Page 22 of Her Duke at Midnight
“In his eyes, I did.” Cecily glanced away, focusing on the cat who’d settled her chin on her paws and snoozed contentedly. When the unexpected sting of tears threatened to fall, she willed them away.
“And your husband?” Everton said in a soft, tentative voice. “I take it he wasn’t kind either.”
“He once told me that he didn’t need to be. That I was his wife regardless of how he treated me.” Somehow, confessing that truth made Cecily feel a little lighter, despite the ugliness of it.
“That’s vile and wrong,” Adam growled.
“And yet his peers respected him.”
“I’m sorry, Cecily.” His voice became the same soft tenor he’d used the night before. “For whatever you suffered during those years.”
“It’s in the past, and I’ll never put myself at such a man’s mercy again.”
That declaration drew him nearer, and Cecily resisted the urge to close the distance between them. Still, her body leaned toward him of its own volition.
He got to his feet and then reached down to pull her up too. When they stood face to face, he caught her gaze and did not look away.
“I hope you do not regret last evening.” He whispered the words, though they were alone in the spacious conservatory and mostly hidden by the leaves of enormous potted palms.
“I don’t.” Cecily swallowed hard and asked the question that had been teasing at her thoughts all morning. “Did you…take any pleasure in it at all?”
His eyes widened.
Cecily expected him to prevaricate, perhaps say something to salvage her pride.
Then a sound burst from him. The low rumble of laughter was somehow the most enticing thing she’d ever heard. At least until she began to fear he was laughing at her.
Still smiling, he bent his head until his mouth was near her ear and told her, “I took pleasure in every second.” He nuzzled her cheek, and the searing heat of his breath warmed her skin. “I take pleasure in seeing you now. Being close to you. I could provide proof if you like.”
“Proof?” Cecily looked up at him. A few inches closer and she could take his lips.
“Next time, I’ll show you.”
“Next time.” Cecily pressed her palm to his chest as she had in his bedroom. Through the fabric of his shirt, she felt the fierce, quick beat of his heart against her hand.
Neither of them had agreed there would be a next time, but Cecily wanted one. In that moment, she realized she wanted many next times with him.
“There’s more you could show me?”
He placed his hand over hers, closing his fingers around her palm. All the while, he held her gaze. “A great deal more. But Cecily—“
“I know.”
He quirked one dark brow. “Do you?”
“I know you offer nothing more than…passion. But that is enough for me. More than enough.” Cecily considered whether to admit the rest, but she suspected a man as experienced as he already knew. “There’s a great deal I want to learn.”
His heartbeat under her palm began to steady. It echoed with a heavy thrum, but not as frantic.
“I trust you to teach me.” She hoped her faith in his knowledge and skill might reassure him.
Instead, he closed his eyes and let out a lengthy sigh.
There’d been a handful of moments in Adam’s life when he’d thought himself a fool. Instances when urges and impulse took over his logical faculties. He often regretted the choices he’d made in those moments. Regretted the hurt he’d caused most of all.
Cecily had already experienced pain in her life, and he couldn’t bear to be the cause of more. Yet she deserved to know she was desirable, and she deserved to know passion.
When he’d insisted to Bennett that this trip would involve no romantic entanglements, he’d been terrified of another Mariah. Of any lady becoming attached to him—a man who could not reciprocate in the way she desired.
