“I’m your reader. You don’t know what to do with a mistress.” She groans and hands me a letter. “Mr. Steele gave me this before your parade of candidates. Oh, just open the letter.”
My amusement fades. Palmers’s handwriting is on the fold. I set the letter on the desk beside my chess set, the whitish mutton-colored opposition side. This pacing, jealous, beautiful woman is far too interesting. “Katherine, do you have problems with our plan?”
She moves to the window, and I watch her curves move the emerald satin fabric. Dainty knit cream gloves cover her hands, which she tucks to her hips.
Did I mention how I love those hips? And the hem swishes over feet swathed in silk. Just slippers. I knew it. “What were you saying?”
“I said, I don’t think that you know what to do with a mistress. Perhaps we need something more scandalous thanPride and Prejudice.”
“You want more scandals, Katherine? That’s not like you.”
“I skipped to the end. Darcy wins Elizabeth with a grand gesture. I want a different, more salacious, more filling gesture. Something that says you notice me, that you want me.”
A glance is all the permanency I can offer. I hate that I can’t love the wife of my youth when everything is at risk.
“Jahleel? Silent? What tomes are on your bookshelf? Perhaps your lecherous friend, Lord Livingston, can recommend some scholarly reading.”
“Katherine, a gentleman doesn’t discuss such things with a lady.”
“Ask him. He probably has picture books stashed at the Rosebud brothel.”
“You sound irrational. I don’t know what you are trying to tell me. But it’s not as if you ever needed evidence to convict me.”
She rubs at her temples. “Why did you dazzle them with your Russian accent?” She gawks at me like I’m the one with the problem. “They will fawn over you without all of this.”
I sit a little straighter. “So I am still handsome to you.” I flex my arm, and she colors.
Steele enters with a tea cart. He takes one glance at us and backs out. The door to my study closes tightly.
“Look, Katherine, tea for two. But I must warn you it’s a little bitter.”
She sighs and downs her cup like a dinner drink at White’s gentlemen’s club.
Sipping mine, I want to laugh, but she seems ready to explode.
Katherine comes to me and pulls me by the cravat. Face-to-face, breath to breath, she kisses me. Ruthless and passionate, I submit to whatever this is.
My hands grab those hips, and I hold on.
She embraces me, pulling me almost off the desk. “That’s how you kissed me the morning after you recovered. You wanted more then.”
“I’ve always wanted you, Katherine, but I may have been a little more reckless having survived.”
“Wanting me is reckless? Admitting that we should be together is careless? No. I think it to be right.” She gets close to my ear. “What escapades have you done with your other mistresses? You’ve surely had them since we’ve been apart?”
“You sound very angry and irrational. Let’s cool our foul blood by reading what the Palmerses want.” I pick up the letter. “Let’s see—”
“Wait. You’ve not mentioned a name, not one, to me.” She lifts a finger to my face. “Name one mistress. Just one, Jahleel.”
“Why do you want to know this, Katherine? My affairs will only anger you. It will be another thing you’ll hold over my head.”
She steps to me and puts her gloved hands to my face. The texture of the knit vibrates along my jaw. Again, she doesn’t hold back and kisses me like only her love can keep me here.
As she shifts, those dainty gloves rub against my face, polishing my cheeks. The tingle lets me know I’m alive and willing to be seduced.
“Jahleel, I think there’s nothing to tell. There’s not even one name, because you kept our vows. You believe we are married. You’ve always believed it. Your Orthodox faith has kept you set apart. Or maybe this illness has. Who could you trust but a wife to know about this condition?”
I take her hands and hold them, putting distance between us. “So if I agree to your fairy tale, I’ll get more invalid coddling and pity? And if I name someone, I’ll gain irrational jealousy. Andweren’t you married to a whole live worm of a man in the middle of our alleged marriage?” I release her and point her to a chair. “I’m not playing this game, Katherine.”
