Ivy inhaled softly. “Did you... did you want me because of my bosom? Or... or because of my hair?”
Blinking, he allowed a soft chuckle. “Neither.”
“What?” she asked in disbelief.
He grinned at seeing her expression. “The first time I saw you?—”
“Was where?” she challenged.
“At your presentation before the queen,” he said without a pause. “All the other debutantes your age came out looking like they were being led to the lions, but not you,” he said on a soft chuckle. “You came out with a smile on your face, as if you thought it was the best day of your life, your gorgeous eyes lit up like green fire.”
Ivy gasped at hearing his recollection. “You noticed... myeyes?” she asked in wonder.
His expression suggested he was still recalling that day, thirty years ago. “Yes,” he affirmed. He suddenly sobered and turned to stare at her. “What did you think I noticed?”
She gave him a quelling glance and straightened so the bed linens once again exposed her bosom.
He raised his brows in appreciation. “I do adore them. And your hair. More than you can know,” he admitted.
They sat together on the bed in companionable silence for a time before Ivy said, “I can’t believe you thought I took a lover.”
His expression turning sheepish, Robert winced. “I’m terribly jealous,” he admitted, leaning over to kiss her on the corner of her mouth. “It’s hard not to think the worst when you have the most beautiful woman as a wife?—”
She scoffed softly.
“—and you’re not a particularly handsome bloke.”
Her mouth dropping open in surprise, Ivy stared at him a moment. “You don’t think you’re handsome?” she asked softly.
“You don’t,” he accused with a shrug.
About to counter his claim, she instead dipped her head. “Looks are not all that important in a husband,” she murmured. When he grunted in response, she added, “Besides, you never had to be.” She moved a finger to where the dark whorls at the base of his torso disappeared beneath the edge of the bed linens.
He inhaled sharply at her touch, his manhood already hardening in readiness. “What are you saying?”
“I remember seeing you that day. The day of my presentation to the queen,” she said, lifting her chin. “From the first moment I saw you, I wanted you, and I didn’t know why,” she admitted.
He grunted. “As I recall, I was standing with a half-dozen other peers, several younger and far more handsome than me,” he said, doubting her claim.
“It was your eyes, Robert.”
Giving a start, Robert narrowed them. “My eyes?”
“They’re terribly wicked,” she said in a whisper. “Sometimes they’re silver and sometimes they’re blue-gray,” she said. “Rather startling, if you’ve never seen them before. You were staring at me that day, like you could seethroughme,” she whispered, her body shivering. “Or mayhap just through my gown. It was... unsettling, but exciting, too, the way my body reacted. I think I experienced my first orgasm at that moment.” She took a breath and let it out. “Just part of your charisma I suppose.”
He stared at her for several seconds, as if he was seeing her in an entirely different light. “I wasn’t aware,” he whispered.
She lifted her gaze to meet his as her hand wrapped around his manhood and squeezed. “I... I didn’t understand attraction. Desire. Lust.”
He feathered his lips over her forehead. “I remember later that night,” he whispered softly. “At the queen’s ball. I was all set to ravish you in the gardens?—”
“And I was going to let you, even though I had no idea what that meant.”
“—kiss you senseless?—”
“Oh, you’re very good at that. You always have been.”
“—claim your maidenhead for myself?—”
