Adrian laughed. “I don’t think you know what you need.”
As the door muffled their remaining argument, Katherine paused to lean back on the wall. For some reason her hands trembled and her heart fluttered. In the back of her mind, a nagging voice told her she didn’t know what she needed any more than Adrian Malleville claimed her husband did.
“What did you tell her?” Dominic asked, just barely keeping his anger in check. If he reminded himself that this man was the best friend he ever had, he could just do it.
“Nothing she hadn’t already guessed.” Adrian sat back down with a sigh and watched Dominic pace. “What are you so afraid of?”
Though he didn’t acknowledge the question to his friend, it was the same one Dominic had been asking himself. It shouldn’t matter what Katherine knew or how she felt. Not unless he cared for her. Which he did not, at least, not beyond the overpowering desire that throbbed through him whenever she passed by.
Anything more than that was sentimental rubbish. His body playing tricks on his mind.
“You had no right to pry,” he said. “Did you tell her about my father? About my bargain with Colden?”
He couldn’t imagine either of those things had come up. Knowing she married a bastard would have left her shocked enough, but if Katherine had discovered he married her for the sake of a trade, he doubted she would have left the room as calmly as she did.
Adrian stared at him and his eyes reflected the anger Dominic felt for a brief moment. It was rare for Adrian to show such volatile emotions, and he stopped pacing in surprise.
“What do you take me for, Dominic? Have you forgotten I’m on your side?” his friend asked in a low, dangerous voice. “I do believe your wife has a right to know about your disgusting deal, and the reasons behind it, but I think she should hear the truth from you. I want you to come to your senses before it’s too late, but I would never betray you by telling her.”
Dominic sank into a chair with a mixture of relief and guilt. “No, of course not. I’m sorry.” He put his hands over his eyes. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. It’s this damn search.”
“If you say so.”
He uncovered one eye to glare at his friend. “What did you tell her?”
“Why don’t you ask her?” Adrian sighed.
Dominic let out an exasperated curse.
Adrian shrugged. “I told her you were very angry when I met you. I told her your family wasn’t always kind to you. Both facts I believe she guessed herself or heard from your own lips.”
He nodded. Yes, Katherine did know those two things already. But having Adrian tell her made him uncomfortable.
“I don’t want her pity,” he murmured, more to himself than to his friend.
The Baron tilted his head in surprise. “What do you want?”
Conflicting desires raced through Dominic’s head. He wanted to know the truth. He wanted things to go back to the simplicity he’d enjoyed before his wild Kat had fallen into his life. And yet, despite those things, he wanted her to stay with him even more, even though he knew desire ultimately faded.
“I don’t know,” he finally admitted.
Adrian was quiet for a long moment before he said, “Perhaps that’s part of the problem.” Then he stood to clap Dominic on the back. “One way or another, I doubt you’re going to find the answer any time this evening. It’s almost time for supper. You’ll give yourself indigestion worrying over this. There will be plenty of time for your brooding later.”
Yes, if there was one thing Dominic knew about himself, he could always make time for brooding.
Katherine didn’t want to be the cause of any more strife between her husband and his best friend, and she was determined not to be. This supper would be pleasant and without controversy.
Of course, Dominic seemed to create controversy wherever he went, but she was going to do her damndest.
Her heart throbbed with nervousness as she approached Dominic’s office, where Matthews said the two men were having a drink. She didn’t know what to expect. Judging from the way she left them earlier, she could possibly find them at blows over what Adrian had or had not confided in her.
With caution, she tapped the door open and was surprised to be greeted by a roar. Not one of anger or frustration, but one of laughter. Both men leaned on the mantelpiece, bent over in loud, raucous laughter.
She’d never seen her husband look as he did at that moment. Certainly, he had laughed with her, but he’d never completely let down his guard. With Adrian, it was different. The caution was gone from his gray eyes, the worry. He seemed younger, more carefree, and utterly at peace, just for a flash of a moment.
She found herself wishing she could make him laugh like that. That he would trust her enough to be as open in her presence as he was in his friend’s.
Shaking away the thoughts of things she shouldn’t desire, she entered the room with a quiet clearing of her throat.
“I’m sorry to bother you, gentlemen,” she said with an apologetic nod of her head.
Dominic stopped laughing and turned to face her. Though his smile remained, the guard returned. She was foolishly disappointed.
“Kat,” he drawled. “You should have come earlier. Though some of Adrian’s tales probably weren’t fit for a lady’s ears.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “But supper is ready now and I would love to hear unladylike tales over our venison.”
Adrian barked out a laugh as he came to her side to offer her his arm. She took it without hesitation and let him lead her to the dining room. She threw only one glance over her shoulder at Dominic, who was following behind them with a grin warming his usually hard, handsome features.
With her heart throbbing, she took her seat and motioned for the servants to begin bringing their supper.
“I’m sure you and my husband have many tales I will never hear,” she teased with a wink for Dominic.
Adrian smiled. “Not too many, I assure you. Dominic and I were more often entangled in business than we were in pleasurable pursuits. Don’t let this man fool you. He isn’t the rogue he would lead you to believe.”
Her heart fluttered. Much of her continuing resistance to Dominic was based on an imagined reputation—on her acquired knowledge of rakes and her belief that they could never change. Was Adrian being genuine in his denial? Or was he only trying to make up for his earlier conversation with her?
Darting her gaze between the two men, she couldn’t be sure. Forcing a laugh, she said, “And here I thought I was reforming a rake.”
“You are,” Dominic said from the head of the table, his tone full of laughter even as his intense gaze gave her no doubt what he’d rather be doing at the moment. And it had nothing to do with light supper banter or his soup.
She turned away in order to maintain some level of decorum. How was it that just one look from the man could leave her a senseless, blithering idiot?
“Dominic never told me if you were married, my lord?” she said, searching for any topic that would be safer than her husband’s suspect reputation.
Adrian cast a look in the other man’s direction. “Honestly, did you tell her nothing? I’m surprised she knew of my existence at all.” With a playful frown, he returned his attention to her. “No, Mrs. Mallory, I’ve not had the pleasure of married life as of yet.”
She cocked her head. Surely this handsome, witty man could have had his pick of lasses in the marriage mart. She wondered why he’d entered his middle age without choosing one.
“Adrian prefers giving advice rather than taking it,” Dominic chuckled.
Katherine shook her head with a laugh at the way the two friends played off of each other.
Suddenly, Adrian grew more serious. “I still believe in love, whether I’ve found it myself or not. And when I do meet the right woman, I think it will sweep me off my feet like a thunderbolt.”
Katherine smiled at the Baron’s sweet description of his hopes for love at first
sight. But even as the conversation drifted into more boring topics, she couldn’t help but steal a glance down the table at Dominic. From the first moment she met him, he captured her attention and her desire.
But was there really such a thing as love that lasted? Love that didn’t destroy?
Dominic pulled a messy knot in his robe tie and folded his arms as he looked out the bedroom window over the estate. He was happy to be alone. At least, that was what he’d been trying to convince himself since Katherine sent word she would be staying in her own chambers rather than the master bed.
No matter how much his pride stung, it was better this way. He needed to think. Adrian put too many questions in his head. Confusing comments about emotion versus desire. And now Dominic had to decide if he should tell Katherine the truth or not.
He let out his breath in a low groan. He could only imagine her reaction when he explained what he’d done. She would be furious. The light that sometimes glimmered in her eyes when she looked at him would be forever extinguished. And right or wrong, he wasn’t sure he wanted to face that possibility.
He jumped when the door behind him creaked open. Pivoting, he was surprised to see his wife standing in the opening between her chamber and his. She seemed as unsure as he was as to why she was there.
“Katherine?” he whispered, unwilling to ruin the moment by speaking any louder.
And he didn’t want to spoil this moment. Not when her ebony hair spilled around her bare shoulders. Not when he could see the faintest outline of her dark nipples beneath the thin sheath of her nightdress. Not when her eyes were glazed with just a hint of desire.
But was desire enough? He’d never seen a relationship survive past lust. His mother and Harrison Mallory always had a miserable marriage. One that had been forced, much like his own to Katherine.
Larissa had turned to another, a man she claimed to love, but even their love hadn’t survived.
He and Katherine had no benefit of emotion or love to bring them together. She had wanted his brother, but settled for him when it was clear she had no choice. That she desired him now was only pure luck.
And for his part? He was lying to her every day.
Adrian said Katherine was his future, if only he surrendered to the spark that danced between them. But was anyone capable of taking a spark of desire and making it into a lifelong flame?
“Dominic,” she said softly.
He stiffened. Pleasure rushed through him when she said his name. He cleared his throat. “I thought you were going to sleep in your chamber tonight. Isn’t that the message you sent me?”
“My room was empty,” she said softly as she passed the threshold of the door and entered his room completely. Silently, she pulled the door shut behind her. “Cold.”
He met her eyes and a sudden, terrible thought occurred to him. Earlier he overheard Adrian telling Katherine about his past. Was this overture of hers because of pity?
“Don’t come here because of some distressing story Adrian told you.” He turned away because he could barely stand to look at her without touching her. “I don’t want your consolation.”
“I’m not here to console you,” she said. Her hand curled around his bicep and all his nerves shot electricity at once. The reaction nearly brought him to his knees.
“Then why are you here?”
He turned around to look into her face. He wanted to see her expression when she answered. Her eyes were clear as newly cut jade, pure and full of so much emotion and desire that it hurt him to look at her.
“I’m here because I—I want you.” She blushed with her admission.
He shut his eyes. Want. Desire. Nothing more.
Adrian was just putting romantic notions in his head that more was possible. That the warmth which filled him when he looked at Katherine was love.
She stepped closer. With trembling fingers, she worked his robe tie open and slipped her hands inside to play along his bare chest. He hissed out an incoherent sound of pleasure before he regained control. Her hands were hot on his skin, hotter than the fire he’d been examining moments before. Hotter than anything he felt before. And he wanted her to burn him, to brand him as he had branded her so many times.
“I want you, too,” he whispered.
Katherine rose to her tiptoes and kissed him with such passion that his knees nearly buckled. Her nails raked across his chest. He arched against her touch and the skilled tongue tracing his jawline, then his throat, to his collarbone.
“Kat,” he breathed before he yanked her up against him.
To his surprise, she pushed back with a small smile and a tiny shake of her head.
“Not this time, Dominic,” she admonished in a low, husky whisper designed to drive him mad. “This time I’m going to make love to you.”
He wouldn’t have admitted it, not even under torture, but for a brief moment he thought he might actually swoon with desire. Hot blood pumped to his ever-increasing erection and she hadn’t touched him in any way beyond a tease. It was her voice.
“I want to make you call out my name,” she continued, her words like honey as she pulled his robe down his shoulders. Her smile grew wicked as she realized not only was he naked beneath the thin silk, but at complete attention. “I want you.”
He had a pithy reply on the tip of his tongue, but she never allowed him to say it. Before he could, she surged back up and claimed his lips again. Tasting, teasing, she nibbled at his lower lip, then plunged her tongue into the cavern of his mouth. Her kiss was merciless and claiming, as he knew his own had been so many times.
But this time he was at her command, and he wouldn’t refuse anything she asked. He couldn’t. If need was all they were capable of sharing, he would enjoy each and every moment like it was the last. He’d seen enough to know it very well could be.
Katherine’s head was swimming with desire and newfound power. She liked being the one to control their lovemaking. Even more, she liked the way Dominic let out a low, deep growl when she thrust her tongue in and out of his mouth, mimicking the way their bodies joined. It seemed he was no more immune than she to the sensual tension created by each touch.
Carefully, she guided him to their large bed, until his muscular, defined thighs knocked against the edge. Then she extracted herself from his embrace and gave him what she hoped was a wicked, teasing smile.
“Lay down,” she ordered, though her voice trembled a bit more than she would have liked.
He stared at her for a long moment before he did as she asked. Her hands trembled as she slipped her chemise straps down over her elbows and let her nightdress pool at her feet. For some inexplicable reason, she felt nervous. Almost like she had on her wedding night.
It was ridiculous. They had made love before; she knew what she needed to do. Except she didn’t. She had never taken control. She’d never made love to him. And now she wanted to. Not for pity or consolation, as he had charged. But because she wanted to spark the same need in him that he always sparked in her. And because she desperately hoped to find some way to regain control over her body and wavering emotions.
“My God, you’re beautiful in this light,” he murmured just above a whisper.
She blushed as she took a glance at the firelight behind her. It did outline her perfectly, though it wasn’t by design. Perhaps it was a sign that fate wanted her to give him this night of pleasure.
“You should see yourself in it,” she whispered as she slid her naked body across the sheets.
He reached out for her, but she kept just out of his grasp. “No, no, no,” she admonished. “Lie back.”
Arching an eyebrow, he said, “And what if I don’t want to be a passive partner in your game, my little Kat?”
She placed a hand against the wiry hair of his calf and gently stroked her way up to his knee. He sucked in air with a loud hiss and she smiled.
“Oh, Dominic. There’s no way you’re going to be passive.”
She petted her way up the outsid
e of his thigh to his hip, then trailed her fingers to the inside. He strained toward her, but she pointedly refused to touch his erection. Not yet.
“In fact, I’m going to insure you are an active and willing participant,” she whispered with more seductive flare than she would have imagined she possessed.
Dominic groaned as she leaned forward a few inches. Her long, lush hair tickled his hip, coming dangerously close to his manhood before it trailed up his chest. He reached out instinctively to take her into his embrace, but instead of falling into his arms, Katherine smiled, then grabbed his wrists and pressed them above his head.
“You already know the answer to your unspoken question is no.”
Her face was only inches from his now. Her breath smelled sweet, like strawberries. It mingled with the flowery scent of her hair to create a heaven he could lose himself in forever.
Then she kissed him and he decided losing himself in her taste would be much closer to perfection. Funny how he’d never noticed a woman’s flavor before, but Kat was like no woman he’d ever known. Her lips were like wine and her skin cream. He had no doubt he could feast on her body for days before he needed other sustenance. A wicked part of him wanted to test that theory.
She pulled back, but he could tell by the glaze of her eyes that a bit of her control had cracked with the kiss. Still, she pressed down on his wrists as a gentle warning before she let go to lightly play her fingers along his chest.
“I love to kiss you,” she whispered as she traced a line down the apex of his body. She swirled one curved nail around his nipple and an arch of heat went straight to the thrust of muscle between his legs.
“Then do it again,” he ordered. His voice was rough with naked need, but he didn’t care. It was obvious she already knew how weak to her he was.
She laughed. “Very well.”
Inch by inch she lowered her mouth, but not to his lips. Instead, she placed a hot, wet kiss on the nipple she’d been playing with a moment before. He groaned before he could check his reaction. She smiled against his skin, then flicked just the tip of her tongue against the ridge a second time. His erection actually twitched in response.
Scandalous Page 14