The Unexpected Wife - Jess Michaels Page 0,13

things she certainly couldn’t want him to feel. The universe was now rewarding him with a second cold bath to keep his unexpected lust in check.

Why her? He’d never been the kind of man to pant over a woman in such a shameless way. He took a lover now and then. He wasn’t a monk. But he didn’t…pine. He didn’t seduce. He didn’t…he didn’t dream of specific women the way he’d dreamt of her.

Only the why her was actually obvious. And it wasn’t just that she was beautiful. She was beautiful, of course, that was just a fact. But all of the Mrs. Montgomerys were beautiful, and he didn’t have naughty dreams about the other two.

Celeste was different…interesting. She was sharp as a pin, observant in a way he had spent years training himself to become. She didn’t smile all that often, not that he expected her to do so under the circumstances, but when she did…well, she was even lovelier. He felt like he had to earn that expression, coaxed from that otherwise serious demeanor.

The window to the carriage opened in that moment, and the very lady he had been obsessively pondering appeared there. She had removed her hat and her red hair was in a sleek chignon, save for a few locks that curled around her chin. She smiled out at him. His heart, betrayer that it was, thudded hard in his chest.

“Mr. Gregory, won’t you please join me in the carriage?” she asked, glancing up at the cloudy sky. “It is positively horrible out and I’m sure you could use the respite from the torrent.”

He followed her look up at the dark skies and sighed. He was miserable. He signaled to the driver to stop, and he did so.

Celeste shot him another smile, this one brighter. “Good. I knew you were a man who could be reasoned with.”

With that, she shut the window, and he took the time to tend to his horse and peel out of his soaked greatcoat so he wouldn’t fill the warm interior of the carriage with steam and damp.

Finally he opened the door and stepped inside. He settled on the seat across from Celeste and her maid, who appeared to be asleep. As he did so, Celeste handed across a blanket.

“Much obliged,” he said, drying his hair a bit with it before he laid it across his damp legs to warm himself. As they began to move again, he motioned toward Mabel, whose head was lolled back against the carriage seat with her mouth open a fraction. Every once in a while she let out a little snorting snore. “Is that normal?”

Celeste laughed as she tossed a side glance to the sleeping woman. “Incredibly, yes. She is like a rock once she’s asleep. She’ll probably be like that for hours.”

He shifted slightly. If that were true then it was almost like they were alone. A dangerous proposition considering where his thoughts had been taking him not five minutes before. “So you called me in here for company.”

She inclined her head at his gentle teasing. “Perhaps. I did lose interest in my book and you were the next best thing.”

He snorted out a laugh at her directness. Yet another thing that appealed to him. She did not mince, this one. She was always direct, whether in jest or in seriousness. “Then I am at your disposal for entertainments of any kind.”

The moment he said the words, she bent her head further and a little color entered her cheeks. He wished he could pull that sentence back, with all its innuendo that was so highly inappropriate.

“That sounds both fascinating and ominous,” she said, her tone a bit breathier. “But I was thinking, as I was riding along with my maid snoring in my ear and my book boring me, that you know a great deal about me. At least about some of my circumstances. But I don’t know very much about you.”

“Ah, so you invited me into your carriage for an interrogation,” he teased, hoping to put her at ease again. He found he didn’t like the alternative. “Excellent choice. I cannot escape, you control the environment. You even softened me by offering me the kindness of the blanket.”

She sat up a little straighter. “Oh no, that was never my intent!”

He shook his head at her shock and horror at the idea she might have been so devious. “I’m teasing you. Of course you’re interested in some information about me. It’s only natural, for