The Duke's Wife (The Three Mrs #3) - Jess Michaels Page 0,18
Rhys said. “What in the world is going on?”
“Nothing,” Nathan said, and hated the little break to his voice.
“Gilmore.”
Nathan lifted his gaze at last and snagged his friend’s bright blue one. Rhys looked only concerned, and he knew he could trust the earl. And since keeping this inside had done him no good, perhaps it was time to try a different tactic.
“You need to promise me something.”
Rhys leaned closer, concern growing on his features. “Anything.”
“You will not speak to your wife about this.”
Rhys’s forehead wrinkled and he shook his head. “About…about what?”
“What I’m going to tell you. Pippa can’t know. Because if Pippa knows, then Celeste will know and eventually Abigail will know. I don’t need the problems that will cause.”
Rhys sighed. “My wife and I tend to practice honesty together, though there are certainly topics she has no interest in. And since this would be your secret, not mine, perhaps it wouldn’t be an issue. But I’ll have to hear it first, Gilmore.”
Nathan pursed his lips. While part of him envied the closeness Rhys was describing, it was also bloody inconvenient. But since this was the best answer he was likely to get, he decided to accept it.
“Abigail and I recently challenged each other to a few small wagers,” he explained. “Foolish little things. She won the first, I wanted a chance to reclaim my honor. She came here a few nights ago, after tea at Owen’s that day.”
“She came…she came here?” Rhys repeated. “With you. On her own volition.”
“The desire to best me a second time overcame her desire to burn me to a crisp, I suppose,” Nathan explained. “At any rate, she came here and I was teaching her how to make a trick shot at billiards as part of the wager.”
Rhys’s mouth was partly agape, his eyes growing ever wider. “And?”
He had expected Rhys to respond immediately, but his friend merely stared at him. The silence stretched for what felt like a lifetime before Rhys swallowed hard and croaked out, “What now?”
Nathan huffed out a breath. “You bloody well heard me.”
“You might have kissed her,” Rhys said. “Did you kiss her or didn’t you?”
“I kissed her,” Nathan muttered. “In the parlor by the foyer.”
“On the hand…on the cheek?”
“On the mouth, you great ridiculous arse,” Nathan growled. “I kissed her on the mouth, just as you would think I might kiss a woman like that.”
Rhys just kept blinking, as if he couldn’t quite fathom what he’d been told. On some level, Nathan didn’t blame him. He couldn’t exactly fathom it himself most of the time, and so it just kept haunting him.
“What does that mean?” Rhys breathed.
Nathan pushed to his feet and paced away. “I have no bloody idea. Yes, we have been at odds since the first moment we met. Ask Owen how that first meeting went and he will attest to the fact that Abigail and I came out of the gate hot. She makes her disdain for me clear at every turn. And yet I have been…attracted to her for a very long time.”
“She is pretty,” Rhys said, probably to make him feel better.
“Yes, yes, she is that,” Nathan said with a wave of his hand. “But she’s smart as a whip. She challenges the hell out of me, she has a light in her eyes that says she knows herself and she doesn’t give a damn what anyone thinks of it. Beauty is the least of her attractive qualities.”
“You really do like her,” Rhys said.
“Despite the fact that she is entirely maddening…yes. I’m afraid so.”
Rhys sighed. “Well, I cannot say we didn’t…notice the attraction.”
Nathan flinched. “Yes, you and Owen both made that clear with your little comments over the last year about this. But attraction is one thing. One can wave that away like an annoying bee. I’ve done something about it now and that changes the situation.”
“How did she react?” Rhys asked.
“I thought she might wallop me,” Nathan admitted. “But she kissed me back. I felt she wanted me.”
“And then?”
“And then she pulled away and walked out. She accused me of playing a game with her. She continues to despise me. I haven’t seen her since. She hasn’t been to any of the events where we might have encountered one another.”
“Do you want to encounter her?” Rhys shook his head. “As you said, attraction is one thing. Even a kiss could be forgotten with a little time.”