Page 23 of A Virgin for the Duke of Scars
“Will you excuse me for a moment, Your—Grandmama? I feel like there is something I need to do.”
The Dowager Duchess smiled knowingly. “Well, do not let this old woman keep you from such pressing matters, my dear.”
Theresa smiled and nodded, bobbed a quick curtsy, and then turned in the direction her husband had left.
He must be going out of his damned mind.
Any man would be pleased to find himself attracted to his wife, but Aaron was a different case entirely. He took one look at her and the suite behind her, and it was all he could do to prevent himself from dragging her inside, slamming the door shut behind them, and then dragging her under him.
“Like that would go so well,” he scoffed bitterly to himself.
It was barely noontime. The sun was as high up in the sky as it could be, and here he was, thinking of having his wicked way with his new duchess.
Where she could see him in his full, wretched glory.
Absolutely not.
He poured himself a glass of his favorite scotch when the door suddenly burst open and a whirlwind of blue chiffon crashed inside.
“So nice of you to knock,” he muttered sarcastically to his sister, who was glaring at him with narrowed eyes. “All those etiquette lessons have been wasted on you, Sister dear.”
“You are one to talk about manners, Aaron Lennox! Leaving your bride all alone on your wedding day is the height of rudeness.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “And why areyoustill here in your study, getting foxed with the sun still up?”
He raised the glass in her direction in a mock salute. “Would you rather I did it as soon as the sun set, then?”
“Oh, you are the most vexing man alive!” She seethed, stomping her foot. “Are you truly going to leave your bride all alone on your wedding day?”
So, that was why she stormed in like a hurricane breaking upon the beach. His poor sister, and her mind addled by whimsicalfantasies—she thought that he was going to play the romantic fool right off the bat! Clearly, he and the Dowager Duchess had coddled her too much if she was entertaining such a ridiculous notion.
He threw his head back and finished the scotch in one gulp.
“I do not want a wife attached to my hip,” he told her, scowling. “This is just a matter of convenience, nothing more, and you had better stay out of it, Juliette.”
His sister opened her mouth to argue, but the voice that came out was different—one that called to his most forbidden desires. The ones he would not admit even to himself.
“Well, unfortunately for you, husband, I am about to make things very,veryinconvenient for you!”
The siblings turned to the doorway, where Theresa stood, her eyes flashing with fire, her lips set in a resolute line. And, curses, she was still wearing the same dress she had arrived in—the one with the low neckline that afforded him a rather delectable view of the swell of her breasts.
“I thought I had the Dowager Duchess show you your new wardrobe so that you may change into more comfortable clothing,” he told her gently, his tone the complete opposite of what he was feeling at that moment.
The woman needed a dress with a higher necklineyesterday. Preferably one that went right up to her chin.
His gaze followed his thoughts up to the soft, luscious pink of her lips, and his cock instantly hardened.
Damned dress. Damned woman.
All of them seemed to be determined to thwart him in every single way today.
“I was about to get changed,” she explained with a casual wave of her hand. She stepped into the study, and his heart beat louder than the drums on the battlefield. “But before all of that, there is something very important I must tell you.”
“Can it not wait until after you have changed?”
“Is there something wrong with my clothing, husband?”
Yes, he wanted to scream.I want it off of you this instant.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his sister’s gaze swing between him and Theresa like the pendulum of that clock his grandmother refused to get rid of. Then, she grinned widely.
