“Don’t worry, Kat. I intend to.”
With that, his mouth came down on hers to claim her in a way she had never been claimed before. Their last kiss was warm and gentle, an exploration. This kiss devoured, consumed. And in her surprise, she responded. She slipped her hands from his to wrap them around his neck and into his hair. The dark locks slid like warm silk through her chilly fingers and the friction of the action caused her to kiss him deeper.
He tasted very faintly of cigar smoke tinged with just the sharpest hint of whiskey. She never would have thought that taste would please her, but somehow it fit him. Smoky and tangy melded together in a way that made her knees go weak.
Not that she needed their support. The moment their lips touched, Dominic crushed her against him and became her support and her prison all at once. A prison she didn’t feel any desire to escape.
In comparison to the air and the cold of the snow, he was as hot as fire. She was molded against a hard, lean body that melted her defenses and made her groan.
“Dominic,” she whispered against his lips.
He smiled between hot kisses. “So you do know my name. Say it again.” Instead she lifted her lips for another kiss, but he held back. “Say it.”
“Dominic,” she repeated, so low he barely heard it. But it was loud enough for now. Later, he would make her cry out his name. It would be a plea and a prayer as he took her careening over an edge he doubted she even knew existed. Yet.
Just the thought of that made hot blood pump harder through him and he brought her even closer. Slowly, he moved his mouth away from hers and began a leisurely trail down her throat. To his delight, she arched against him with a quiet moan as her fingers dug into the layers of his coat.
Emboldened by her passionate response, he pressed her back against the terrace wall as one hand brushed up her body until he cupped her breast.
Her eyes flew open in surprise, but within the green depths he saw no fear, rather a haze of desire and surrender. With a half-smile, he kissed her again, this time with more control as he gently massaged the nipple thrusting out even through her heavy gown.
Her mouth came open with a gasp of pleasure and he drank deeply of her taste. He wanted her. Now. Tonight. Tomorrow wasn’t going to come fast enough.
“Come to my room,” he asked as he brushed his lips up to her ear.
Her body tensed beneath his hands and he knew instantly he’d gone too far. Damn.
“No.” She whispered it at first, but then her voice grew louder, as if she’d woken from a dream. “No!”
With all her might, she placed her hands against his chest and pushed until she had enough space to slip away. He shut his eyes for a long moment before he turned to face the woman who would be his wife in just a few hours.
“You know that display wasn’t all me a moment ago. Deny it if you want to, Kat, but you responded to me the same way I responded to you.”
She shook her head, but it was clear he’d struck too close to a raw nerve. “You don’t know me. And I—I don’t want to know you.”
Her lip trembled as she spun away toward the door.
He let her take three steps before he called out, “Katherine.”
Stopping, she clenched her hands into fists and slowly eased back around. She arched an eyebrow in haughty question.
“You can run tonight, but tomorrow you won’t want to. I guarantee that.” He said the words softly, but from her stunned expression, it was clear she took the powerful meaning beneath them.
She swallowed hard, then nodded coolly, as if they had been talking about meaningless things. “Good afternoon.”
As the terrace door shut behind her, Dominic let out a sigh of frustration. He’d been so close to the heaven of her embrace. So close, and then to have it snatched away.
By her virginal sensibilities, perhaps. But there was more to her withdrawal than only propriety and fear. He thought of her downcast eyes when his brother kissed Sarah. Perhaps Cole was part of the reason she denied him. She’d begun to give in, but her loyalty and memories of Cole stopped her.
Had his brother ever kissed her that way? Touched her that way? He’d be a fool if he hadn’t. Yet, from the way his brother talked, Dominic was fairly certain he hadn’t had Katherine in his bed. No, Colden would be proper, at least on the surface.
Unlike him. Dominic would have swept her away and made love to her all night if she allowed it. Marriage vows—or lack thereof—be damned.
But she hadn’t. And for some unfathomable reason, that stung.
With a curse, he turned to look out over the dusky shire. Tomorrow, he would erase all memory of Cole from her mind. Tomorrow, he would claim Katherine as his own.
Katherine cursed her shaking hands and body as she ran into her chamber and slammed the door behind her. She felt as if the hounds of hell themselves were at her heels, but of course it was only one devilish man. Still, she had no doubt Dominic might get it in his head to pursue her. And judging from the way she lost all sense when he kissed her in that sinful, heated way, her greatest fear was that she would give in to the pleasure he offered.
And be well on her way to the fate she watched her father cause her mother, where desire and love blinded her to everything else. She couldn’t let Dominic wield such power over her.
“Not now, not ever,” she said under her breath.
“Are you talking to yourself?” Eustacia asked as she came out of Katherine’s bedroom to enter her dressing chamber.
Katherine jumped in surprise. “I didn’t realize you were here. Shouldn’t you be getting ready for supper?”
Just the thought of food had her own stomach churning, but it was usually a quick distraction for Eustacia. Judging from the determination in her guardian’s eyes, it wouldn’t be this time.
“Since you are to be married tomorrow, I believe you and I ought to have a little chat.” Eustacia settled her large frame into a wing-backed chair with a tight-mouthed frown for Katherine. “Sit down.”
She opened her mouth to protest, then gave up and did as she was told. Eustacia and Stephan Walworth had been her guardians since her parents’ deaths when she was thirteen. In those seven and a half years, she’d come to realize while her mother’s distant cousins were never cruel, they didn’t love her, either. And they didn’t like to be disobeyed. That point had been made abundantly clear during so many arguments over her lack of interest in her suitors. It had only gotten worse as her twenty-first birthday loomed ever closer. Only her engagement kept them at bay recently.
“What is there to talk about, Eustacia?” she asked as she rubbed her tired eyes. “I would have been married to Cole in a few days if his wife hadn’t resurfaced. You never mentioned wanting to have some kind of special talk with me then.”
“Well, I had no doubt Lord Harborough would school you in the marital bed with gentleness and care. But his brother…” Eustacia trailed off as she fanned her face with one large hand. “Well, he is an entirely different beast. A man like that will have expectations. Needs.”
Katherine drew back in utter horror as the purpose of her guardian’s visit became all too clear. “You’ve come here to talk to me about the marriage bed?”
Her guardian’s face reddened, but she managed a curt nod. “If your mother were still alive, you would be having this conversation with her.”
Katherine shuddered to think of how that exchange would have gone. This one was trying enough in itself. “I—”
Eustacia interrupted with an uncomfortable smile and a raised hand. “Now, now. It’s natural for you to have some nervousness, but this is a conversation you must have before you depart for Mr. Mallory’s estate tomorrow.”
“Oh, good Lord,” Katherine breathed. Her temples pounded. As if her shocking reaction to Dominic’s touch weren’t enough, now she had to go through this torture.
“A man will expect you to perform your wifely duties.” Eustacia squirmed uncomfortably, as if she didn’t know what to say. �
�He will want to put his…his…stick inside you.”
“His stick?” Katherine repeated, raising a hand to cover the most ridiculous urge to laugh.
“Yes.” Now her guardian was nearly purple. “The one between his legs.” Her voice dropped. “His man stick.”
Katherine bit her lip. Hard. “Man stick,” she repeated with difficulty.
“And though it isn’t the most pleasant experience, you must lie still and endure it. Because that is the way the Lord enables us to reproduce. Afterward, he will likely be very tired and fall asleep. If you’re lucky, he’ll return to his own chamber to do so.”
“Well, that was very…enlightening.” Katherine stood and faced the window as giggles wracked her. She only hoped she could keep them inside until Eustacia was gone. The last thing she needed was a lecture to top off this already trying day.
“Yes.” Her guardian sighed. “Well, you’ll soon see. I just think it’s better if you’re prepared.”
Katherine turned and somehow managed to keep her mouth from twitching. “Well, I thank you, Eustacia. Now you’d best get ready, and so must I. I shall see you in an hour or so.”
“Yes, my dear.”
Once her portly guardian slipped from the room, Katherine threw herself on her bed and stifled her peals of laughter in her pillow. Man stick? If only Eustacia knew the kinds of books her parents left sitting about in their bedroom.
At twelve she found one. It was mostly pictures, but she remembered quite clearly that the women did not look as though they were “enduring” anything.
Beyond that, Katherine had already seen the results of a great passion. Despite his philandering ways and cruel treatment, Katherine’s mother had been blind to everything but her father’s charms. She had allowed herself to be humiliated just because her husband knew how to manipulate her desire for his love. That was the power a woman gave a man when she surrendered her heart. And when she took too much pleasure in his touch.
That blind faith in an undeserving man had killed them both. Katherine never wanted to slip so far into another person that she would be unable to see the truth.
Something that would be far too easy to do with a man like Dominic Mallory.
Her laughter was long gone now. Dominic was obviously skilled with women. And the animosity he had with his family made her wonder even more about his character.
Yet somehow, when he looked into her eyes, when he pressed his lips to hers, she forgot her doubts. That was why she couldn’t trust him. She could never forget herself with him.
Not if she ever wanted happiness. Not if she ever wanted peace.
Chapter 5
K atherine’s gown was the one she chose months before. The minister she had met a dozen times. The wedding breakfast was exactly as she specified. Even the ring on her finger had been chosen by Cole.
The only thing that made her wedding different from the one she meticulously planned was the man sitting to her right. Her new husband.
Dominic Mallory.
With a disgruntled sigh, she stole a glance in his direction. Unlike her, he seemed unmoved by their current situation. In fact, he was chatting with his sister as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
She folded her arms with a deep scowl. The blasted man. Didn’t he know everything was falling apart? She was married to the wrong Mallory. While Colden sat at the other end of the table, watching the new couple through narrowed eyes, she was with his brother. The man who was full of dark heat. Instead of toasting her future with the brother who made her feel secure and safe, she had to start anew with the one who already made her feel the beginnings of the things she wanted to avoid.
She might be married to the wrong Mallory, but that didn’t mean she had to surrender to the odd, scorching feelings he evoked. From now on, she would keep him at arm’s length. Eventually he’d lose interest and simply go away. She had seen it before.
The electricity of his touch on her bare wrist snapped her back to reality.
“It’s nearly eleven,” he said as he attempted to meet her eyes.
She ducked away to examine the gilding on the gold plate. There was no time like the present to start putting distance between them. She felt his frown rather than saw it, but it brought her no joy or flush of triumph.
“We should depart,” his voice was softer with this second attempt at conversation.
A few seats away, Sarah rose to her feet with a smirk. “Oh, must you?”
Katherine winced at her new sister-in-law’s harsh tone. The woman was an utter nightmare. Why in the world had Cole ever married such a witch? Her beauty was the only pleasant thing about her.
“Sit down, Sarah,” Cole said in a low voice that made even the minister glance up from his ham.
Dominic settled Katherine’s hand in the crook of his arm and ignored the entire exchange as if it had never happened. “The sooner we get on the road, the sooner we’ll reach Lansing Square. Once we’re there, the talk and the gossip will begin to subside.”
“And Lord knows, that will be the best for us all,” Larissa agreed with a false smile as she rose to her feet and looked from one son to the other. “We must avoid more scandal at all costs.”
“You’ve always believed that, haven’t you, Mother?” Dominic muttered coldly as he began to lead Katherine from the dining room toward the foyer. Behind them, the family followed.
“Shut up, Dominic,” Cole snapped.
Dominic spun back to face his brother. With wide eyes, Katherine watched the two men square off. Both looked like any word would lead to a strike. More troublesome was that Sarah stood nearby, grinning as if this fight were an entertainment and not something to be prevented. It put her to mind of Dominic’s comment the previous day. That Sarah liked to instigate trouble, or at least bear witness to it.
Katherine stared between Sarah, Dominic and Cole. There was obviously no love lost between the trio, but why did the tension exist? Sarah’s comment the day before about Dominic taking Cole’s leavings rang in her head again. She could hardly trust Sarah’s implications, but Cole was another story. She respected and liked her former fiancé. His disdain for Dominic made her wonder about her new husband.
Julia stepped forward and inserted herself between the two men. “Come now,” she said softly, staring evenly at Dominic. “Say goodbye to me.”
Dominic’s face softened as he hugged his sister. Then he turned back to Katherine with eyes that pinioned her. “Say your farewells. It’s well past time we departed.”
Katherine nodded slowly, barely able to move under her husband’s close stare. As she said mechanical goodbyes to the Mallorys and her guardians, she stole another look at Dominic. He stood impassively by the carriage door, waiting to help her inside. Whatever kind of man he was, it was too late to turn back now. She was Katherine Mallory. And she was being led away from the life she’d so carefully planned by a man she both desired and feared.
Dominic looked up from the papers in his lap to slant his new bride a glance. Though he knew she sensed his stare by the way she tensed, she made quite a show out of turning the next page in her manuscript like he wasn’t even there. Stifling a grin, he leaned over the expanse of space between them and placed a finger at the top of her book. With just a nudge, he lowered it until she was forced to look at him.
“Good day, Mrs. Mallory,” he teased with his most dashing grin—one, it appeared, she wasn’t completely immune to. Her cheeks dusted pink and her eyes widened. Then she smiled and Dominic’s world changed.
Whether he wanted her or not, this was his wife. And at present, he wanted her very much. That would change in the future, of course, but he intended to enjoy every moment of the desire while it lasted.
“And a good afternoon to you, Mr. Mallory.” Her expression wavered as her blush deepened. “Was there some reason you interrupted my reading?”
With a short burst of laughter, he leaned back to fold his arms. “What is your story about, Kat?”
She b
linked. Once. Twice. “E-Excuse me?”
“You’ve been ‘reading’ since we began this journey nearly five hours ago. What is your book about?” He slipped the tome in question from her hands and flipped through the pages. “We could start with the main character’s name. What is it?”
Her mouth dropped open. She struggled for an answer. “It’s…it’s…”
“Matilda.” His smile widened. “And our illustrious hero?”
“Of course, his name is…” She twisted her mouth, then shrugged in surrender.
“Gerald.” He cocked his head as he looked again. “Good God, those are awful names.” With little fanfare, he tossed the book on the seat beside him and leaned closer. “Now, why don’t you tell me why you’ve been pretending to read? Am I such very awful company?”
“Well…” she trailed off with a sparkle of teasing in her eyes that took him off guard.
“Oh, that’s good for a man’s ego,” he laughed.
“I doubt your ego suffers much,” she said with a grin of her own. Then she turned serious. “I’m just…I feel awkward,” she admitted with a shrug of one slender shoulder.
“You, awkward?” he asked to lighten the mood. “Impossible.”
She shook her head, refusing to continue the banter they shared a moment before. Dominic was filled with sudden, unexpected disappointment at that fact. Though he had not invited it, he liked the spark between them, the connection he had not shared with any woman in his memory.
She sighed. “You know what I mean. We hardly know each other, and yet we find ourselves bound for the rest of our lives. What can you say to bridge that fact?”
Gripping the seat edge, he leaned forward until they were just a breath apart. “How about what’s your favorite color?”
She laughed despite her widening eyes. “I’ve always been partial to lavender.”
Taking a breath of her scent, he nodded. “Of course you are. And my favorite color is green. Jade green.”
He let his gaze linger on that very color, reflected in her shimmering eyes. His compliment didn’t fail to hit its mark, for she turned those jade eyes away with a small smile.
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