“Stay with me,” he whispered. “I want to hold you all night.”
“Yes,” she said, snuggling against his chest and quickly drifting off to sleep.
* * * * *
THE NEXT WEEK FELLinto a rather wonderful routine. Adrian woke up beside his lovely wife every morning, after having made love to her the night before. They had breakfast with Gabriel, and then he went to his lab for the day. The evenings were spent reading, playing games, and watching Gabriel play. They were both so happy with the tentative truce they’d managed to form that neither of them had brought up the still very real rift between them.
He’d planned to keep her at arm’s length, but how could he when she’d done everything in her power to prove herself to him? How could he keep punishing her for forcing what had ended up being the best thing that had ever happened to him? But there was more ugliness in his past than she knew, and he still feared opening himself completely. She thought she knew the worst there was to know about him, but she was so wrong.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“How is your lovelybride?” Lucien asked perceptively as he led Adrian to the huge glass greenhouse that was his pride and joy.
Adrian took a deep breath of the humid, perfumed air, and then met his brother’s concerned gaze evenly. “Better than I ever could have imagined.”
He’d gone to Lucien’s house one afternoon a week after his wedding, ostensibly to ask for a cutting of one of the herbs in the conservatory, but in reality, because he needed to talk to someone about all the things that were troubling him.
Lucien smiled widely. “That is wonderful, Adrian. After how things came about, I’ve been so worried.”
“It’s an adjustment,” Adrian admitted, strolling toward a row of orchids and inspecting them blindly. “I’ve been alone so long and I have no idea how to be a husband, or a father...”
Lucien nodded. “I can’t imagine how hard it must be. I have just about resigned myself to being an eternal bachelor.” Sadness tinged his brother’s voice, and Adrian knew he was thinking about Serenity, a girl he’d once loved deeply.
She’d disappeared from his life many years ago. Lucien had searched for her for a very long time, and he’d never been quite the same without her.
“Did you ever tell Serenity about Winters?” he asked, deciding to just blurt it out. “What he did to us?”
He sensed Lucien’s shock and stillness, though he did not turn to look at him.
Silence filled the air between them, and then Lucien let out a huff of dismay. “Is that what you’re worried about? That she’ll turn away from you if she finds out what happened?”
Adrian shrugged desolately. “I’ve hidden parts of myself for so long, I don’t know how to reveal them. But that woman...” He laughed a bit and shook his head. “She is determined to unmask me in every possible way.”
Lucien came up behind him and placed his hand on Adrian’s shoulder, squeezing gently. “She loves you, Adrian. I wasn’t sure of her at first, but so far she has pleased me well. Did you know I offered her money to go away?” Adrian caught his breath angrily, but Lucien squeezed his shoulder harder and continued, “She said that she didn’t want the money, that she wanted you. I don’t think anything you could ever tell her about your past would make her feel any differently.”
“Do you really believe that?” Adrian at last turned to look at him.
