A Bride to Redeem Him

Alex wavered. There was something she had to tell him. A reason she was here. For a brief second it was there, on the periphery of her mind, and she mentally lunged for it, but then Louis let one hand slide off her shoulder, his fingers brushing over the cotton, his touch scorching her flesh underneath, and for the life of her she couldn’t remember anything any more.

‘Is this really what you slept in?’

Her cheeks flushed, she could feel the heat. As if he knew she’d hated every second of the unfamiliar, rough material when she could have been wearing a lot less and revelling in the high thread count of Louis’s luxurious sheets.

‘Where did you get it from?’ he pressed, his amusement refusing to abate.

Much like her embarrassment.

‘My great-aunt sent it to me when I bought my first home. She thought I might get...cold.’

‘She didn’t think that, as a doctor, you could probably afford a place that had its own heating?’ He arched an eyebrow.

It was a battle just to unstick her tongue from the roof of her mouth. It felt as though she’d just swallowed a spoonful of peanut butter.

‘She remembered her first home. She had coal fires but no central heating. She’s quite old, ninety-six. But still going strong. Anyway, I guess you weren’t too far off the mark with your first observation about it looking as though it was something I’d got from my ninety-year-old grandmother’s wardrobe.’

She was babbling. It was as much a giveaway as anything.

‘Is that so?’ True to form, Louis was tracing his fingertips across the material over her collarbone and she couldn’t help but shiver. The corners of his mouth turned up ever so slightly. ‘It’s in remarkably pristine condition. One might almost believe you’d never worn it before.’

‘Well, I have,’ she lied, shame rippling through her at just how easily he seemed to see through her.

‘When?’ The challenge was stamped on every quirk of his too-perfect face.

Alex gritted her teeth.

‘Lots of times.’

‘Is that so? Because it looks almost as if you wore it just for me,’ he continued softly, taking another step closer so that the breath caught in her throat, her body completely forgetting how to breathe. ‘Tell me, Alex, who were you trying to remind to keep their distance? Me? Or you?’

She couldn’t answer. She didn’t dare. Whatever she said, she’d surely give herself away. His eyes bored into hers and for the longest time she couldn’t drag her gaze away, couldn’t deflect him. His fingers still traced a pattern on her skin, making her whole body tighten. She craved him in a way she’d never known possible.

‘Does it matter who I wore it for?’ she managed. ‘The fact is that I’m trying to make a point.’

‘That’s what I thought,’ Louis muttered gruffly, his hand moving quickly to cradle the back of her head as he tugged her to him. ‘You realise you wouldn’t have to make a point if you weren’t fighting your instinct, of course?’

It was a rhetorical question, which was good since she couldn’t seem to make her voice work. Her blood thundered through her and, so help her, she angled her head in tacit invitation.

‘I thought it would...put you off.’

‘I hate to tell you,’ he continued in a voice that sounded anything other than displeased, ‘but it isn’t working. If anything, my imagination is filling in the blanks with remarkable enthusiasm.’

‘Is that supposed to be a compliment?’ Her voice shook. Something still pressed in on her mind but she couldn’t locate it, couldn’t remember what was so urgent other than Louis, right here, right now.

‘More a statement of fact.’

The low purr was reminiscent of the promising hum of a highly powered supercar moments before it roared into action and burned everything else into nothing in its wake. She shivered in anticipation. Turned inside out by Louis, even though he hadn’t done anything. Yet.

But she wanted him to. Oh, how she wanted him.

He dragged his thumb across her lower lip and heat bloomed in her anew.

‘Kiss me.’

Deadly soft, but nonetheless an unequivocal demand.

She could have done so many things—refused him, decried him, walked away from him. Instead, she did the worst thing possible. She obeyed him.