Page 78 of Trapped with the Forbidden Duke
“Yes,” she continued. “She wrote back after I enquired about Nicholas’s state. She says that his recovery is going well, but he is struggling. Physically, he is weak, she says, but the physicians who are monitoring his condition day and night are rather optimistic.”
“Does she know the extent of your brother’s… condition?” Lucien asked, keeping his voice down.
“She has never said it openly, but I believe she does.”
Lucien nodded. “Your brother is in good hands. I hired only the best physicians to tend to his needs, both mental and physical. He will be treated physically, yes, but once he regains his strength, his mental state might not catch up quickly.”
“I am prepared for that,” Edwina said. “I… I have seen him go through many stages of this condition. Withdrawal and the deepest throes of addiction. Any of the stages can be frightening.”
“Indeed. Once I receive word that he is feeling well enough for visitors, I shall take you.”
“I am sure I can visit my brother alone. Or do you think I need protection? Maybe you wish to defend my honor again?”
She smiled but wondered at her husband’s serious gaze.
“Your honor may very well not be defendable by the time we visit.” His voice was a quiet growl, and it reverberated through her.
Her head spun, and she exhaled shakily. Around her, guests danced and drank and conversed, but she barely saw any of them.
The room melted away, leaving only her and Lucien.
“And why might that be?” she ventured. “Whatever do you imagine yourself doing with my honor, husband?”
He drew her to him in a mimicry of the dance, a pretense, so that his lips were grazing her ear. “Terrible, terrible things that should not be discussed outside my chambers.” He spun her out before pulling her back to him. “But you had your taste, Edwina. Do you crave another?”
“No,” she whispered, her body trembling. “I wish for more than that. I wish to feast—to indulge so thoroughly that I know what it feels like to be sated. To wake up and think of little else but you, and us, and what… what we might do together.”
“What do you imagine happening behind my chamber door tonight?”
His question came right as she was supposed to spin out, but she did not. He held her there, her body flush against his, their breaths mingling.
They were closer than was appropriate, and she could feel the stares on them, but she could not bring herself to move away.
Her heart pounded in her chest, and despite the heat in her body, she felt something else stirring. Something not purely physical.
The music had come to an end, and Edwina could only stare at her husband, bewildered and aroused. There was no doubt in her mind that she wished to take him up on his invitation.
No, hiscommand. But she would not make it that far if he kept unraveling her so thoroughly.
“I must find Diana,” she told him hurriedly, extricating herself from his grasp.
Avoiding meeting anybody’s gaze, she kept her eyes lowered, searching for her friend, who lingered near the refreshments table, her eyes wide.
“What was that all about?” Diana asked. “The entire room was ready to burst into flames from the looks you were exchanging. Were you fighting, or were you… ready to go somewhere private?”
Edwina flushed at the thought of everybody possibly thinking the same thing as her friend. She bit her lip. “It was nothing.”
“It did not look that way,” Diana countered.
But Edwina only grabbed a glass of wine and began to sip from it.
She caught sight of Lucien leaving the dance floor and rejoining Jasper, his eyes running over her. He kept his back to everyone, so his eyes remained on her.
Heat flared low in her stomach every time she caught his gaze. Heavens, would it never end? This unbridled tension betweenthem, as if they were both unable to resist one another’s pull, even as they often fought it.
“Shall we get another drink?” Diana suggested. “The Marquess of Highbury keeps glancing our way, and if he asks me to dance, I do believe I shall need some liquid courage.”
“I think that is a good idea,” Edwina agreed hastily, trying to escape her husband’s attention, as if he might undress her on the spot with his eyes.
