Page 61 of By No Means a Gentleman
A look flashed in his eyes, and while Harriet couldn’t quite decipher the feeling she’d provoked in him this time, her heart stuttered in her breast at the glimpse of it. Before she could gather her wits, he closed the distance between them in three long strides, his head lowering so that they were eye to eye.
“And what if I told you I’m discovering myself to be a jealous man, love?”
Jealous?
Her lips parted in surprise at his admission. “Surely you jest. What do you have to be jealous about?”
“I do not jest about such things.” His gaze imprisoned her. “I found it quite tormenting to watch my wife leap into another man’s arms and not mine.”
“I thought you were out.”
“I returned just in time to see you dart into the drawing room with joy.”
She bit back a smile at his sour tone. “Well, you scared him off, didn’t you?”
“He’ll be back.” Leeds brushed the back of his hand over her cheek. “And another thing, love, if you wish to drink, I won’t stop you. Though I prefer it not be contraband. You never know what’s added to that stuff.”
She blinked up at him.
Another flash of memory skittered across the planes of her mind, this one more vivid. Two eyes locked on each other. Teasing... “Last night...”
“Did you finally remember?” His lips curved into an amused smile.
And Harriet knew she was in trouble.
Just what exactly happened last night?
*
Ah, hell.
Will had never felt so clouted in all his life. Beholding his wife in the arms of another man, hearing them laugh together as if they shared a treasure trove of secrets—though it had lasted but a minute, it must have counted as one of the tortuous minutes of his entire life. And there had been a lot of minutes over the years.
Jealousy, on the other hand—he never thought himself to be a man who would succumb to such base emotions. But when he remembered Harriet mentioning a man she might love when they were on the ship, his world tilted. Back then, he hadn’t taken her words to heart. He’d believed she’d say anything to get him to bow out of the betrothal agreement. After all, he hadn’t glimpsed her interacting with any gentleman at any ball. Hecertainly would never have thought in a thousand years that she might have meant Rohan Graves.
In that minute earlier when he had seen them together, he thought those words might have been true. But just for that minute.
If Harriet truly loved Graves, he was sure she would have clung to that ship with all her might. Also, upon observing Grave’s reaction to their marriage... well, there wasn’t much of one beyond a brotherly sort of interest. Their friendship must run deep.
He didn’t mind that she had friends. He even didn’t mind that one of them was Rohan Graves. He just wanted his wife to leap intohisarms with joy.
“Did you break into my room last night?”
Will came back to his senses.
“As I said yesterday, love—myroom. Unless you wish to share a room, then it becomesourroom. And no. You forgot to lock the adjoining chamber’s door. Even so, I still didn’t enter, as it seemed you were quite determined to keep me out.”
“Well... you have a history of entering my chamber uninvited, you know.”
“So you said last night.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What exactly happened last night?”
“Nothing much. We shared a few drinks over a conversation.”
“A conversation about what?”
“This and that. You asked me to kiss you.”
