“I do. But do you think we might wash and change first, and have something to eat? We’ve been riding all day, and I’m famished.”
“There—always loved his food! Even as a little boy,” this to Annis. “Of course, take her upstairs. You can have the blue room.”
“Thank you,” he said and held out his hand to Annis. She rose gave the old lady a second curtsy and followed him upstairs.
Annis walked straight into his arms after he shut the door to their room, her face buried in his chest. “Thank you. Thank you for supporting me, being with me. I—”
“Hush. I’m your husband. Where else would I be?”
“You’re the most wonderful husband a woman ever had!” she said, lifting her face to look up at him and reprising her words of a few days ago.
His expression twisted, and a flare of unaccustomed anger flicked through her like a whipcrack.That woman had hurt him in so many ways!
“I’m not Caroline! You must know how much I value your support, Emrys!” she said softly. She reached up and cupped his face. His dear, adorable face. The amount she loved him took her breath away. The fact that he thought himself less, that Caroline could still hurt him so—that he must therefore still bear love for his first wife—was a knife in her chest. The knowledge continued to stop her from blurting out her own feelings, but it was hard. She wanted to tell him how wonderful he was, how kind and sweet and downright gorgeous. Instead, she kissed him.
His arms came round her and almost lifted her off her feet. His response to her kiss was devouring. He walked her backward until her legs hit the bed, and they fell on it together. He showered kisses all over her face and neck to the line of her high-cut riding habit. “Annis.” His voice, deep and gravelly, told her that whatever his feelings were about his first wife, it was his second wife he wanted to fuck.That must mean something...
His hand pushed up the heavy skirts of her velvet riding habit, and she felt him scrabbling at the buttons of his falls. He freed his cock, and she felt it graze her damp flesh as he shuffled into the cradle of her hips. She shifted her legs up. He seemed in more of a hurry than usual, and the notion that she excited him that much was arousing.
“Annis, forgive me,” he whispered and shoved his way inside her, hard. He held her hands under his, palm to palm, and her gaze with his as he drove into her, his thrusts hard, deep, and increasingly rapid.
She looked back at him, lifting her legs farther to take him deeper, surging up with him as he drove himself ruthlessly and rapidly to climax, panting and groaning, his body a rictus of pleasure-pain by the expression on his face. He collapsed on her with a grunt and an exhalation of something like a moan. He buried his face in her neck, and she felt dampness against it and realized it was tears.Why?
She wrapped her arms round him. “Emrys?” she whispered.
“I’m so sorry,” he husked thickly.
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“I’m a beast.”
“You are not.”
He lifted his head and stroked a tangle of hair off her face. The pins had come loose. “I fucked you with no preliminaries. I used you.”
“It was nothing I did not want. I was happy to be useful.”
He swallowed. “You’re the one that has been through the emotional turmoil, and I’m behaving like an animal.”
She smiled and stroked a finger over his lips. “You make me feel wanted.”
“You are.” His tone was raw. He shifted and slipped out of her. Lying beside her on the bed, he reached down and stroked her gently between her legs. “Let me at least make it up to you a little.”
She gasped and moved under his touch, sharp tingles of pleasure radiating up from his fingers.
“I won’t say no,” she said panting.
“Annis.” He kissed her, his fingers slipping inside her, working her to climax. He was rather good at that by now. Heknew what touches worked, and she was primed after his abrupt and rapid taking. There was something so arousing about a man who couldn’t resist you.
She came quickly, and he stroked her gently down the other side. “There, I don’t feel quite so bad now,” he said, kissing her cheek. He sat up a bit, and she thought their intimacies were over. But he put a hand on her to stop her rising. Catching her gaze he said, “I know you’re not Caroline, and I’m glad of it.”
She subsided back on the bed, swallowing the sudden lump in her throat. He kissed her fingers. “I’ll make love to you again later, properly, but for now we had best get ready for dinner, because I’m ravenous, and even your breasts won’t satisfy me right now.” He grinned, pulling her up off the bed.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Nicholas Benedict Redmayne,”said Lady Stavely waving away the butler’s offer of buttered peas. “He was the Earl of Tavistock’s son. Gerald Redmayne was one of my beaux. That was before he came into the title himself, of course.”
“Tavistock?” Emrys asked. “I know that name.”
