She slid her foot from beneath the hem again. She smiled. It was a simple idea, really; easy to carry out, pure in its own way.
While Joseph did up the buttons on the back of her dress, Tessa traced a half circle with the toe of her slipper on the carpet, like a ballerina. Crinoline scratched against the silk of her stockings. The beadwork cut into the skin beneath her arms. She had never once removed this dress without a network of tiny scrapes marring her skin from the embellishments.
Why hadn’t she thought of this before?
The idea would have to wait until after dinner, of course, but she could whet his appetite. She could tease him, just a little, as he had done to her when he’d introduced his “game.”
The idea of this thrilled her, and she was determined, suddenly, to bring her idea from theory to conjecture. She gave her skirts one final shake and reached for her ruby earbobs.
“Joseph?” she called casually. He’d drifted away to study the bookshelves.
“These novels are all about hauntings,” he said. “Do you suppose we should take it as a bad sign?”
“Joseph, look at me.”
He turned and blinked. “You are stunning. You are the most stunning creature I have ever seen.”
Tears shot to her eyes. “Your compliments thrill me, I hope you know this. But I wanted your attention to tell you...” she crossed to him “...that I love you.Somuch.” She raised up on her toes and kissed him softly on the lips.
“I love you too,” he breathed. “But what prompted this declaration?”
He gathered her up. “You hate the house. Not large enough. Too large. No goats. No room for your parents and brothers.”
“Tonight,” she said, cutting him off, “we will make love.Dependon it.” She wiggled free of his embrace.
He raised an eyebrow. “Do you mean... at dinner?”
She fastened her second earring.“After dinner.”
He paused. “Tessa.”
She glanced at him.
He continued, “Do not pressure yourself into doing something for which you’re not ready. It could set us back—and for no reason. Really, there is no rush.”
“We’ve been married for nearly a year. It’s hardly a rush to make love ten months on.”
“You imagine the rush. We have a lifetime.”
“We have tonight, and why shouldn’t we? I am a prodigiously sensual woman. Or I used to be.”
“You are—but sensuality was never the problem.”
“I’ve grown weary of being a problem.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
“Know this,” said Tessa, turning back, stalking to him. “I’m in love with you, I am undone with desire, and I am a woman who takes matters into her own hands.”
“Oh, you are?” His eyebrows raised. He tugged on the lapels of his dinner jacket. He looked suddenly more interested.
“I am. When I wanted you for my husband and the father of my baby, I made it happen. When I wanted to kiss you, I did it. I kissed you in the boot room, and in the stable at Belgrave Square, and on our first night in the inn.”
“I know that makes me sound suspiciously passive, but you realize how important it felt to allow you to initiate things,” he said.
She waved this comment away. “Tonight, I want to consummate this marriage; and I shall make certain it happens. I aminitiating. You’ve been warned.”
She spun and stalked toward the door.
