Page 122
“Garrick?”
He’d put out the candles and stoked the fire earlier, and though he could sense sunrise was but a few hours away, the only light now came from the corner of the room. But he could still see her face clearly.
Emma’s eyes fluttered open.
“I didn’t want to wake you.” Trying to remind his body that Emma had been a virgin just a few hours earlier, he attempted to distract himself from thoughts of taking her again. Lifting the coverlet over her, he kissed her on the nose.
Her lips were much too dangerous.
“Stay, for just a bit longer.”
He’d stay, but he didn’t dare moving any closer to her. “Not for too long, love. Unless you care to have an awkward breakfast conversation with your brother and sister-in-law about the order in which we’ve done things.”
Fully awake, Emma sat up. When she tossed her legs over the side of the bed and stood, Garrick forced himself to turn away.
Moments later, the bed sank under her weight once again.
“Come under here,” he said. Thankfully, she didn’t question him. Had her beautiful body been fully exposed to him, he wouldn’t have been able to resist.
Sitting up, Emma pulled a sheet over her bare breasts and held a box out to him.
He pointed to the sheet. “There’s no need for shyness between us.”
She shrugged and let it fall back down. Garrick grabbed it before it fell completely.
“But,” he said, “you may cover yourself now.”
“You speak in riddles.”
Garrick nodded down at himself, at the evidence of his need for her. “You lost your maidenhood just hours ago. If we—”
Her eyes widened. “Four times is too many?”
“Nay!” he amended. “Nay, but not this morn. Are you not sore?”
She paused long enough for him to glean her answer.
“’Tis too soon,” he said, his suspicions confirmed.
He took the box. “What is this?”
It would seem he wasn’t the only one in need of a distraction.
“Oh, ’tis a box. Can you not tell?”
He held back a grin at her teasing remark. It was very obviously a box.
“Open it.”
He sat up and did just that. The ring inside appeared to be old but valuable. He lifted it from the box.
“I do believe Sara knows you’re here. She sent this to me just before you came. Look inside.”
When he spied the inscription, Garrick knew immediately to whom it had belonged. “This was Richard’s ring.”
Her smile held a thousand promises. “Aye.”
The full impact of what he held in his hand forced him to drop the ring back inside the box. “I could never—”
