“Nonsense. The carriage is being brought out front as we speak. You needn’t worry about anything but walking out the door.” Her hand still stretched towards him, so he took it and she pulled him from his chair with a childlike glee. “Pity we won’t be here to see the look on his face.”
“Where will we be?” He really couldn’t leave, but he didn’t want to break the spell just yet. Her enthusiasm lifted his spirits.
“I can’t tell you.”
He laughed. He couldn’t help it. Juliette’s presence was like someone had opened the curtains and the sun was shining. “Why not?”
“I’m absconding with you. If you are a party to it, then you won’t be able to plead innocence.” She hadn’t let go of his hand and he was hardly going to mention it.
“If I’m innocent, what does that make you?”
“Scandalous, sir. Positively scandalous.”
She led him towards the door, her soft little hand in his. Teddy suddenly wished he could join her on what he hoped was her first kidnapping adventure. While he’d become aware of her wry sense of humor these last days, he’d never seen her relieved of her serious nature before. It was very becoming.
It was a pity he wouldn’t take advantage of it today.
“Juliette,” he cautioned, as he stopped walking. “I really mustn’t. I’m sorry, but I have work—” He didn’t know what he expected, a pout, maybe a sad face. Instead, she shrugged casually. “Again, I’m terribly sorry…if you’ve gone to any trouble…”
“Teddy, we’ve not had the smoothest beginning, but I think we’ve done quite well despite it. But the truth is, you really don’t know me very well. I’m undeniably obstinate; you really don’t stand a chance here. If I were you, I’d just get into the carriage now and save yourself the trouble.”
Was she goading him?
The pleasure he’d taken in her sunshiny disposition didn’t evaporate, but it did change. Goading him was she? Two could play at the game of getting underneath someone’s skin.
Something happened deep in his gut. A primal urge to muss up perfectly coiffed hair, to wipe off her smug expression, began to overtake him. What was left of his senses bade him to simply let go of her hand and begin his day in the study. Instead, he squeezed her hand and pulled her to him, enjoying the surprise in her features and the quick gasp she drew. Her breasts pressed against him, and the sharp teeth of lust began to make a meal of his normally staid nature.
He couldn’t think. He didn’t want to anyhow. He saw the moment her surprise gave way to stratagem, already trying to reorganize and that would never do. So he kissed her. Surreptitiously to throw her off balance, to give him the upper hand, he thought. But he realized when, Mother of God, she returned his kiss this time, that the tables had turned on his intention, for he’d never felt more off balance in his life.
Somewhere, deep in the recesses of Teddy’s mind, he knew her pliant lips were a symptom of her stubbornness to win this battle and not unequaled lust on her part.
He cared not.
While chocolate was never his choice of beverage, it tasted sinfully delicious on the lips of his wife. The moment he released his hands from her arms, she reached them around his neck and drew him deeper into a kiss that changed everything in his world.
Nothing about Juliette was brazen, yet the simple kiss stirred up every prurient thought he’d had since adolescence. Perhaps it was just the shock of her participating in the kiss, rather than wishing he’d just get it over with—but whatever it was, it set him afire.
His hands roamed over her back and then further until he cupped her bottom and realized he’d groaned aloud with the pleasure of it. What was happening to him, he wondered as he backed her into the sideboard. He’d nearly talked himself into hoisting her onto it when good sense intruded.
Her good sense, not his.
She pulled her lips away and whispered, “Teddy.”
His groin tightened at the sound of his name from her mouth. Since she pulled her mouth away, he went for the small patch of soft skin behind her ear, taking delight in the small shiver that wracked her body. She was as soft as the rose petals she smelled of.
“Teddy,” she repeated, pushing him gently. “We’re in the breakfast room.”
Somehow, her words cut through the murky haze that addled his good sense. He loosened his grip, but couldn’t completely let go. “I’m sorry, Juliette. You must think me a cad.” If his heart would slow so he could hear above the roar of his own pulse, he might actually move aside, but for the moment he needed to prop himself on her. With his head on her chest, of course. He’d never pass a rosebush again without instantly hardening.
She bent her neck and whispered in his ear. “Come to the carriage with me.”
And there it was. Had the kiss been a ruse to get her way? Was she so stubborn that she would pretend passion to get him to go with her? Which was the real Juliette-the ice maiden from his wedding night or the woman he kissed into a sideboard? “Why is it so important to you that I go away with you, Juliette? I can’t just walk away from my responsibilities here.”
She jerked as if he’d hit her. “One afternoon. I’m asking for one afternoon that you let the duke handle his own affairs so that you can handle yours.”
“Mine,” he repeated, at least he didn’t repeat it as a question.
“We’re tied now, Teddy. This marriage began as a whim, but it’s real. We’ve had no time alone, little conversation—”
“I’m sorry,” he interrupted. “You’re right, of course.” He’d spent his whole life watching over Derek’s responsibilities—it was shameful that he’d been neglecting the only one that was truly his now. “I should have arranged a wedding trip, even if it was a short one. It’s commendable that you are willing to treat this marriage with as much respect as you have.”
“I don’t want to be commendable, Teddy. I want to be your wife.”
He nodded. He could see this was important to her. He’d just work harder tomorrow if he had too. And he would have to. Because there was no way Derek would accomplish any of the tasks, and he wasn’t sure he’d want him to at this point. Derek would likely find a way to derail Teddy’s efforts.
And he really wanted to know if she were as stubborn as she claims, then what possessed her to say “I do” at the church?
Five
The silence in the carriage grew uncomfortably thick as the minutes stretched to nearly a half an hour. Juliette stared at her own knees while she wistfully thought of something…anything…to say. She’d been such a fool to think that just because she willed it so, their relationship would change.
Certainly last night they’d created a bridge. And this morning, good heavens this morning, had amazed her and confused her all at once. The fact that Teddy desired her helped her plans for this afternoon perfectly. What she hadn’t counted on so much was her own reaction to his kisses.
Juliette had fallen in love with Teddy. She accepted that. She was grateful that the idea of intimacy with him wasn’t abhorrent for it would make keeping him tied to her much easier. She never for one moment believed that she would want him in return.
Everything her mother had ever told her about the difference between men and women was called into question. A lady submits to the baser instincts of her husband with grace and a charitable heart. She hadn’t been graceful or charitable on their wedding night, but she’d intended to rectify that today. Men are carnal creatures, they cannot help themselves. A wife will need to lock part of herself away, far in her mind, while he takes his pleasure from her body. That had certainly come to pass that night, and she was prepared to do it again. If he needed her body, he could have it, so long as she got him in return. Feigning interest in his passion is encouraged, though a woman will have to hide her instinctual disgust. Well, now there was the thing, wasn’t it?
She let her gaze wander shyly off her own body and onto his. Teddy stared out his window intently, and her pulse bounced erratically at his handsome profile.
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She seemed to have misplaced her instinctual disgust.
Juliette felt a strange heaviness between her thighs when she thought of the way it felt to be trapped between his heavy body and the breakfast sideboard. His mouth on hers, his lips seeking for something from her—heat flooded her face even now as she remembered how she’d ached to give it to him, whatever it was.
“Are you all right, Juliette?”
The timber of his voice shook her back to awareness. Embarrassed, she turned away, though the damage had been done. She’d been staring at him. And he caught her. “I’m fine,” she managed, though a bit croaky.
They finally arrived at her brother’s hunting box. She’d sent ahead supplies and a servant to lay a fire and air the cabin with explicit instructions to be gone when they arrived.
The silence had bloomed from uncomfortable to awkward. While Teddy stoked the fire, Juliette set out the luncheon. While her stomach rebelled at the thought of food, the wine held her apt attention. With his back to her, she swilled down half a glass, refilling it before he was any wiser.
He joined her at the little table. They broke the crushing silence with inane bursts of chatter followed by more oppressing quiet. When she could stand it no more, she pushed away from the table briskly. “Excuse me,” she muttered and was half across the room when he managed to grab her.
“Juliette, what is wrong?”
“Nothing.” She pushed a frustrated tear from her eye. “Everything.” He wouldn’t let her pass, so she folded her arms and stared at the floor. “I’m sorry I made you come here, Teddy. I thought…I don’t know what I thought.”
“You thought we should spend some time together alone and here we are. You were right. We need to get to know each other.” He brushed his finger across the trail where another traitorous tear had fallen. “Why are you crying?”
“I don’t know,” she said helplessly. “I thought…I don’t know what I thought.”
Teddy chuckled. “You already said that.”
“Things have been easier between us, Teddy. I had hoped that the camaraderie would carry over, but it doesn’t seem to have.”
He led her to the settee in front of the fire. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have kissed you this morning.”
Her eyes shot to his face and her lungs clutched for air. “Do you mean that?”
“Most marriages begin with a courting stage. You deserve to be wooed. Instead, I stole your virginity and then ravished you in a dining room. I’ve been unthinkably callous.” His warm hand covered hers. “And instead of apologizing or trying to make you feel more comfortable, I brooded the entire journey here. You’ve obviously gone to a lot of trouble, and instead of thanking you, I—”
“I brought you here to seduce you,” she interrupted.
His eyebrows raised in surprise. “Seduce me?” Teddy realized he’d done it again. “Sorry.”
“Yes, seduce you,” she answered. “Except I have no understanding of how, and it seems a little premature now that you’ve said you wished you hadn’t kissed me.”
“I never said I didn’t wish to. I implied that I wrestled with the timing of it. I rather enjoyed kissing you.”
Finally her lungs let go a little and she was able to exhale. “Really?”
“I’ve certainly bungled this whole operation if you couldn’t tell how much I enjoyed kissing you this morning.”
Juliette let a soft laugh escape. “Then seducing you wouldn’t be unwelcomed?”
“Not unwelcomed. Merely unexpected.”
“Would you be averse to telling me how to go about it then?”
* * *
Teddy inhaled sharply and choked on an answer. His wife was ever a surprise. She thwacked him sharply between the shoulder blades until he stopped coughing. “Juliette, you needn’t do a thing to seduce me,” he finally ground out.
“I don’t?”
“Being in the room is really all the seduction you need bring with you.”
She inched away from him a little. “I know that isn’t true. You haven’t reached for me since the first night. I know it was awful, but I don’t know what to do to make it less so.”
“Darling,” he began, leaning back into the space she’d put between them. This was going to be tricky business. “The thing that was missing from our wedding night was not something you did or did not do. As you may have noticed, the act still ran its course.” He brought her hand to his chest, flattening her palm against his heart. “But the act is not all there is to lovemaking.”
She didn’t move her hand, but turned her head away from him to stare into the fire. “I don’t know how to make myself more desirable.”
“You misunderstand. It is not I who needs greater enjoyment, Juliette, it is you.”
Her entire body stiffened. “Teddy, you don’t understand.” He felt the pull of her hand away from his heart, so he held on tighter. “Women don’t, that is to say, you probably don’t realize, but…”
“Juliette, please, just say it.”
She scrunched her eyelids closed. “Women don’t feel the same about the act as men do. We don’t, as a sex, enjoy procreation. I’m quite willing to give myself to you, as is my duty and your right, but it’s not something I’ll enjoy.”
He really had bungled the works, hadn’t he? His poor wife, he’d make it up to her. “Darling, a woman’s first time comes with some pain, but it won’t hurt every time, I swear it.”
She flushed a charming shade of pink. “It’s not just that, Teddy. Women don’t like lovemaking. I should hate to be dishonest with you, but I probably should have not said anything…I should have feigned interest.”
“You will do no such thing!” He didn’t mean to raise his voice, but the effect made her snap her eyes open. “Where did you get such a notion that women don’t enjoy lovemaking?”
“It’s the truth. I’m sorry. But we can still do it together. I understand its importance.”
For the love of all that was holy, he would not have her submit to him as if it were a chore to bear his weight. “Women can and do enjoy lovemaking as much as men. Sometimes more, I can assure you.”
His disagreement brought her back to her own self, he noticed. A little of the humiliated girl disappeared behind the face of a woman who was used to controlling the world around her. She began speaking to him as if he were a child testing her nerves. “Teddy, it’s completely disagreeable business for a woman. It’s something we do to care for men. And, of course, bring children into the world. I should think that, being a sensible man, you would rather know the truth.”
“The truth, Juliette, is that you have been rather misinformed.”
“I think not. You will recall I have experienced lovemaking first hand.”
Teddy recognized that his pride was wounded by her words, but another reaction began to take shape, and not an unwelcome one. It was as if she dared him to prove her wrong, and by God, he would do just that.
“I see. Perhaps you are right. But you’re willing to come to the marriage bed despite your aversion?”
“Of course,” she stated. As if it were a matter of fact. “Our brothers are imbeciles, both of them, but I’m pleased more than I can say that you’re my husband.” She smiled sweetly, almost serenely. “I want to be a good wife to you, Teddy.”
She laid him bare with that.
That this woman felt he deserved her devotion humbled him. He could see that she didn’t know the worth of the prize she offered. It wasn’t her willingness to share his bed that amazed him. He didn’t want her sacrifice.
But my how he cherished her allegiance.
He held her hand in front of him and inspected her fingers. So fragile, yet so strong a woman was. He caressed her hand, webbing the elegant digits and unfolding it palm to palm with his own. A thrum of current passed through their hands, jolting him with the realization that this would be the hand he held for all his days. A very small, dignified hand compared to his oversized paw. She’d proba
bly never understand that the influence she possessed when crooking a finger at him would be ten times more powerful than the brute strength of ten sturdy men.
She’d already made her mark on him, hadn’t she? Juliette had coaxed him away from the always present shade of his brother’s responsibilities today. She’d reminded him that he was still his own man, that he had his own life. And that the world wouldn’t fall apart, he hoped, if he took respite now and then. But what had it done for her today? She still organized the outing. All of the planning, all the details sewn neatly up. She’d merely traded one task for another.
There was something he could give her that no man had and no other man ever would. But to do it, he’d have to convince her to shut down the little General life had forced her to become. It was her mind he worried about. Would she be able to turn off the perpetual list maker? Could she succumb to the demands of her body without ceasing to prioritize and categorize and strategize what came next? He understood her dilemma; he’d lived in her world after all. But an urgency draped over him like a cloak—he needed her to think of him, and only him. He wanted to give her everything—he wanted her to experience the birth of the stars, not look at them to demarcate the constellations from one another.
He believed her when she told him she was obstinate. In order to bring her out of her head, Teddy would have to resort to being very, very wicked.
As dark thoughts traversed Teddy’s mind, his wife watched him warily. She had good reason. He intended to turn her world inside out before the sun set on this day. His need for her became suddenly very acute.
Filled with a purpose of his own choosing, he felt a free man. Freer even than he had been as a bachelor, for the tether of marriage apparently offered more than it restricted. He brought her hand to his mouth, pressing a soft kiss to the center of her palm, watching the play of emotion cross her features as a shiver moved down her spine.
“I am pleased by your compliance and consent to resume relations, Juliette.” He touched his tongue to her wrist next, and then followed with a kiss as her pulse leaped wildly beneath his mouth. “I’m wondering if I may be so bold as to ask for further concessions.”