Page 71 of Falling Into Bed with a Duke
Leaning in, he bussed a quick kiss over her cheek, and whispered, “You are a lousy liar.”
“It’s not that I don’t like you, Edward, but you have such potential and opportunities. Yet you waste it all.”
“Without my wastrel life to pick over, how would you entertain yourself?”
“Edward, you’ve gone too far,” Grey snapped. “Julia has your best interest at heart. She and I are both concerned.”
“As you should be. I’m happy, have a jolly good time wherever I go, and entertain those who seek out my company. But now I must be off to plan my next adventure. Good night.”
He strode from the room with a purpose to his step. The woman irritated the very devil out of him, and he didn’t know why. She wasn’t a complete witch, but not once had she ever looked at him as though he were anything other than a blight on the family name and honor.
WITH relief, Julia watched her brother by marriage storm from the room. Things were always tense when he was around. It didn’t help matters that he’d been the first man to ever kiss her—not that she’d ever confessed that to Albert. Devilishly handsome, upstanding Albert had been courting her. But it had been devilishly handsome, disreputable Edward who had approached her in a garden during a ball, planted his mouth on hers, and introduced her to the passion that could exist between a man and a woman. It was an honor that should have belonged to Albert, should have been his, and well Edward knew it. But he had thought it would be a lark to pretend to be Albert, to steal the kiss, and she’d never forgiven him. Or herself for how very much she’d enjoyed it.
It was only by being ever vigilant since that she was able to tell the brothers apart. Their looks were identical. It was only their mannerisms and behavior that distinguished them. Edward cared for nothing save his own pleasures while Albert put everyone before himself. It was one of the reasons she loved him so very much.
Her husband walked to the fireplace, rested a forearm against the edge of the mantel, and stared down at the empty hearth. She disliked Edward’s visits because they always left Albert feeling as though he should do more for his brother.
She glided over to him, raised up on her toes, and whispered, “I wish you wouldn’t torment yourself so. I wish he was gone.”
He turned his head, smiled at her, rubbed the lobe of his right ear. “Sorry. My bad ear. Did you say something?”
Another thing that distinguished the brothers. Albert had lost his hearing in the right ear when he was five and Edward had shoved him into an icy pond. That he’d then jumped in to save him didn’t alter the fact that he was responsible for the infection that damaged Albert’s ear. Not that Albert saw it like that. He claimed they were simply rambunctious boys who allowed things to get a little out of hand, but Julia sometimes suspected that Edward was jealous of his older brother. Albert inherited everything, while Edward was merely the recipient of his brother’s generous heart.
“Only that I love you,” she said.
His grin grew. “You should always say that only to the left ear.”
“I’m sorry that I can’t make him like me,” she lied. She couldn’t care less if Edward liked her. Every time he went on his travels, she prayed fervently that he wouldn’t return. Life was so much easier when he wasn’t about.
Albert tucked loose strands of her hair behind her ear. “Edward can be trying at times. I think where you’re concerned, though, he’s jealous. I have a beautiful wife. And he is alone.”
She gave him a teasing look. “Based upon all the women he talks about, I’m not certain you can accurately claim that he is alone.”
“But none of them are good for him. Not the way you were good for me. Although he did say that if we took a trip together, he would grow up when we got back.”
Her chest tightened. “Are you going?”
Slowly, he shook his head. “I won’t leave you.”
Swallowing her fears, the fears she’d always had regarding her good fortune in having such a wonderful man’s love, the fears that their happiness could be ripped away, she said, “You can go if you want.”
Cradling her jaw, he held her gaze. “I’m not going to leave you while you’re with child.”
“I’ll be perfectly fine.”
“If you were to lose the babe while I was away, do you think I’d ever forgive myself?”
“It wouldn’t be your fault. Neither of us did anything that caused me to lose the other three. I hope this one is a boy. I want to give you your heir.”
“I hope only that it’s healthy and that you survive bringing it into the world.” He drew her close, wrapped his arms tightly around her. “I don’t want to lose you, Julia.”
“You won’t,” she promised, even knowing that some promises weren’t meant to be kept.
SITTING in his library, Ashe swirled the amber liquid in his glass, mesmerized by a vortex that seemed to resemble his life. He needed to marry a woman with a dowry. Minerva Dodger had the largest available. Why would he settle for less?
Plus he liked her, especially in the bedchamber. What they had shared revealed a passion that far surpassed anything he’d ever experienced.
He hadn’t liked one bit walking into the Dodger parlor to find Burleigh sharing the sofa with Minerva. As a rule, he wasn’t the jealous sort, but it appeared, where she was concerned, none of his rules were holding.
