Historical Romance – The Best Of The Year. Кэрол Мортимер

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ that is not all, is it? You thought I should refuse to sanction this line of enquiry.’

      ‘Yes.’ Her reply was so quiet he almost missed it. He sighed.

      ‘Am I such an ogre, Nicky?’

      ‘Oh, no, no!’ She stopped and turned towards him. ‘You are not an ogre at all, but your abhorrence of all things French—’ She bit her lip. ‘But in this case you were right to be suspicious of Monsieur Lamotte and—and I beg your pardon.’

      He squeezed her hand.

      ‘It was not totally your fault, Nicky.’

      She was silent for a while, but as they walked out into St James’s Street, she said slowly, ‘You said someone else was behind this. Do you think it was my cousin?’

      ‘I not only think it, my dear, I am sure of it.’

      She gave an angry little growl.

      ‘Ooh, of all the odious—’ She stopped. ‘There he is now, across the street with his cronies! And he has seen us. Let us confront him. I would like to scratch his eyes out!’

      ‘I have a much better idea,’ he said, catching her chin between his thumb and finger. ‘We will show him that his plan to cause trouble between us has not worked at all.’

      He lowered his head and kissed her.

      * * *

      Dominique’s heart stopped and she forgot all about being angry with Max. She forgot about everything, save the soaring pleasure that filled her whole being. Gideon was still holding her chin so she could not pull away, even if she had wanted to do so, which she did not. His lips were gentle, it was the lightest of kisses and she found herself standing on tiptoe to prolong the moment. When at last he raised his head he was smiling down at her, such a glint in his eyes that she wanted to reach up and pull him down so she could kiss him again.

      ‘Is he still watching us?’ he murmured.

      ‘Who?’ She ran her tongue round her lips, trying to drag her mind away from the distracting cleft in his chin and the seductive curve of his lips.

      He laughed, settled her arm firmly in his and began to walk on.

      ‘Your cousin is standing on the far pavement and staring at us as if he cannot believe his eyes. Look across, my dear, and smile while I tip my hat to him—like so. There, is that not more satisfying than, er, scratching his eyes out?’

      Dominique chuckled even as she smiled and nodded at Max, who was glowering across the road at them.

      ‘It is amusing to see him so dumbfounded,’ she agreed, ‘but I am so angry with him! He will be fortunate when we meet again if I do not box his ears!’

      ‘What a violent creature you are,’ marvelled Gideon, a laugh in his voice. ‘I find you brandishing a poker at Lamotte and now you want to assault your cousin.’

      ‘When I am in a passion I hardly know what I am about,’ she confessed ruefully.

      ‘No, you don’t, do you?’

      She looked up at that, a laughing question in her eyes, and found him watching her with such an arrested expression that her laughter died. Had she angered him, perhaps?

      ‘Can you really forgive me for my foolishness today?’ she asked him anxiously. ‘I promise you I shall not keep anything from you again.’

      The serious look disappeared and he smiled, flicking her cheek with one careless finger.

      ‘Of course I forgive you,’ he said lightly. ‘Now let us hurry back to Brook Street. All this excitement has given me an appetite!’

      * * *

      It was almost an hour later when Gideon sat down to dinner with his wife, but despite his earlier protestations he only picked at the array of sumptuous dishes spread before him. His thoughts went back constantly to the events earlier that evening. Max’s attempts to discredit his wife had angered him, but that was not the only reason for his distraction. He was shocked by the jealousy that had consumed him when he had suspected Nicky had taken a lover.

      That had been superseded by fear for her safety when he realised Max’s involvement, but more than anything he was confused by the overwhelming desire that had come over him when he had kissed her. It had been every bit as strong as on their wedding night. Then he had put it down to an excess of wine. Kissing his wife in broad daylight and in such a public place as St James’s Street should not have had anything like the same effect, but the touch of her lips had shaken him to the very core. He had covered it well, of course, but then, when they were walking home and she had mentioned her passionate nature, the memory of her response to his lovemaking on that first, momentous night had hit him so forcibly that for a few moments he had not been able to speak and had only been aware of a strong desire to rush home and repeat the performance.

      Since their night together at Elmwood he had tried to treat her as a wife should be treated. He visited her bed for the sole purpose of producing an heir, keeping all other feelings well under control and it shocked him, as they entered the shadowy portals of his Brook Street house to find that he wanted to pick her up and carry her to his room, to rip off her clothes and make love to her as violently, as passionately as on that first, tempestuous occasion.

      It could not be, of course. Now she was carrying his child he had no excuse to make love to her. His father had told him to take a mistress, but Gideon knew now that he did not want a mistress, he wanted his wife.

      He struggled through dinner, trying to converse, attempting to entertain Nicky with amusing anecdotes while all he could think of was the softness of her skin, the warmth of her limbs when they were wrapped around him. When she went off to the drawing room he lingered over his port, wondering if the excitement of the day would make her too tired to wait up for him, but as he reached the drawing-room door he heard the soft lilting strains of the harp.

      He watched her from the doorway, marvelling at the concentration on her face, and when his eyes moved to her hands caressing the strings he found himself remembering how gently those same fingers touched his body. Gideon shifted uncomfortably. It would not do. She was with child and as such would not welcome his advances. Indeed, he knew that such behaviour was downright dangerous. Father had made that quite clear. Looking across at the delicate little figure before him, Gideon knew he would not risk such a thing happening to Nicky.

      Yet it took all his resolution to part from her that night and not to make his way through the dressing room to her bedchamber.

      * * *

      ‘I think we should go to Rotham,’ Gideon announced at breakfast the next morning. ‘It is time you met my father.’

      Dominique continued pouring her coffee. It was not unexpected, but his next words caused her to heart to sink.

      ‘You will remain there until the baby is born.’

      ‘And will you stay, too?’ she asked, trying to keep her voice casual.

      ‘For a couple of weeks.’

      So it had come. He had had enough of her—and how could she blame him, after her СКАЧАТЬ