AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His eyebrow cocked. “Or we could do it now while we are still near Vinehill.”
A bright smile—straining with fake force—locked onto her face. “After Wolfbridge, then. I think that’s best.”
She spun around and picked up his other arm, scrubbing with vigor.
Reiner shook his head.
His wife would certainly keep him hopping. Best he limber up.
~~~
“I have been churning it over in my mind. And I may be wrong.”
Sloane peeled her naked skin off of Reiner’s and shifted to sit up next to him on the bed. His fingers dropped from the tangle of her hair, his chest still quickly rising and lowering from the all-too-enjoyable early morning rout with their bodies.
Her hip jutting into his, she folded her legs under her and pinned him with an incredulous look. “You, wrong? Do I even want to ask?”
He grinned. “It rarely happens.” His hand dropped onto the top of her bare thigh, his countenance growing serious. “But I need to tell you this because I don’t want it to ever appear I tried to lie about it or hide it. And if I find out that I’m wrong about this particular topic, you will hate me for it.”
Her eyebrows slanted inward. “What is it you’re bandying about and refusing to say, Reiner?”
He drew a long sigh. “It is possible that my solicitor put conditions on buying the Swallowford land unbeknownst to me. I recall signing the document, but I don’t recall reading it other than a cursory glance.”
“You what?” Her words filled the room in a shriek.
“I didn’t want to tell you—I truly just imagined it as a possibility this morning after what you told me yesterday. But I need you to know in case it is true. If I had to guess, the contract Falsted showed you was a forgery of my name. But…”
“But what?”
“With my holdings, I sign a number of documents from my solicitor every day. The possibility is slight that he put something atrocious in there about clearing the land—or the document came that way from Falsted—but regardless, it was not by my request. You need to know I would never order something like that done, Sloane.”
She moved away from his heat, sliding to the edge of the bed. “And you’re just telling me this now?” The ice in her words sliced through the cool air.
He reached for her arm. “Sloane.”
She snapped it away, standing from the bed and pulling her chemise on, the chill in her voice quickly spinning into hot rage. “You got what you wanted—me in your bed—then you turned me into your wife so I would have no power to ever ruin you. Andnowit’s okay to tell me this?”
He sat up. “I didn’t time this, Sloane, I swear it. I’ve been thinking on it—thinking on everything you told me.” He shrugged. “Yesterday I would never have even considered it a possibility that I signed papers I shouldn’t have—my solicitor is above reproach. But yesterday I also believed that once I caught up to you, I would throttle you and that would be it. I could wash you out of my bones.”
He shifted on the bed toward her. “But then I saw you and the exact opposite happened. I wanted you more than ever. Needed you more than ever. I never would have considered that a possibility. Never.”
“Don’t twist this to make your half-truths seem negligible.”
“I’m not twisting anything, Sloane.” He stood from the bed, reaching for his drying trousers hanging over a chair by the fireplace. “What I’m trying to explain is that something I thought was fact wasn’t. My reasons for coming after you were all lies I told myself. And this is the same thing—why was I so confident in my man?” He yanked his trousers into place. “There are no guarantees. My solicitor has a number of men working under him drafting documents and I cannot ensure that he reads everything as well, even though it is expected of him. So it’s possible something slipped past me that shouldn’t have, even though I never would have intended it.”
“But you signed the document, Reiner—you. You bound your name to it. You’re responsible. You did that—you did this.” She flung her scarred arm up in the air to him.
He visibly blanched.
Good.
She spun from him, stomping over to her valise. She didn’t want to see it—see the tormented look in brown eyes.
The damn man had made her believe he had nothing to do with the fire, and now this. A possibility.
A possibility she didn’t want to acknowledge—that she’d just married the man that had ruined her life—that had killed her brother.
Her tongue flew to the roof of her mouth, gagging on the thought.
