Page 48 of Lady, Behave
Now she took one look at the grand stucco house and gave a smile of approval. “It’s lovely.”
The butler, a man who was employed by the earl who owned the house, was an efficient no-nonsense type. He had arranged for a cold buffet supper in the upstairs parlor and hot baths for both Addy and Gyles. Meanwhile, Reginald James, who was Gyles’s valet, had put the finishing touches to both master and mistress’s bedrooms sorting and hanging clothes. A maid for Addy had been hired from the local registry office. She appeared to be a shy young thing with few opinions, very opposite Fifi.
Gyles awaited his bride in the small salon upstairs where the butler and staff had laid out a rather extensive selection of cheeses and meats, cold lettuces and radishes, and a few small cakes. The sun set before Addy appeared.
She came through the adjoining door to her suite and eyed him in his emerald green banyan. “My, you look so handsome,” she told him and came to place her hands over his heart.
He pressed her hands to his chest and let his gaze absorb her. “You, my love, are even more beautiful than I have ever imagined.”
And she was. In the white silk robe that flowed over her lithe figure, with her hair drifting to her waist, her blue eyes shining, she was ethereal.
“May I serve you, or do you prefer to select yourself?” he asked.
“I will do it.” She curved a finger under his jaw. “First, I wish to sit and talk with you.”
At that invitation, he laughed and took her up in his arms. For to make love to her would be so easy. Easy as loving her had always been. He strode with her to the chaise lounge and settled her in his lap.
But to his surprise, she had tears in her eyes. He put his lips to her lashes. “My darling, what is wrong?”
“I fear I’ve caused you a lot of trouble. Yesterday with that horrid little man. And well, you see, I don’t wish to cause you more.”
He brushed away another tear and brought her warm, soft body close to his heart. “You will not, ever.”
“But I am not like other women.”
He inhaled the lavender scent from her bath, and his body surged to life in want. “I know you’re not. You are unique, my sweet wife.” He longed to lay her down on the broad bed he’d admired in the master suite and show her just how unique she was. Biding his time and pleasing her, he smiled and massaged her shoulders. That only brought her breasts closer to him, and her hard dark nipples jutted out from the silk. He was damn tempted but schooled himself to be respectful and not touch her until she was ready for him.
She cupped his cheek and was in earnest. “Oh, my dear husband, I must tell you who I am. What I am.”
He worried that she would make some silly confession, irrelevant to his love for her. “Addy, I know who you are.”
“No, no. Listen to me, Gyles. It is very burdensome to be beautiful.”
He swallowed the bark of laughter that rose in his throat. Hearing such a statement from any other woman, he would have let himself go. But Addy was stunning, and she did try to manage her condition. That she was so blunt about it enchanted him even more than he already was. So, he tried to be diplomatic. “I’m sure it is, my darling.”
“Most men think you are…a…a fruit!”
Apt that.His Addy was a juicy strawberry, a crisp apple or… “A peach?”
“Exactly.” She sniffed.
He wiped an errant tear from her lashes as she wiggled in his lap and set his cock to hardening. “Ripe.”
“Very. And then they think you have no thought, no ambition, or talent except catering to them.”
He pushed a silken curl from her cheek. “Idiocy.”
“Precisely. What sort of woman settles for a man who takes her for a…a mindless…?”
“Peach?”
She nodded. “Imogen always said men saw only her breasts.”
Dear God.“They do?”
Addy pressed her lips together and nodded quickly. “They are large, you know.”
He had noticed her sister’s ripe figure but had not found it what he most remembered about that funny lady. Being at heart a diplomat—and one should with a woman commenting on another’s form—he searched for his glass near at hand and picked it up to take a sip of wine.
