Dangerous. Quite appealing, really.” Her voice dropped to a rhythmic croon. “I’m so sorry, Seth.
It should have been you and me—”
“Don’t,” he bit out. “What we had is dead.”
And in that moment, he realized he spoke the truth.
Staring at her ice-like beauty, so perfect she could have been chiseled from stone, he realized with a jolt that the love he once held for her had been grounded in infatuation—in a determination to possess the one person everyone told him he could never have. Looking at her, he could not recall what he had loved beyond her face.
Acute relief flooded him that he had not in fact married her. That he had grown into a man that could see beyond her beauty to the shallow core of her.
And with this realization came another. There had been more to his relationship with Jane. They had romped, talked, laughed, and shared. Loved, he supposed. Only he had allowed his infatuation for Madeline to put an end to that. No wonder his thoughts had turned to Jane so often over the years. Their relationship had possessed more substance.
Madeline’s smile faltered. “I think military life has quite robbed you of your manners.” Her eyes glittered with irritation.
“What do you want?” he asked baldly, removing her hand from his face.
“Is that any way to address me?” She straightened and whirled around in a cloud of perfume. “I hoped that we might be friends again.”
“We were never friends, Maddie.” She had been his obsession. Never his friend. Not like Jane.
“No?” she challenged, smirking. “I seem to recall you begging my father for my hand in marriage?”
Bitter bile rose in his throat. “A whim of youth.”
Her lips compressed into a tight, angry line. “I don’t believe you,” she announced with a toss of blond curls. “You’ve never stopped loving me.”
Seth shrugged. “I don’t care what you believe.”
Bright splotches marred the fragile perfection of her face. “You still want me,” she insisted, flinging her shoulders back and thrusting her br**sts forward until they strained against the low-cut bodice.
She advanced on him, a cat on the hunt. “Do you think of me when you plow my sister? Pale comparison, I would think.” She brought her hands to his chest, rubbing her palms over him and flexing her fingers like talons. “I’ve learned many things over the years. Including how to please a man.” She wet her lips slowly with the tip of her tongue. “Are you too proud to take what was once denied?”
“Madeline,” Jane’s voice scraped the air like a rusty blade, sudden and startling.
Seth swung around.
His wife stood framed in the threshold, the color high on her cheeks as she surveyed them. Even across the distance her eyes sparkled like sunlit moss, the exact shade of the green muslin gown she wore.
“Jane,” Madeline tittered, slapping Seth’s arm playfully. “You startled us. You should have knocked. Seth and I were becoming reacquainted.” Her eyes flicked over Seth mischievously.
“So many years. So much to catch up on.”
Jane’s face reddened further.
An angry heat spiraled through him. Seth’s blood burned knowing what Madeline would have Jane think. The little witch.
His gaze clashed with Jane’s, willing her to see the situation was not as it appeared. That he wanted nothing to do with Madeline. That he would much rather have her in his arms, in his bed.
A fact, he suddenly realized, he was damned well tired of fighting.
Moistening her lips, Jane advanced into the room and pressed a cool kiss to her sister’s cheek. No simple feat when she would rather have clawed her eyes out.
The sight of her sister rubbing against Seth like a hungry cat stirred a host of hot, uncomfortable feelings. Made her feel like a girl again, watching them in the orchard, oblivious to her, to the world. Aware of only each other amid a swirl of apple blossoms.
“You should have sent word,” she said tightly. “I did not expect you.”
“Desmond came to see me.” Madeline’s mouth puckered with censure. “He is beside himself with worry over you. Poor man.”
Seth snorted.
Madeline tossed him a less than friendly glance. “He fears you’ve rushed into this marriage and have made a grievous mistake.”
“The only mistake I made was in living beneath Desmond’s roof for as long as I did,” Jane rejoined.
“Come now, dear.” Madeline sidled near, fingers closing around Jane’s arm like a clinging vine.
Jane resisted shaking off the unwelcome touch. “You did not have to marry him.” Her shrewd gaze cut to Seth. “You could have lived with me. You still can, in fact.”
Jane blinked. “I’m carrying his child,” Jane pointed out.
Seth growled low in his throat. “Nice of you to offer now. Where were you when Jane was widowed and forced into servitude?”
“You exaggerate—”
“Not by much,” Jane interjected, her pulse suddenly skittery at her throat. “You knew how things were for me and you never once made such an offer.”
“Jane.” Madeline pouted prettily. “If I thought you truly suffered I would have insisted you live with me.” Madeline squeezed her arm, her sharp nails digging painfully. “As I’m insisting now.
You cannot mean to endure this farce of a marriage. Do you really think Seth loves you?” Her eyes gleamed in pity, seeming to say, He cannot. He loves me.
“I’ll stay with my husband,” Jane answered, twisting her arm free and telling herself not to take too much satisfaction in the declaration. They were only husband and wife in name. Not in the proper sense. But at least Madeline need never know that.
“Indeed.” Madeline’s lip curled as if tasting something foul.
“Indeed,” Seth echoed, tucking Jane to his side. Her breath caught at the feel of his big hand sliding around her waist, his fingers splaying over her rib cage. “I couldn’t abide not having her.”
Madeline’s lips worked. “You cannot expect me to believe—”
“I already told you I care not what you believe.”
As if to make his point, he folded Jane into his arms and smothered her lips with the hot seal of his mouth.
Jane froze for the barest moment before melting against him. Her mouth opened, allowing his tongue access. And just like that she was back in the garden again.
His hands slid into her hair, loosening the mass as he plundered her lips. Leaning into him, she clutched his biceps, fingers curling into the sleeves of his jacket as blistering flame shot through her veins. Desire simmered in her belly like liquid heat and she moaned into his mouth.
One hand slid down her back, cupping her derriere through the voluminous folds of her gown.
Loud throat clearing broke the spell, and she jerked her mouth free. Still standing in the circle of his arms, she stared up at him, dazed, mouth throbbing from the assault of his.
His chest lifted with labored breaths, as though he had run a great distance.
“See now, Madeline. I can’t even control myself in broad daylight when guests are present. I simply cannot manage a moment without Jane.”
Jane gave her head a swift shake and glanced at her sister’s livid face. Nostrils quivering in a most unbecoming manner, Madeline stormed form the room, wide skirts nearly knocking a vase from a side table.
After a moment, Jane realized Seth’s arms still hung about her. “You can let me go now.”
His arms fell away.
Jane stood there a moment longer, looking down at her satin slippers peeping from beneath her emerald green gown. She could feel his eyes on her, blistering into the top of her head.
“Why was it so important for Madeline to see that?” Silence answered her and she lifted her face to stare directly into his eyes. “Was it to make her jealous?”
“God, no,” he bit out.
She frowned, unconvinced. She could still recall that day in the orchard when he had been playing Madeline’s knight in shining armor. The love in his eyes had been profound and deep.
“Then why?” she demanded, brushing fingers over her lips mouth still pulsing from his kiss. “I wouldn’t have left you. I’ve more honor than that. I carry your child.” Sucking in a deep breath, she pressed. “You haven’t kissed me since we married. Why now?”
He dragged a hand through his hair. “Perhaps I worried she would convince you to leave with her.”
“I would not have gone with her. Even if she knew the truth.”
“And what’s the truth, Jane?” he asked in a quiet voice, stepping closer, his big body crowding her, warming her in the most disturbing way.
The truth? Not that kiss. Not the way he looked at her, with dark fire in his eyes. His kiss was nothing more than a ploy to get back at Madeline.
“Our marriage is one of convenience. You’ve made that abundantly clear.”
Her heart pinched. Before he could read any telling emotion on her face, she turned for the door.
“We need not feel compelled to convince Madeline that our marriage is a grand love affair,” she tossed out, glancing over her shoulder. “It was lovely of you to put forth the effort. Very affecting really.”
He made a sound, perhaps speech, but she could hear nothing else. Not with blood rushing through her head in a dull roar.
“You needn’t play at such pretense again,” she added, ignoring the way a muscle ticked madly in his cheek, indicating she had hit a nerve.
Resolve sealing her heart, she strode from the room.
Chapter 24
Seth walked an uneven line into his room, stopping before the adjoining door to Jane’s chamber and squaring off as though he faced an armed adversary.
The light beneath her door glowed, taunting him, beckoning. You needn’t play at such pretense again. Her words echoed in his head, mocking him. Pretense? There had been no pretense in that kiss. His body throbbed at the memory of sucking her tongue deep into his mouth, of fondling that delicious flesh beneath the green satin dress.
With a fierce curse, he swung about and shed his garments with hard, angry movements, never taking his eyes off her door. His sudden movements made his head swim, and he stopped, pressing a palm to his temple. Perhaps he should not have drunk quite so much at dinner. And after.
Only dinner with his wife at his side, her sweet scent drifting toward him, tormenting him, he found the overpowering need to drink—to wash her from his mind, his blood, his soul. Fool that he was, he had thought a snifter of brandy would do the trick. Now, staring at the door that barred her, his wife, the very woman whose charms he ought to feel free to enjoy, he felt only bleak frustration. Nothing would rid her from him. Not as long as she remained near, yet beyond his reach.
He gave his head a hard shake, which only made him stagger sideways. Gripping one of the thick mahogany bedposts, he steadied himself.
He clutched the bedpost in both hands, as though he could claw the barrier down he had erected between them. The barrier _he _ had erected.
He had set forth the requirements of their marriage, had thought he was being wise. Only with the taste of her still burning on his lips, he knew he was the greatest idiot alive. Why had he turned her away when she came to him on their honeymoon? Why hadn’t he embraced what she so sweetly offered?
Shoving from the bedpost, he moved to the door, heart in his throat.
The time to change the rules had arrived.
Jane paced the length of her room, listening, as always, for Seth in the next room. Dinner had been a strain. Since her promise to Julianne, Jane could hardly sit at the same table with Seth.
Julianne glowed, her love for Knightly hovering on the air, unspoken but tangible as heavy fog.
Seth had to feel it. The truth would eventually surface. And he would never forgive her for keeping the information from him. It would be another mark against her. One of several.