He grinned, unable to help himself. ‘Hovering?’
She wriggled her fingers. ‘Yes, you know. Just by being around and being...distracting.’
That amused him too. ‘I’m distracting?’
A wash of delicate pink swept through her cheeks. ‘It’s not funny.’
Unaccountably fascinated, Cassius stared. The pink accentuated the grey of her eyes and gave her the most pretty glow. He had a sudden vision of what she’d look like if there had been a fire in the fireplace and the warm light of it was flickering over her. If she was naked, without all that white cotton in the way, just her silvery hair flowing over her shoulders and her pale skin pink and bare. He’d pull her from that chair, lay her down on the rug before the fire, spread her thighs and kneel between them. And then he’d...
What the hell are you thinking that for?
Cassius took a sharp breath. He shouldn’t be thinking such things, and especially not about Inara. She wasn’t the sixteen-year-old he’d married, it was true, but he couldn’t afford to start thinking of her as anything else.
She was young and innocent, and her place was in some university somewhere, putting that genius brain of hers to work. He was going to divorce her and find another woman more suitable to be his wife. A mature, self-contained woman who comported herself with dignity and who could give Aveiras the heirs it needed.
And, apart from anything else, the whole reason he’d married her was to save her from one selfish monster, not put her in danger from another. And most especially if that monster was himself.
But Inara is here right now and she’s your wife...
Unfamiliar heat wound through him, intense and raw. It had been so long since he’d been with a woman, run his fingers through her hair, touched her silky skin. So long since soft thighs had closed around his waist and tight, wet heat had brought him home. So long since he’d had kisses and hot whispers in his ear... So very, very long...
Cassius became aware that Inara was watching him and that her cheeks had gone an even deeper shade of pink. Something in her eyes glinted and he could feel a certain tension gathering in the space between them.
A tension that hadn’t been there before and yet was familiar. He’d felt it with other women, years ago, though it had never been quite as...electric as this.
‘Of course it’s not funny.’ His voice was thicker than he would have liked. ‘You should leave. I’m not fit company for anyone tonight.’
Inara stared at him for a long moment, then slowly shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I will.’