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“Do you think that I would walk the floor all night with just any screaming child?”
Daisy opened her mouth, but Miles interrupted. “My turn to speak. I fell in love with your half-sister the first time Belle graced me with her adorably beaming smile. I was in a rage when I threatened to give her to your father. And I was exhausted. I said things I didn’t mean and that shame me to remember them.”
“Hobbs told me you have that tendency,” Daisy said slowly.
“When I’m tired, I say things impulsively. Irrationally.” He stopped and looked at her expectantly.
“Oh.”
“I also behave irrationally, slamming out of the house and leaving my naked wife on our bed. I try not to make the same mistake twice. I won’t do it again.”
“You won’t?” Daisy had that dizzy feeling again, as if she’d been swept into a hurricane.
“We won’t leave the bedroom for three days.” His eyes were alight with raw hunger.
“No.” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Miles was saying things that she hadn’t even dared to imagine. About her.
About … her.
“You ought to disdain me for my mistakes,” he said, missing her point. “I’m irrational and irresponsible, and I stupidly dashed off to scold your father. I’m an idiot. Please forgive me.” His voice ached with emotion as a big hand reached out to cradle her cheek.
“I forgive you,” Daisy said. “But …”
“But?”
“I’m not sure that I want to remain married to you. It’s not merely because I forced you to marry me,” she said, bumbling into an explanation. “It all happened so fast that I’m not sure that I—”
“You love me,” Miles interrupted.
“Well, I was infatuated,” Daisy said awkwardly.
“No, you love me.”
She cleared her throat. “Be that as it may, I’m not sure I want to be your wife. If we consummated the marriage, it would complicate annulment.”
“Everyone in London knows we’re married.” He braced his hands on the door on either side of her, his eyes fixed on her face. “Frederick told me to consummate our marriage on his couch.”
Daisy shuddered. “Ew!”
One side of his mouth eased into a reluctant smile. “He was grateful when I declined. My point is that it’s too late to change your mind.”
“I disagree,” Daisy argued. “This is a huge decision, and I rushed you into it.”
“Actually, I rushed you into it,” Miles said. “I announced that we had to marry immediately. I could have suggested a ceremony in a week or a month. Belle might have been sent to the country, and we could have married ceremoniously in the cathedral with hundreds in attendance, and no baby to complicate the picture.”
“Oh.”
Daisy slowly let his words filter into her mind.
Into her heart.
“I was determined to marry you,” Miles said. “The moment I saw an opportunity, I proclaimed that it would happen the very next day.”
“There was no real reason for the rush, was there?” Daisy asked.
“None other than my desperation to get my ring on your finger.” His voice wasn’t rumbling any longer; it was warm and tender. He leaned closer and brushed his lips over her forehead.
Daisy had never felt more confused in her life.
