She sat up and began pulling the remaining pins from her head. She’d likely have to change anyway thanks to the water spotting the front of her gown, so she might as well give Penny a head start with her hair.
She’d just dropped the last pin beside her book on the nearby table when there was a single knock on her door.
“Enter,” she called absently as she ran her fingers through her waist-length locks and shook them free.
She looked up to find Sterling standing in the doorway, watching her with an unwavering intensity in his piercing eyes. Unfortunately, it would seem that Alaina’s peace was to be short-lived.
She was immediately self-conscious, and she dropped her hands from her head and slid her feet to the floor, hastily tugging at her skirts when they got caught beneath her hip. She didn’t miss how her husband’s eyes darted to the length of the stocking-clad calf that had been exposed, if ever so briefly. Her lips pressed into a firm line, hoping he wouldn’t notice the warmth spreading to her cheeks.
“Forgive me,” he murmured, and his eyes met hers once more. “Both for the interruption and for—for the roses.” He rubbed the back of his neck in a charmingly contrite gesture.
She didn’t want to feel a pang of sympathy for him. She really didn’t. But her heart had other ideas when faced with the sincerity in those eyes of his, the endearing tilt to his head that made one chestnut lock fall across his temple. Her fingers itched to brush it back and know if it was as soft as it looked.
Stop it!she chastised herself. What a silly thing to consider. Who cared if the man had hair softer than goose down? She should be the last woman who wanted to touch him.
“Why would you do such a thing?” she asked, pleasantly surprised when her voice wasn’t as hoarse as it had been earlier.
“Isn’t it obvious?” His voice was very near as close to a purr as a man could make. Her toes curled inside of her slippers. “I am wooing you.”
Alaina swore her heart tripped and momentarily forgot its job. So had her tongue. It was several moments before she could even think of speaking.
Sterling explained further, saving her from having to form words of her own. “I intend to woo you, win you over, and make a true wife of you yet, Alaina. Just know that I’ll never force you, but I will wait with bated breath until you decide you are ready to finally be my wife in every sense.”
Alaina’s lips parted as she hung onto his words.
Was it her imagination or did the corner of his mouth twitch as if attempting to smile?
“I think you will find I am an uncommonly determined man, wife.” Sterling’s voice was so low that it made her toes curl. “And I’m not easily scared off. When I set my mind to something, I do not stop until I obtain it. And you, Alaina, are what I want. I want you as my wife. I want you in my bed. I want you beneath me, on top of me, and every other way a man can have a woman.” His words sent an unexpected shaft of heat straight to her core and fairly made her quiver. She had to press her thighs together to ease the throb there. “I want you screaming my name in gratitude instead of anger. I want you as my partner in all things. And I will have it.”
If she’d been stunned before, now she was struck dumb.
Without waiting for a reply, Sterling executed a smart bow and quit the room, leaving Alaina gaping in his wake.
She was still staring when Penny appeared in the open doorway toting the tray with Alaina’s breakfast.
“Is everything alright?” the maid asked with a frown as she set the tray on the table.
“Yes,” Alaina croaked and stood from her window seat. As she spread some blackberry preserves on a slice of toast, she decided that she would not allow Sterling to win. His selfish actions had caused her years of pain, and she refused to allow him to claim a victory so easily.
She had to remind herself to harden her heart against whatever he might throw at her. This was all too little, too late. If he’d ever truly cared, then this belated wooing would never have been necessary.
It mattered not how charming or endearing his efforts were.
Alaina couldn’t allow herself to yield.
Chapter Nine
Sterling tried severaltimes over the ensuing days to make progress in the “wooing” of his wife, but he found the process much more frustrating and exhausting than he remembered.
That, or his wife was now just more difficult.
Each of his overtures was met with one complaint or another, threatening to drive his sanity into the ground. He strongly suspected Alaina was doing so intentionally, and that bolstered his resolve regardless of his apparent lack of progress.
Alaina didn’t care for rubies—she claimed they “washed her out,” whatever that meant. He’d simply seen a lovely piece of jewelry crafted by a very exclusive jeweler and he had purchased it for her.
When he gifted her with an obscenely expensive perfume, she behaved as if the gesture insinuated he did not care for her scent. Quite the contrary, actually. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the delicate hint of floral aroma he’d caught when he’d stood close to her following what he would forever remember as The Rose Incident. He couldn’t place the exact fragrance, but he’d tried, only to have it turn out horribly.
He had hired the most exclusive modiste in London to come to their home and fit her for some new gowns in anticipation of the invitations that would undoubtedly come now that he was showing his face around town. That had gone about as well as the perfume had. Alaina testily reminded him that it was technically inappropriate to gift clothing to a woman whom one was courting.
