The Marquess Tames His Bride

So he nipped at her ear lobe. ‘You know what it will entail, don’t you? Inviting me to stay in your bed is inviting me to…’ He ground his pelvis against hers, just in case she hadn’t got the message.

She nodded. ‘I know. You told me you have a big…appetite. And that is fine.’

No, it wasn’t! He’d deliberately made her think he had an immense appetite for the act itself. Whereas it was his appetite for her that was damn near insatiable. He slid off her to lie at her side.

‘I wouldn’t want you to feel used,’ he ground out.

She rolled to face him and looped her arms round his neck. ‘If you are using me, then I am using you right back.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yes. Because I need someone to hold me. Someone to make me feel…after today when Clement…’

He pressed one finger to her lips. ‘I don’t wish to hear his name, Clare. Not while we are in bed together, at least.’

‘Sorry,’ she said, giving him a hug. And resting her head on his chest with a sigh.

He stroked her hair until, after only a few moments, she fell asleep. In his arms. Though his guilty conscience would not grant him the same luxury. How was he ever going to get her to trust him, with the whole situation with Cottam lying between them? He ground his teeth, wondering how the hell Damocles ever got any sleep, with that ruddy great sword hanging over his head. He probably lay looking up at what was hanging over him, rather than down at the woman in his arms, but still…

* * *

The smile she gave him on waking the next morning did not make him feel glad to be winning her trust. Instead, it cut him to the quick. So did the ones she kept on darting him over the breakfast table.

Eventually, he couldn’t take anymore.

‘Much as I would love to spend another day entirely in your company,’ he said, screwing up his napkin and setting it aside, ‘Slater will be foaming at the mouth if I do not keep up to date with business matters.’

Her face fell. But she swiftly rallied. ‘Of course,’ she said brightly. Like the dutiful wife she was determined to be.

‘I will be going to the cottage next door,’ he told her. ‘Slater has fitted out one of the rooms as a functioning study for me.’

‘It’s a great pity you have to work so hard on such a lovely day,’ she said, her gaze turned in the direction of the window and the sea beyond it.

‘There is no need for you to stay indoors.’ Unless Cottam, or his henchmen, had some mischief planned. ‘Though you must take Kendall with you if you do go out.’

‘Kendall? Not…Nancy?’

Definitely not Nancy. Nancy would be no use in a fight. Whereas Kendall was over six feet tall and built of solid muscle.

‘Kendall will be better able to keep up with you than Nancy, I should think. She does not strike me as the kind of female who would enjoy hiking across the moors should you take it into your head to do so. Nor be prepared to go scrambling over seaweed-strewn rocks if the beach is your destination.’

She smiled. Again. ‘You are right.’

What? She wasn’t going to kick up a fuss about having a guard?

‘He can carry any purchases I might make if I go into town, or any other equipment I might decide to take with me.’

‘Equipment?’

‘Yes, you know, a blanket so that I can sit down without getting grass stains on my skirts, a small picnic, perhaps, if I walk a long way and get hungry.’

If she was going to have a picnic outside, he should be the man to share it with her, not his footman.

And if she intended to take a blanket with her, he could put it to far better use than merely using it to prevent grass stains.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t alter the plans he’d announced, not right away. He would look weak and indecisive.

And there would be piles of correspondence awaiting his attention.

Ponsonby cleared his throat. ‘Though the sun is shining, I have it on good authority that the wind has a sharp bite today. You might wish to take a warm shawl out with you, as well, my lady.’

‘And a parasol,’ she said, with a mischievous glint in her eyes. ‘To protect my complexion. Yes, it is a good job you have already suggested I take Kendall with me. It is amazing how much more equipment I need to take out with me, now that I am a marchioness, than I used to need when I was merely Miss Cottam.’