Falling for the Marquess - Julianne MacLean Page 0,108
take him.”
Realizing something was wrong, she glanced at the door.
There stood her husband, filling the doorway completely with his large, masculine frame.
All her senses trembled, and heart fluttered like the wings of a hummingbird. Even after what had happened that morning, he was still the most beautiful man in the world. He made her weak with desire.
“Seger.”
He glanced pleadingly at Sophia, who carried Liam toward the door.
“I think I’ll take Liam to nap in my bed,” Sophia said, “while John is out in the pram with the nurse. Perhaps I’ll just go and... and....” She gazed awkwardly at Seger and Clara. “I’ll just go.”
She left them alone in the nursery. Clara rose from the chair, her body tense as she tried to resist her womanly responses to him—the same sexual responses that had given him the power to take advantage of her on so many occasions, and to talk her into believing that he was the man she wanted him to be.
She didn’t think he really was. He would always enjoy other women. She had simply been denying it to herself all this time.
Seger slowly walked toward her, as if he wasn’t sure if he was welcome, and had to test the waters first.
“Clara,” he said softly, “why did you get in that cab?”
She lifted her chin and wondered how it was possible that he could not understand why she had done it. Or perhaps he was just playing innocent. “Because I couldn’t watch any longer.”
“There was nothing to see.” He took a few more cautious steps closer.
She responded by turning her back on him and walking to the other side of the room. “That is a matter of opinion.” Every instinct she possessed sensed the intensity of his nearness as he quietly approached.
“No, it is not a matter of opinion,” he said. “Listen to me.” He turned her to face him. “I had to speak to Daphne to understand what had happened. I was in shock. You must understand that.”
“I’ve understood everything, Seger. I’ve done nothing but understand, but I can’t do it anymore. I can’t keep coming up with excuses for my uncertainties about our marriage. I can’t continue to be understanding and patient, when I am actually frightened to death on the inside. I don’t trust you. I realized that this morning. I felt sick watching you go off to talk to her. I was sure you were going to leave me.”
“I’m not going to leave you.”
She looked into his eyes and saw sincerity. Desperation. But after everything she’d been through, she wasn’t sure she could believe it. Maybe this was just his way of appeasing her, so that she would give him the freedom he needed to....
She didn’t want to think about the rest.
Clara went to the table beside the crib and began to put Liam’s toys back into the toy trunk, one by one.
“She wanted to become my mistress,” Seger said.
Clara froze, then forced herself to continue putting the toys away. “That’s not surprising. There are a number of women in London who want the same thing.”
“But I don’t want them. Nor do I want Daphne. I told her that. She is going back to America.”
Clara whirled around to face him. “How can I believe you? She’s the reason you never married for eight years! She’s the reason you haven’t been able to love me!”
He shook his head at her. “Maybe she was the reason I chose to live as I did, but she has nothing to do with what is between us today.”
He moved closer and cupped her face in his hands. “I’m sorry I have not been able to love you, Clara, but it had nothing to do with Daphne. It was because I had become so accustomed to a certain way of life, it became almost impossible to imagine anything different. I’d begun to believe that I wasn’t capable of loving one woman. But from the first moment I saw you, I knew you were different. Everything about you was different, the way you looked, the way you made me feel. All other women were eclipsed by you, and they still are. You have been my friend and my lover, my confidante and my companion. You have made every day feel like heaven, and I think of nothing but you when we are apart. I could no more live without you than I could live without air in my lungs. I would die if I lost you, and that—I believe—is love.”