Page 111 of How to Ruin a Rake

She gave an elaborate shudder. “That was wonderful. Shall we undress, or do you wish to speak to me now?”

“If I undress you, I fear I’d not resist the temptation to have you again,” Max admitted.

Allegra pushed a tendril of damp hair away from his face. “I feel the same.”

He smiled at her. “We can talk just as we are?”

“I suppose we are still quite decent.”

Max helped her down from the bed, and she waited until he rebuttoned his breeches. He escorted her over to the fire, and they sat down opposite each other in the two wing chairs.

Max cleared his throat. “Well. Perhaps I might speak first.”

“Be my guest,” Allegra said.

“Why did you come?”

“That’s hardly you speaking first, is it?” Allegra objected. “That’s you asking me a question in order to elicit a response, which means that I have to do all the talking.”

“Your arrival has changed things,” Max said. “I assumed we might discuss matters when I returned home.”

“I suppose that depends when you were planning to return,” Allegra said.

“Tomorrow.”

Allegra blinked. “Oh. I thought—I mean, I assumed—that once you were here, you’d want to stay longer.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Because this is more your milieu.” She gestured at the suite.

“What if it no longer is? I’ve been here for a few days, and all I can think of is going home.”

Her expression softened. “That’s very sweet, but we both know you are a fashionable gentleman about town, with many friends and activities to divert you.” She took a quick breath. “I knew that when I agreed to marry you and accepted it. I want you to be happy, Max.”

“And if being here no longer makes me happy, will you accept that I choose to live at Blanchard Hall?”

“It is your home.” Allegra met his gaze with her usual clear-eyed honesty.

He half-smiled. “It’s the first place that’s ever felt like home to me.”

“That’s wonderful.” She leaned forward and patted his knee. “You’ve certainly made it a house to be admired. You should be proud of yourself.”

“It’s not the house, Allegra. It’s you.”

She went still.

“You make it home, and that’s why I want to live there.”

“That’s …” She cleared her throat. “A lovely thing to say.”

“It’s taken me a long time to realize it, but I’m in love with you,” Max said. He held his breath for a moment. “You make me want to be a better man, which is ridiculous, because as you’ve already pointed out, I am quite extraordinary already.”

“You don’t have to say that.” Allegra looked away.

“That I’m extraordinary?”

“No, that you’re in love with me.”