Page 8 of The Seductive Love of a Lady
Damn it.He leaned back further, breaking the embrace to look at her face. Tears sparkled on her cheeks.
‘How else do I make you feel?’ he asked, wanting her to say something good.
‘Sad. I wonder if you will ever love me, or I will ever understand you.’
‘I do love you,’ he answered.
Their lives were worlds apart. She could never walk in his path but he could walk in hers. He should try. The onus to make their marriage work rested on him. ‘When you go to Pembroke’s house tomorrow, I will come.’ If nothing else it would stop her family influencing her in his absence.
‘Do you think that wise? Papa is still angry with you.’
‘That is the reason I should go.’ The familiar surge of love for her raced through his blood and his gaze dropped to her lips.
She smiled, then, her fingers slipping into his hair, she brought his mouth to hers.
When the carriage pulled to a halt, they were only prevented from being thrown onto the floor by Drew bracing his feet hard and holding onto her.
He moved her from his lap as the hatch below the driver’s seat slid open. ‘We’re ’ere, sir, ma’am.’
Drew freed the lock and pushed the door open. He climbed out, helped Mary down, then paid the driver.
A night porter opened the front door of The Albany. As Mary stepped over the threshold, awe stole his breath away. He could not quite believe she was here. A lopsided smile tilting his lips, he bent and caught her up in his arms. She held his shoulders. ‘Andrew!’
‘I omitted to do this before, didn’t I? It was remiss of me. A bridegroom should carry his wife across their threshold.’
The doorman grunted his amusement, stepping aside, so Drew could carry her past him and up the stairs.
The pain in his rib hurt like hell, but despite Marlow’s bitter words and violence, Drew was going to make his marriage happy. He would prove them wrong.
3
Mary laughed, looking into Andrew’s eyes as he carried her up the stairs. The gesture was a day late, but it touched her heart. She was glad he had come tonight, though, she was unsure why he had. Yet even if he had come because Lord Brooke wished to chase after Emily, Andrew had sat with her.
She had never seen him at such an event before. He even ate among her family. But then he brought his horrible friends to speak to her…
At least Emily was safely chaperoned – as long as she did not fall for Lord Brooke’s charm, as Mary had fallen for Andrew’s.
That charm flowed about her as he carried her upstairs.
Earlier, while they played chess and dressed together, she glimpsed how their marriage might be, and tonight she felt like one of a couple.
She watched his face, illuminated by the lanterns in the hall.
Her husband was a complex man. ‘You value your friends, don’t you,’ she said, as they reached the landing.
‘Yes, they are like brothers.’
‘How long have you known them?’
‘Since school.’ As they reached the door of his apartment, he lowered her feet to the ground, so he could withdraw a key from his pocket.
‘Kate, my sister-in-law’s, brother, was John’s best friend at school.’
‘I know. He is your brother’s man of business. I discovered that when he paid me your dowry.’
‘Kate used to play with John and Philip. I was too young.’
He kicked the door open with his foot, picked her up again and carried her over the threshold of his two-room bachelor apartment.
