A smile claimed his mouth. “Not countless. You give me too much credit for amorous experiences. And I have never once made love to my bride.”
While she was considering his comment, Rayne crossed the room to her and reached up to lightly stoke her bare throat. “It’s time we undressed, darling.”
Madeline stiffened involuntarily. “Must we?” she asked rather breathlessly at the seductive feel of his fingers on her skin.
“I suppose not, but lovemaking is more pleasurable without clothing.”
Perhaps so, but he would see her entire body with all its imperfections.
“Your shyness is quite endearing,” Rayne observed when she didn’t respond.
She gave him a sharp glance. “I don’t mean to be endearing.”
“I know,” he replied with hidden laughter, his warm blue eyes amused and beguiling.
His teasing was calculated to set her at ease, she knew. Yet her misgivings were very real. How a man as beautiful as Rayne could want a plain woman like her, she couldn’t fathom.
“I am not your ideal bride,” Madeline murmured, “and I never will be.”
Rayne’s features seemed to soften. “You are entirely too critical of yourself, love. I have told you before how appe
aling I find you … and I mean to prove it to you tonight.”
“I would be perfectly happy if you chose to postpone the consummation.”
He slanted his head. “But I would not be. Come now, where is your vaunted courage? This morning you were threatening to shoot me. Surely you haven’t turned missish all of a sudden,” he said with that same glimmer of amusement.
He was deliberately provoking her, Madeline realized. And then he gently gathered her face in his hands and kissed her nose, of all things.
Her heartbeat tripped over itself. Despite her nerves, she was charmed.
“Madeline, sweetheart,” Rayne said in a soothing voice, “I have every intention of ensuring your pleasure in our marriage bed. And I will do my utmost to help you over your wedding night jitters. In truth, I am rather unnerved myself.”
She frowned at him. “I don’t believe it.”
“It’s true, I swear it. Matrimony will take some time to become accustomed to—for both of us, I expect.”
She searched Rayne’s gaze for what he was feeling, but she couldn’t tell much from his expression. There was tenderness there, and friendly sympathy, perhaps even affection. Yet she didn’t dare trust her senses just now. More likely, she was merely seeing what she desperately hoped to see.
She let him undress her, though. It was foolish to keep protesting when she was sure he meant to have his way in the end anyway.
He unfastened the hooks at the back of her gown, then helped raise it over her head. As he took the garment from her, however, he jerked his hand reflexively and winced.
Madeline made a small sound of dismay. “I am sorry—I should have warned you about the pins. Arabella insisted I wear one of her lovely gowns, but I could not let her destroy it permanently by cutting, so the seams are only pinned.”
Surprisingly, Rayne responded with a rich chuckle as he laid the gown over the back of a chair. “I always knew you were prickly, love, and now I have proof. You should be wearing a sign around your neck, ‘beware the dangerous bride.’”
At the absurdity of the image he engendered, Madeline couldn’t help but smile. She hardly noticed when Rayne knelt at her feet to remove her slippers and stockings, but when he glanced up at her, she found herself relishing the laugh lines around his blue eyes.
Then he stood and proceeded to remove her corset, and her breath caught.
“I shall have to ask Arabella to help you choose some suitable bride clothes,” he remarked as he next relieved her of her chemise. “I won’t have it said that my countess dresses as a governess.”
She suspected he distrusted her taste in fashion, but it was hard to think about such mundane subjects as her wardrobe with her heart in her throat.
By now Rayne had tossed her chemise aside, and she stood completely naked before him. For an endless moment, he remained utterly silent as he drank his fill of her.
She felt exposed, uncertain…. Yet his bold, seductive gaze seared her wherever it touched. From his expression, she could almost believe he wanted her.