“What do you want?”
“I wanted to speak to you. I expected you to visit me, but you didn’t.”
“No,” he said, sounding faintly abstracted, “no, I didn’t.”
He wouldn’t look at her, dammit! Why the devil had she come in here? Why couldn’t she leave well enough alone?
“What did you wish to speak to me about?” he asked maintaining his calm facade.
Frances moved toward the fireplace and gracefully sank down to her knees, her dressing gown flaring about her. His fingers itched to touch her, to caress her ... damn, he wanted to taste her ...
“Yes?” he said, and she heard the strange abstraction in his deep voice.
She drew a deep breath, but didn’t look at him. “I found the horses’ papers today. Belvis had told me we would need them for the racing at Newmarket.”
“So,” he said, sarcastic now, “you have decided that we will race now. You forget yourself, wife. I have not yet decided whether or not I will sell everything off.”
“Please,” she said, holding a tight rein on her temper, “please just listen for a moment. There is something most peculiar.”
She had his attention now, and she met his gaze. “I took the papers to Belvis. He looked at them, then told me that there was a mistake. He read aloud the sire and dam for Flying Davie, and rubbed his jaw in that way of his. You remember of course that Belvis knows every racer from nearly the beginning of time.”
“The point, Frances?”
“Flying Davie’s dam is listed on his paper as being Pandora from the Belson stable. Belvis said that Pandora had had to be put down over a year before she was supposed to have foaled Flying Davie.”
That got his attention. “What?”
“I said that Flying Davie’s dam—”
He waved her to silence. “ ‘Tis naught but a simple entry mistake, that’s all.”
“Belvis also told me that when Flying Davie was delivered to Desborough Hall, he fully expected to see his papers so he could evaluate his sire and dam, for bloodline strengths and weaknesses. Nevil never showed him the papers, indeed, never showed him papers on several other foals as well.”
“Odd,” said Hawk, “most odd. Is it so important, I wonder.”
“Belvis is quite perturbed about it.” Frances suddenly realized that here they were speaking quite seriously, but her husband was naked. Most odd indeed, she thought, and turned to look at the orange embers.
“I shall discuss the matter with Belvis,” Hawk said finally. He rose and stretched, and despite her best intentions, her eyes were on his body, following his every movement. “I am going to bed now,” he said. His eyes suddenly rested upon her moist lips. “Would you like to join me, Frances?”
She froze at his drawling, quite confident tone. “Surely you are too tired, my lord!”
“Hardly,” he said. “Even if I were, of course, I wish to breed an heir on you, and I must do my duty.”
She felt a shaft of hurt so strong that she couldn’t speak for a moment. “And once your duty is done, you will leave again?”
He arched a brow at her. “I wasn’t aware that you particularly desired my presence here.” Even as he uttered his bored, baiting words, he felt himself harden, and since he was naked, there was no way he could hide his interest from her. Damn her, why did she have to look so beautiful and alluring? “Didn’t you come in here to seduce me, Frances?”
Frances lurched to her feet. “No! I ... well, I wanted to talk to you, and now that I have, I will—”
“Too late, my dear,” he said, and pulled her against him. “The little bird should have flown while she had the chance. Much too late now.”
He began kissing her, holding her face between his palms. “For a time, at least,” he said between kisses, “I shall not be burdened with your shrew’s managing tongue.”
“I am not a—”
His tongue glided gently into her mouth. She tasted him, and thought dizzily that he was more delicious than Cook’s famous rolled jam pudding. She didn’t realize until it was far too late that her arms were clutching about his back, that she had risen on her tiptoes to better fit herself against him. She felt his hands on her shoulders, loosening her dressing gown. When it fell, a pool of velvet at her feet, she didn’t protest. His fingers slipped beneath the narrow straps of her nightgown, and the soft silk slithered down her body, joining the dressing gown. She felt him hard and urgent against her belly.
“Yes,” she said, her words hoarse and deep in her throat, “I came in here to seduce you. You left me last night.”