreasonable, jealous woman to utter them. Did he visit Amanda’s room at night? Why did he keep Amanda’s bedchamber just as it had been when she was alive? Had he loved Amanda so desperately that he could never love Laura in the same way? Why did some of the villagers think him a murderer? She bit her lip and hated herself for being a coward, but she dreaded that this newly found closeness would evaporate, perhaps forever, if she learned the truth. Could he have been involved in some way with Amanda’s death? For him to fob her off and attempt to hide the truth from her would be the end. He’d said that one must trust the person they married. And despite everything, shedid.
“None of this would be enough to upset you,” he said.
