Page 100 of The Duke's Indecent Match
She was not… what?
And then she’d halted.Relaxed.Stopped trying to pull away from him.
Was she thinking about Adam Stuart?
Or was she thinking that she was not supposed to dance with Nathanial since they were pretending to have a warm relationship?
Did he dare ask?
Did he want to know the answer?
Twirling her across the dance floor, he relaxed now that she had, too.He did not want to ruin the dance.Instead, he let go of his questions and let the music flow over them, through them, carrying them in an intimate bubble across the crowded floor.It did not matter how many people there were around them, it was though everyone else did not exist.
It was just him and his wife and the music.
When it ended, he could feel his heart pounding as he stared down at her.The urge to lower his mouth to hers was strong… but even with the masks, that would cause a serious amount of gossip.It wasnot done.Especially between a wife and a husband.
If he threw such niceties out the window, he might as well declare his feelings right here in the middle of the Camden ballroom.And he was not ready to do that.Not when he felt so unsure how she felt about him.Considering that she’d trapped him into marriage, making such a declaration would put him in a very vulnerable position.Again.
Too vulnerable.
Clearing his throat, he stepped away, taking her hand in his.
“Thank you for the dance, my dear.”It felt formal.Too formal.It broke the spell the music had woven around them.Her smile changed, just a touch.Most people might not even notice, but he did.
“Thank you, Your Grace.”
He frowned down at her.He had not meant to make thingsthatformal.She was his wife.She should use his name.
“Nathanial,” he corrected her in a low tone.Thankfully, no one around them was paying attention to their conversation, so they could not hear him insisting his wife call him by his given name.
Dark eyes blinked at him through the mask.
“Nathanial,” she repeated on a husky whisper that made him want to drag her from the ballroom and do utterly indecent things to her.
He had half a mind to do just that, but when he turned, he found his intentions thwarted.His blood ran hot and then cold as he stared at the man in front of him, the man he had not seen since the house party, since the wedding.Since Mr.Little had trapped Nathanial into marriage.Mrs.Little was on his arm, though her gaze was completely focused on Kalina.
The rage and resentment he’d managed to beat down in regard to his wife rose up inside him again, and he stiffened, going straight as a poker.Beside him, he could feel his wife’s reaction.
“Mama.Papa.”Kalina stepped forward to greet first her mother, then her father.Nathanial nodded at both of them, feeling as though his muscles might creak from the effort.
“We heard you were here and wanted to come say hello,” Mrs.Little said, her gaze now going back and forth between Nathanial and Kalina.He had no problem with her, other than the man she’d married.Unlike her husband, her shock and horror had been entirely authentic—and Nathanial had seen the anger she’d directed at the man in the wake of that awful morning.
She’d had no such thing for her daughter, but Nathanial could hardly blame her for that.Indeed, he realized now, after having had more time to get to know his wife, it was very likely Mr.Little had a heavy influence over his daughter.Kalina wanted to make the people around her happy, always.In many ways, one could call her easily led.
Which was why Nathanial had been able to forgive her so easily, he now realized.Not only because he’d seen her true remorse, but because the more he’d come to know her, the more he’d been able to see how she might have been led down a path she would not have normally gone in order to please her father.Kalina was no manipulative mastermind, but she was someone who would do anything for a person she was loyal to.
For someone she loved.
I want her to be that way with me.
The revelations punched him in the gut, and he was not sure he would have had them without being faced with the actual mastermind of the plot behind his wedding.The resentment over not being able to be truly angry, considering that he’d gotten everything he could have wanted in a bride, bubbled up inside him again, making him clench his jaw.
His wife and her mother exchanged their news while he and her father eyed each other warily.
Not the most enjoyable first encounter post-wedding but not altogether bad.
And when he and his wife returned home, he took out some of his frustration by having her grip the spindles of her headboard until he’d wrung three orgasms from her with his mouth and his fingers before plunging between her thighs and driving her to a fourth climax with one finger deeply embedded in the ass he fully intended on claiming soon.
