Page 108 of In the Prince's Bed
“No! Not exactly. It was a factor, but—”
“I thought so,” she whispered.
Dragging the blanket off him, she wrapped it around her and started to leave the bed, but he rose up on his knees, thoroughly naked, to catch her by the arm.
“Wait—” he began.
Mama’s shriek cut him off. “My lord, please!” she protested as she covered her eyes.
He shot her a baleful glance. “Get out. I wish to speak to your daughter alone.”
“Now see here—” Mama began, peeking at him from between her fingers.
“Out! Now! Or I swear I’ll throw you out myself!”
“I’m going, I’m going.” Mama’s face was a mottled shade of red, though Katherine noticed she took one last glance at Alec naked before she vanished.
A hysterical laugh boiled out of her. Leave it to Mama to noticethatabout him, when she’d ignored the rest for so long.
She herself should have paid better attention. How blind she’d been. She’d guessed he was deceiving her, but she’d been so busy worrying about his fidelity that she hadn’t considered any other reason for deception.
But now certain things came back to her—his gifts, the private box at Astley’s, and the nice carriage, probably rented. He’d had no reason to pretend to be rich…except that he had to allay her suspicions. Because he knew she had a fortune, and he didn’t want her to know he knew.
Oh, Lord, how would she bear it? This wasn’t Sydney, whom she’d only thought she loved. This was Alec,herAlec. A fortune hunter, a deceiver, a man with no heart.
Tears sprang to her eyes, and she dashed them away.I should brain him with the sculpture again, curse him.
“Katherine—” he began.
“Why me?”
“What?”
As she gripped the blanket to her chest, she slid off the bed and turned to him, choking down the lump of raw hurt in her throat. “Why choose me? Surely there were other prettier heiresses.”
His eyes blazed. “I wanted you. When I first saw you—”
“You thought, ‘I can learn to tolerate the red hair and the lack of curves as long as she has a fortune.’ ”
“Blast it, it wasn’t like that!” he roared as he slid off the bed after her. “Yes, Byrne suggested you, and yes, I needed your fortune, but it was your conversation with Sydney that made me want you. You were so…so…”
“Pathetic?” she whispered, mortified to the depths of her soul.
“Intriguing,” he said fiercely. “Passionate and interesting and…full of life. I liked that you spoke your mind, that you were clever enough to see past Lovelace’s evasions, that you wererealwhen no one else in society was—”
“Especially you.”
Pain slashed over his face. “Please believe me, sweetheart. Except for lying about knowing Byrne and deceiving you about my financial situation and my knowledge of your fortune, I did my best not to lie to you about anything else. The rest of it was the absolute truth. I wanted you from the moment I saw you.”
“You wanted my fortune.”
“I wantedyou.I needed the fortune. It’s not the same thing.”
“How can you separate them?”
“Don’t you understand? I had no choice—” he began, reaching out to grab her arm.
She snatched it free with a hiss. “Don’t touch me! Don’t you ever touch me again!”
