Page 60 of One Night with a Rake

“You wouldn’t be. I’d do the honorable thing and marry you.”

But only if he were cornered into it.

If he’d spoken a word of love, she might have given up, accepted the fact that her family was going to be bitterly disappointed in her, and followed him blithely back to his wicked bed.

But Nate hadn’t spoken of love.

In fact, all night long while he played his lover’s games on her willing flesh and did all those filthy, lovely things to her, things that made her cheeks heat and her body rouse afresh with remembered pleasure, he’d never uttered a single word of love.

Why had she not noticed that till now?

Now he spoke only of duty—and grudging duty at that. It would be “not so terrible” for them to be found together. If that wasn’t damning the idea of marrying her with faint praise, she didn’t know what was.

“I know better than to expect honor from a rake,” she said, trying to extricate herself from his arms, but he wouldn’t let her go. “I came into this room of my own free will. Do you intend to hold me prisoner?”

“We all choose our own prisons, my lady,” he said darkly. “Are you telling me you still want yours to be Windsor Castle?”

I’m telling you I don’t want to be your prison, Nate.

But she couldn’t say that. It would be tantamount to admitting that she wanted him when he clearly would only take her as his wife under duress.

“I’m telling you I want you to let me go. Now.”

He didn’t twitch so much as an eyelash, but she felt tension building in his muscles. She began to think he meant to cart her back to his bed and take her again whether she willed it or no.

A dark part of her was disappointed when he released her.

“Go,” he said raggedly. When she reached the door, his voice stopped her again. “Next time you have an itch, madam, kindly find some other willing cock to scratch it. But mind you do it quickly. I doubt you’ll have such freedom once you’ve become royal.”

His words were a punch to her gut. She didn’t mean anything to him. He was merely “scratching an itch.”

She fled from the room. She didn’t bother with stealth. She tore down the corridors and up the curving stairs, not stopping until she bolted the door to her own chamber behind her.

She wouldn’t even have cared if she’d been discovered at that point. All that mattered was putting as much distance as possible between herself and that hateful man.

Georgette leaned against her door because she was trembling too much to stand without support. She hugged herself to keep from coming apart.

During the delirious days when she battled with scarlet fever, death had drawn close. It hovered at the foot of her bed. It leered from the darkened corners of her room. But she hadn’t felt this hollowed-out emptiness, this sense that part of her had already died.

Until now.

She slid to the floor and wept.

Twenty-three

When Georgette finally woke in her own bed after a few more fitful hours of sleep, she considered taking a breakfast tray in her chamber. But then she stubbornly reasoned that this was her home and no one was going to make her fearful of venturing down to her own dining room.

Her body felt different this morning. Her joints were looser. She was sore in certain delicate places, but her flesh still glowed with remembered delight. The thought of Nathaniel’s mouth on her nethers was enough to make her shiver afresh.

She shoved the memory aside. It certainly wouldn’t help her gather the courage to face this day.

Fortunately, Mercy was capable of keeping up both sides of a conversation, so a few timely mmm-hmm’s were all that was required from Georgette. She was free to study her reflection in the vanity mirror as Mercy buzzed about her, busy as a bee around a drooping daffodil.

Does sensual experience leave a mark for all to see?

Her lips might be a bit kiss-swollen, she decided. And her color was a tad higher than normal. Otherwise, she thought she looked the same. It was only when she met her own gaze in the mirror that she realized she was wrong.

Her eyes were different. A new Georgette peered back at her from behind them.