My Heart's Desire (Barrett 1)

Damn him to hell, but she loved him.

“Forgive me, your grace.” Ice dripped from her every word. “I realize that you have a great deal to do on your palatial estate. I won’t keep you.” She marched off.

He came up behind her, drew her back against his body.

“Feel what you do to me,” he murmured in a husky voice. “Does that strike you as the reaction of a man who would prefer anything else to being with you?”

Alex felt her bones melt.

He pressed his lips into her hair. “I have a funeral to see to. And while you and I might view the elaborate display as distasteful, it is my obligation to see that it is done. My father was a very successful and wealthy nobleman, and no doubt the church procession will be endless. No matter how much we rebel against protocol, you and I both know what our obligations are, don’t we??

??

Alex felt utterly ashamed.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I just have so much to sort out in my mind.”

“I know.” He held her to him for one more minute. “And we have to talk.”

She shook her head. “I’m not ready, Drake. I need time.”

Drake gave a deep sigh. “I know you do.”

She drew herself up, out of the circle of his arms. “I’ll be at the house,” she told him without looking back.

He watched her go, a curious mixture of tenderness, pain, and hope stirring inside him. She had lashed out at him, shown him her anger. That was a good sign, a sign that she was recovering from the shock. Soon they would talk. But what could he tell her? He had deceived her, though not intentionally; he had kept the truth hidden from her. How. could he convince her that nothing else had been a lie?

He rubbed his eyes, feeling weary. His tenuous relationship with Alexandria was but one part of his torment. Besides the dilemma with his wife, how the hell was he going to adjust to his new role, to cope with the awesome task of being the Duke of Allonshire, being tied to the land and the life?

How could he cope, with anything, if he lost Alex?

Alex approached the Gothic mansion, her heart still pounding from the moments she had just spent with her enigmatic husband. Her head throbbed from too little sleep and too much tension. Her gown was filthy and needed to be changed … but not quite yet.

Just off the main hall was a large circular conservatory that seemed to beckon Alex. She went in, closing the door carefully behind her. Like all of Allonshire, it was unique, its high domed ceiling covered with branches of lavender blossoms, its graceful stone steps leading down into a veritable paradise of nature. Alex felt the room’s peace stroke her raw senses, and she strolled contentedly about, deeply inhaling the wonderful floral fragrance.

“A lovely setting for a lovelier woman.”

Alex started and turned to see Sebastian standing near the conservatory door. He smiled at her and strolled inside, his dark eyebrows raised questioningly.

“May I join you?”

A warning bell sounded immediately in Alex’s head. “Actually I was about to return to my chambers. As you can see”—she pointed to her gown—“I am a bit of a mess right now.”

Sebastian approached her, glanced at her gown, and shrugged indulgently. “It does nothing to detract from your beauty, I assure you.”

“It is not my beauty I am considering,” she responded quickly, feeling anger at his lavish compliment. Did he think her so shallow that she would blush and simper over such transparent nonsense? “I am hardly paying the appropriate respect due your father in soiled clothing.”

Sebastian looked surprised by her sharp response. It occurred to him that he should not underestimate his brother’s new wife. Drake would never have married a bland, empty-headed woman. All the more interesting.

“I apologize,” he said smoothly. “It is just that I am accustomed to ladies who prefer flattery to substantial conversation.”

“Then perhaps you associate with the wrong type of ladies,” Alex suggested.

Sebastian gave a hearty laugh. “Perhaps I do.”

Alex studied Drake’s brother carefully. Yes, she could see a resemblance. Sebastian was not as tall or as broad-shouldered as Drake, but he had the same hard good looks. He was leaner than Drake, whose body was muscular and powerful, conditioned by months at sea. Also, their eyes were different. Not just the color, either. Sebastian had his father’s blue eyes, but with none of the compassion and depth that Alex had seen in Grayson’s eyes before he died. Sebastian’s eyes were pale and cold, and despite his charming manner, Alex felt chilled and uneasy.

“Drake is a very lucky man,” Sebastian said, watching her reaction.