Page 58 of Dukes Are Forever
He hadn't been so careless since he was a lad, unwilling to bear the consequences of a child.
Did it matter though?
She was his wife.
And yet, he found himself thinking of that other child. The one who'd never been given a chance to draw breath. The one Balfour had murdered in the womb. Two lives stolen with the cost of a single bullet.
Yes, it damned well mattered.
It wouldn't happen again—and he would just have to hope nothing came of this... altercation.
"Turn around," he said, taking Adele by the hips and maneuvering her.
Tendrils of blonde hair escaped her neat chignon. She'd lost a button somewhere, and several others were undone.
He had no idea what to say to her, except.... "This wasn't what I planned when I came up here."
Adele burst into laughter, and damn him to hell, but he couldn't resist a smile. The bloody woman would be the end of him.
"I don't think this was what I planned either."
"Youkissed me," he pointed out as he fixed her buttons.
"You had me pinned to a bookcase," she protested. "I didn't know what else to do."
"It was... effective."
"So I noticed." Her cheeks were still that pretty pink he couldn't quite reconcile with Adele. "It never occurred to me I could end an argument with you in such a way."
His lashes obscured his eyes. This couldn't happen again. "I wouldn't recommend it."
"No? I enjoyed myself. You seemed to have no complaints." Adele reached out and smoothed her hands down his bare chest. "I owe you a shirt."
Malloryn captured her wrists.
Adele's flirtatious smile slipped from her pillow-shaped lips, as if she recognized the silent rebuke.
Malloryn stepped away from her, buttoning the only two buttons that were still affixed, and trying to recompose himself.
"Brandy?" he offered, as she sank into the stuffed armchair and fixed her skirts.
Green eyes locked upon him. "Did you know, if I couldn't feel the ache of your hands and teeth imprinted on my body right now, I'd begin to think you an automaton. And yes, I would love a brandy."
He handed her the glass and hesitated. "I'm not a machine, Adele."
"Oh, I realized that." She sipped her drink and gave him a long, slow, heated look. "Sometime between the bookcase and the desk. I think I like you best when you let yourself off the leash."
Time to perform some damage control. "This can't happen again."
"I see. I cannot say I didn't expect you to begin putting up walls the second you got your breeches buttoned." Her voice softened. "You can't pretend it didn't happen."
"It's got nothing to do with you and me."
She paused with the glass to her lips, and there was the flash of intelligence in her eyes that so provoked him. "And here I thought we'd be stepping quite neatly around the topic that brought us to this situation."
"As you've made clear, you're too intelligent to be left in the dark. It would be dangerous if you started asking questions of the wrong people, and I daresay, knowing you as I do, that you wouldn't be content to let matters lie."
"You assume correctly," she replied, with a challenging tilt of her head.
