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His wife seemed determined to test him, and Nathan was trying very hard not to let her have the upper hand. However, he had forgotten about some of the folios in that corner.
Etchings were the least of his worries. The designs for several of his… machines… were tucked away there, the earliest models. Designs he had discarded once he’d improved them, though he kept them to see the progress of his work.
Normally, visitors would not be given free rein of the library, and until he’d actually seen Lily moving toward that corner, he hadn’t remembered that there might be an issue. It figured that was where she was most drawn to, and her blasted curiosity would not allow him to distract her.
Did she want him to spank her?
Wait…doesshe want me to spank her?!
“Lily, are you already breaking your vow to be obedient?” The threat lay heavy in his voice. She was well on her way to earning a spanking on her wedding night. That had not been his intention, although he was beginning to think it was hers.
Especially with the expression that flickered across her face at his question.
Curiosity. Desire. Interest. All quickly hidden behind a mask of innocence, and all the more ludicrous after what he’d seen before it descended.
How very intriguing. Nathan could feel his palm itching, fingers beginning to twitch. He’d been anxious to get his hands on her, but now that desire was transforming, expanding to encompass more fantasies than he’d thought he would fulfill on their wedding night.
“I will be obedient when it makes sense to be.” Her tart tone was at odds with her wide-eyed expression. “There is no reason I should not be able to explore the library as I please.”
“Lillian, if you do not come over here, you will find yourself over my knee again.”
Instead of coming to heel, she sniffed derisively.
“Seriously, Nathan, you are being unreasonable. What on earth could be here that you do not want me to see?” Before she finished speaking, she turned and pulled one of the folios off the shelf—the most recent one that had been consigned there.
Nathan sprang forward but not before it fell open in her hands.
* * *
Lily
If it wasn’t for Nathan’s restraint in stopping her, she might have thought she had stumbled upon proof of his family’s involvement in treasonous activities, but his attitude had not been quite dire enough for her to believe that. Lily did not believe he would have stopped at mere warnings if that had been the case.
No, there was something he did not want her to see, but it was nothing criminal, of that she was sure.
When she pulled the folio out, and it fell open in her hands, she could see him moving toward her out of the corner of her eye, but she barely paid attention. She was far too fascinated by the drawing the folio opened to.
It was of a woman, completely nude, tied to a table with her legs spread. The table did not have an ordinary configuration. There was a split, which allowed for a large machine to be placed between her ankles. From the machine, a long piston emerged, with something on the end of it that was inserted into the woman’s vagina.
Lily’s mouth dropped open in awe and horror. Was this a rendering of one of the machines Mary and Josie had talked about? Her eyes scanned the image, widening when they came to the woman’s face.
Before she could say a word, Nathan snatched the folio from her hand, closing it with a snap and cutting her off from seeing anything more.
She looked up at him, breathless and more than a trifle shocked. Towering over her, he glared down, but the threat and menace emanating from him were sexual in nature, not violent. Wat she had just seen had the opposite effect than he had intended. She was not intimidated; if anything, she was more aroused.
“That was me,” she said, the words coming out in an odd monotone. Part of her still was unsure she had seen what she thought she had.
“What?” Nathan stared at her as though she was babbling nonsense, which sparked her temper.
Though she had only seen the face of the woman in the drawing for a moment, it was enough of a likeness, she could hardly be mistaken. She saw the same face in her looking glass every day.
“The picture! The woman… she looks like me!” Lily was not about to let him brush this under the rug. Her blood was simmering beneath her skin, her body heating in reaction.
Is that how he sees me?
The question was answered by consternation and bafflement on his face as he flipped open the folio to where she had been looking, then utter shock when he took a good look at the sketch she had found.
“That’s… ah… that’s not…” He stumbled over his words, his gaze flashing between her face and the sketch.
