“Gabriel?” she prodded once more.
He tried to put his disordered thoughts to right. Gabriel rocked on his heels. “Are you getting on all right?” Never more than this instance did he wish he possessed a modicum of Alex’s affability. His brother always knew precisely what to say.
A smile twitched at her lips. “Er…did you perchance see the dance skills I’ve acquired?”
No, all he’d seen was another man with his hands on her, touching her waist, holding her flush to his frame. The body that he longed to take and make his in every way a man could mark a woman. He growled and quickly closed the distance between them.
“Are you all right—eep” Her words ended on a squeak as he settled his arms about her. “What are you—?”
Gabriel guided her hands to his shoulder and settled his upon her waist. “Teaching you to dance.” Holding you. Holding you when it makes it all the more impossible to extricate myself from your hold. Then, with the invisible strands of the orchestra he guided her through the motions of the waltz.
Jane stomped on his foot. “I’m sorry.” She caught her lower lip between her teeth.
He shifted her, angling her body closer to his and effectively shrinking the space between them. She tripped over his foot.
His lips twitched. She really was as horrid as his sister had indicated.
“Oh, do hush,” she scolded and then stomped on his foot.
He winced.
“That was deliberate.”
Gabriel wouldn’t feel comfortable placing any such wager on that particular—
Jane jammed the heel of her slipper into his instep.
He arched an eyebrow. “And what was that for?”
“For doubting the previous misstep was not deliberate.”
A chuckle rumbled up from his chest. The sound was rusty from ill-use these years and he stumbled.
“That was not my fault,” she said tartly.
Yes, it was. “No.” You upended my world, so that I laugh and smile and tease. He drew to a stop. His pulse pounded so loudly, it filled his ears with a dull humming. He released her with such alacrity she slipped, but then adroitly righted herself.
She wrinkled her nose. “You’ve given up a good deal before Mr. Wallace.”
How could she be so casual, unaware or uncaring of the tumult she’d thrown his world into? “You need to be presented to Society.”
“I know that,” she said tentatively. “There is the matter of serving as Chloe’s companion.”
He fixed upon that. That was her role. That was why he’d wed her. That and to save her. “The sooner Chloe makes a match—”
“The sooner I can begin my school.”
What was once honorable, now grated. He hated her damned school. He gave a nod.
Jane tipped her chin up at a mutinous angle. “I’ll not be welcomed by the ton, if that is what you are hoping,” she said with the same fire and strength he recalled from that day she’d refused to leave his townhouse.
His frown deepened. “Do not be preposterous. You are my wife.” He’d ruin anyone who gave her the cut direct.
“Am I?”
He looked at her.
“A bride, yes. A wife, no,” she took a step toward him. “Not as long as our union is…” Her cheeks turned red. “Unconsummated.”
Gabriel choked at the boldness of her words as a sea of images flooded his mind. Of him taking her. Laying claim to her. Spilling his seed inside her. At that, he lurched backward.
“Gabriel?” She held out a tentative hand.
He gave his head a shake and her delicate fingers fluttered to her side. “I should not have left you,” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion. “On our wedding night.” Any night. Gabriel raked a hand through his hair. “I would—”
Several lines creased her brow. “What is it, Gabriel?”
“I would have you understand.” He stared above the crown of her golden curls. Shame knotted his belly. “My father, as you know, beat me. He beat all of us with a staggering frequency. My sisters, my brother and me.” A bitter laugh escaped him. “I was a bloody coward. I hid when I could, more concerned with my own survival than that of my siblings.” He could not however, be a coward in this. He looked to her and held her gaze. Agony, regret, and some other host of emotions he could not identify filled her eyes. He held up his hands. “As their older brother, I had a responsibility to care for them, to see them unhurt. Do you know who put a stop to the years of abuse?”