The Duke's Wife (The Three Mrs #3) - Jess Michaels Page 0,42

landing, waving to their friends. He rested his opposite hand on the small of her back and felt her reaction ripple through her.

He glanced down at her, their eyes met. “Should I go?” he asked, softly enough that only she could hear. “Or do you want your kiss?”

She held his gaze a moment. A very long moment, indeed, and then she glanced at the footman who was still standing on the drive, waiting for instruction. “The duke will be staying a while longer. We will call for you when he is ready.”

She glanced at Nathan again, brief and nervous, and then she stepped back into the house, leaving him to follow behind, hands shaking and mouth watering with anticipation.

Chapter 12

Abigail led Nathan down the hall, past the parlor where they had spent time with their friends, past the dining room, past the library, and stepped into the last room on the right, motioning him to enter first.

He drew in a breath as he did so. “This was Montgomery’s study.”

She followed him inside and slowly shut the door with shaking hands. “Yes. I think you’ve been here before.”

He nodded. “When Owen brought me so we could confront Montgomery, this is where we found his…his body.”

“Only he had faked his death,” she said. “To frame me and start a new life with whatever settlement his poor brother would pay to the mother of his illegitimate child.” She shook her head. “God, just saying it out loud makes my stomach turn. It’s like something out of a book, not something that happens to a real person.”

“But the room looks different now,” Nathan said, turning to look at the chamber from all angles. “It looks like…you.”

She smiled at the observation and glanced around the room, herself. “After Erasmus was truly dead, after Rhys gifted this house to me as fully my own, I decided I would reclaim it for myself. This room was the first place I did it. I cleaned it out of anything that reminded me of him and made it mine. I replaced or refinished the furniture, I made it lighter and brighter as best I could.”

“You took it back,” he said.

“Yes, I suppose that’s true. I needed to take something back after all he’d done.” She swallowed hard at the admission. It felt so intimate to reveal so much to this man she’d been wary of since almost the first moment she met him. “Now I use it as a study, a place for my books.”

He moved to the shelves, sliding his finger across the books about plant types, poisons, remedies and medicines. “You are remarkable,” he said softly as he faced her.

She felt the heat in her cheeks and turned away from him. “Not truly. I am a woman who married a very foolish man. I believed in him for too long. And once I didn’t…well, I was trapped, wasn’t I?”

He opened his mouth but shut it before he spoke. Still, she could see what he wanted to say. He wanted to tell her she wasn’t trapped anymore. Except she was. So was he. Their imprudence had ensured that.

He cleared his throat. “I hope we can create something similar to this space for you in my home.”

She drew in a long breath. “That would be nice. I’ll miss this place. There are many happy memories here, not just the unhappy ones.”

He nodded. “What do you intend to do with this house?”

She shrugged. “Gift it back to Rhys, I suppose. He can sell it which might help a bit with the financial burden his brother left him.”

Nathan stared at her a long, charged moment. Then he moved toward her, slowly but steadily. When he stopped, he cupped her cheek. “I’m going to repeat my earlier assertion. You are remarkable.”

He leaned in and his lips touched hers. The kiss earlier had been gentle, restrained, but this one wasn’t. He cupped the back of her head, holding her close as he plundered her mouth. He was driven now, just as he had been the night they were caught at the ball. She trembled just thinking about it as he backed her toward the pretty velvet settee she had placed before her fire for reading or studying.

But before he could lower her there, he broke the kiss. A strange expression crossed his face and he backed up, holding up a finger. “Don’t move.”

She wrinkled her brow and stared as he crossed back to the door. For a brief moment, she thought he might