Desire (Notorious 3)

Lucian had to clamp down on his own anger. “If you care to shoot, I will be the one to teach you.”

“How curious. I suddenly find I have lost my appetite for archery.”

Pulling her arm from his grasp, Brynn turned and walked away.

Lucian swore under his breath, struggling against the urge to follow her and drag her back to him. He wasn’t normally given to fits of jealous rage, but his possessiveness where Brynn was concerned was utterly savage. Bloody hell, he had to get control of himself.

Bending, he snatched up a bow and notched an arrow, then drew it back and let the missile fly with a whooshing thud. It struck the target dead center.

When he turned, however, he realized he wasn’t alone. Dare was regarding him with something akin to sympathy.

“I must say, I don’t envy you,” his friend said softly. “If this is what marriage leads to, I believe I shall pass.”

Only when Lucian was alone with Brynn in the carriage, driving home, did he have the chance to mention the fray on the archery range that had caused a minor scandal among the company. “Would you care to explain how you managed to create a sensation less than an hour into the party after you agreed to behave with circumspection??

?

Brynn gave him a wounded look that was edged with indignation. “You cannot believe I deliberately encouraged that dispute?”

Lucian found himself gritting back a reply. Perhaps she wasn’t entirely to blame. Perhaps she hadn’t purposefully orchestrated a public fight over her attentions. But she could certainly have prevented a spectacle by simply keeping away from those two young hotheads and not giving them cause to drool over her. “Can’t I? I think you deliberately encouraged those pups to make fools of themselves over you.”

“You are quite wrong. I’ve told you before. The curse makes men do foolish things when they are around me.”

“Then I suggest you not allow them to be around you.”

“Are you saying I must shun their company?”

“I am saying I would like you to avoid scandal. I don’t enjoy seeing my countess become a public spectacle.”

“Then you should never have wed me,” Brynn said stiffly. “I warned you how it would be.”

Annoyed, Lucian frowned. “What are you about, Brynn? Is this your means of revenge for having to wed me-to disgrace me and our marriage before the ton?”

“No, of course not. It is merely the curse at work.”

“I don’t believe in such things as curses.”

“Perhaps you should.”

His eyes narrowed. “I have been tolerant until now,” he said finally, “but my patience can be stretched only so far.”

She gave him an arch look. “And what will you do when it breaks, Lucian? Beat me? Lock me away with nothing but bread and water? ”

“I can think of far more pleasant ways to control a recalcitrant wife.”

Brynn flushed but lifted her chin. “I may be your wife, but you do not rule me,” she retorted before lapsing into chill silence.

Lucian set his jaw as he surveyed his beautiful wife sitting rigidly in her corner of the carriage seat. How had their relationship deteriorated to this? This icy contention wasn’t what he had planned when he had taken her in marriage.

The urge to melt Brynn’s coldness, to destroy her aloofness, surged through him. How satisfying it would be to draw her into his arms, push up her skirts, and thrust deep inside her, giving her pleasure while taking his own…

Swearing at himself, Lucian forced his mind away from the thought. Passion could succeed in turning Brynn’s ice to fire, at least momentarily, but it would do nothing to help him overcome his dangerous attraction to her.

Determined to regain his control, Lucian turned to gaze out the carriage window, his face as coldly aloof as Brynn’s own.

Brynn took a steadying breath as she paused at the door to Lucian’s bedchamber. When they arrived home, he had repaired to his rooms to change his attire for the evening. She’d waited several moments, debating what to do. Finally she pulled the pins from her hair, then crossed through her sitting room into his. But she hesitated as she reached for the door handle.

Lucian claimed not to believe in the curse, but she could prove to him that it was very real. Yet did she dare risk the danger of a demonstration? If she purposely sought to arouse him, there might be no controlling the outcome.