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It felt like fate was mocking her.
***
Rafe knew he was a fool for kissing Victoria, but he found that he couldn’t help himself. This was something he had been fighting back for some time, and it left him shaken now that he had done it. He just wanted to kiss her again, and maybe more. Victoria was more desirable than he had expected.
But he wasn’t about to force her. In spite of the heat in her eyes before and after he kissed her, Rafe knew she wouldn’t be willing to go to bed with him. And he wasn’t going there. This was not something he wanted to do. Victoria deserved better than that.
She definitely deserved better than him. But a promise had been made, and Rafe was carrying it out. Although he wished Sebastien was still alive, then Rafe wouldn’t have to get married to someone who made him angry and frustrated.
And who also left him feeling something he hadn’t experienced in a long time. The desire to take her into his arms and hold her, to feel her body against his, feel how warm she was, hear her say his name as he brought her to a climax. Rafe had been left dazed by it.
They were husband and wife. It was his right. But the thought of forcing Victoria to do it was not what he wanted.
He would just have to cope with the woman hating him for the rest of their natural days. That was not how he had expected married life to be, if he was honest.
***
After spending the night in a bad mood, and his arousal still not fading away, Rafe headed downstairs and into the dining room. He needed to have breakfast and contemplate how he was going to navigate this dangerous battlefield.
Thoughts of breakfast stopped abruptly when he saw two people pressed up against the dining table, wrapped in an embrace, to hear his entrance. For a moment, in his bleariness, Rafe thought it was Charlie and Amelia. He groaned.
“Seriously, Charlie, do you have to do that in here?”
The couple gasped and jumped away from each other. A chuckle came from behind him, and Rafe turned to see Charlie coming down the hall towards him.
“I see a night with your wife has jumbled your brain if you think I’m in two places at once, Rafe.”
“What?”
Rafe looked back, and the fog in his brain cleared. Now he could see the couple clearly, and it took a moment more for his senses to realise who they were.
“Manning? Abigail?”
Abigail’s cheeks were bright red. Manning cleared his throat.
“Lord Blackmore. I…I can explain.”
“You’d better explain. Get in my study. Now.” Rafe shot Abigail a look. “You’d better go and see if your mistress is awake and take up a breakfast tray if she doesn’t want to have breakfast here with me.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Still not looking at him, Abigail dropped a curtsy and hurried from the room. Manning hadn’t moved. Rafe glared at him.
“Didn’t I tell you to move? Or have you gone deaf?”
Manning jumped, and he practically ran out of the room. Charlie looked amused.
“You’re going to scold them for something they can’t control?”
“They can control themselves from doing it in the middle of the dining room!”
“There’s nothing wrong with it.”
Rafe snorted.
“Only because you don’t care what room you do it in.”
“Exactly.” Charlie beamed and entered the room. “By the way, I’m not well-versed in English etiquette, but aren’t people supposed to be here for the wedding breakfast?”
