Page 68 of A Virgin for the Duke of Scars
She had no desire to explore what he thought about her life before they were wed, though. Her only goal was to heal him with the poultice she had learned to make in that very place he scorned. Theresa would remove his mask and see him, truly see him, once and for all.
“Let me help you apply the poultice to your scars,” she said gently. “We can take it back to your tower if you are worried about the servants.”
“Thank you, but I can apply it myself. You can go and refresh yourself,” he replied.
“I really don’t mind. I am yourwife,” she stressed. “I am here to help you. It is my duty.”
Aaron paused and took her hand in his own. She loved the tender way he intertwined their fingers. It seemed as if they could go back to the lightheartedness of earlier, but he would not meet her gaze.
“I do not want to scare you,” he sighed.
“There is nothing you could do to scare me. I assure you that I have seen worse than whatever is under your mask.”
Theresa thought of the scars that crisscrossed her back. Could his scars be worse than her own?
“It is bad enough that you are married to a beast. I will not have you terrified to be in the same room as me.”
“I am not your wife yet, am I?”
“Careful, wife,” Aaron warned, an edge to his voice.
Theresa sensed that she was treading on dangerous waters, but she could no longer hold back her thoughts about their marriage.
“It’s true!” She insisted. “A marriage is only valid when it has been consummated. You could take me back to the conventtoday, and there would be no harm done. I could still take my vows.”
“Oh no, wife,” he growled. “You are not getting away from me so easily. You will not be going anywhere. You aremine.”
Theresa remembered in a flash how possessive he had been at the garden party and saw the same glint in his eyes now.
She opened her mouth to retort when his lips crashed onto hers. His teeth sank into her lower lip and pulled it into his mouth, sucking on it. A quiet moan tore from the back of her throat.
Aaron’s breath caught at the sound.
“I could do this all afternoon,” he murmured against her lips.
His hand was on the back of her head, pulling her in, closer and closer, but she was resolute in this one demand.
Theresa would yield to his strange rules, but she would not allow hers to be broken. She would not bend, no matter how much she ached and yearned for his touch.
She broke the kiss suddenly, causing him to lean into the space she had just occupied. He caught himself and pulled back.
“Is something wrong, wife?” He asked, breathless.
“The next time you touch me, I want all of you. Or nothing at all.”
She rose from the table and walked out of the kitchen, leaving him to sit by himself and stare after her.
CHAPTER 21
Theresa had to invent new ways to entertain herself until the house party to keep from crossing paths with her husband.
Not my husband yet.
It had become increasingly clear that Aaron did not trust her and that he would never want to be intimate with her the way she desired. Maybe he did not desire her the same way she desired him.
She took all of her meals in her quarters, grateful for the spacious rooms he had given her. If she had to spend all her time here, it was for the best that it was not as small as her old room at the convent.
She heard the knock on the door and thought about ignoring it. There was no one she wished to see at the moment. Most ofall, she worried that it would be Aaron come to tell her that he wished to return her to the convent, after all.
