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‘Come on, Merida...’ he said, his hand gliding between her thighs to where she was warm and damp.
‘You’ve got to get ready.’
She didn’t shove him off, just gave a slight push to his chest, but it was contrary to all the time they had spent together so far.
There was a slight narrowing of his eyes as he tried to interpret this shift in her, but he soon headed up the stairs and descended only a short while later.
He looked exquisite, Merida thought as she stood, leaning against the bench, nursing a coffee she had made.
His hair was damp, but fell into perfect shape, and he was clean-shaven and wearing a hefty dose of that gorgeous cologne.
He cursed as he read his phone. ‘I’ve got to go.’
He was back to being the businessman she had first met, but he removed her coffee from her to give her a kiss and a decent squeeze of her bottom, which rather told her that he would take up from where they had left off when he got home later.
‘Don’t go getting dressed, now,’ Ethan said with a light tease, but he did not see the dangerous glint in Merida’s eyes.
She heard the door close and finally, after the shock of his proposal, their whirlwind wedding and two days spent in bed, the glitter seemed to settle and Merida took in her surroundings.
She stood in a loveless marriage.
Well, not loveless. She was crazy about Ethan. If there was such a thing as love at first sight, then that was what had happened to her.
Except he didn’t want a bar of it.
She could not spend a year on call to him. Could not keep giving herself to him over and over, with no reward for her heart.
A loveless marriage could only work, Merida decided, if there wasnolove on either side. But a regular dose of unrequited love might very nearly kill her.
It was making love to her, and just sex to him.
Never mind the turmoil she felt, or her feelings for him, to Ethan this was no more than a business transaction with sex thrown in.
But no more.
Their earlier conversation wasn’t over.
If Ethan thought he had a gold-digger for a wife, then she wouldactlike one.
Merida was new to all this, so she did a quick tidy-up before Rita arrived, then showered and looked at the few clothes she had with her.
She would need a lot more than her lucky kilt to survive this.
Merida called Howard and got to work. Or rather, the work of being a Devereux wife.
* * *
Ethan came home at seven to a gorgeous wife—though he rather missed the curls. She was dressed in a simple grey shift and there was the scent of beef bourguignon from Barnaby’s wafting through the stunning apartment.
The table was set and they took their seats.
‘Anton Del Bosco got in touch,’ Ethan said. ‘It was noted that I’d left during the first half ofNight Forestand he’s invited us both to attend another performance.’
‘No, thank you.’
‘Wehaveto do this sort of thing, Merida,’ Ethan stated.
‘Well, I’d prefer not to go and see the show I had to bow out of,’ Merida said. ‘How was the rest of your day?’
