Nik in no way trivialized the rift in their marriage, knew that it was very real and, for Angelique, at least, must seem irreversible. But he had been an agent and spymaster for the Crown for over five years, and during that time, he had learned the advantage of patience. Whether he would be able to put that patience into practice where Angelique was concerned was another matter.
If anything, he wanted this new and indomitable Angelique even more deeply than he had the willing wife to his submission. Merely thinking of having such a strong and beautiful woman on her knees for him made his cock hard and throbbing.
Angelique would be his again.
He would accept nothing less.
“I thought I might return to Kent in the next few days,” Angelique announced to Nik as Gulliver finished serving the main course of their dinner. “It will be Christmas soon, and I should like time to put up the decorations and arrange gifts for the estate workers and their families.”
“Thank you, Gulliver. I will ring when we need you again.” Nik dismissed the butler, waiting until the man had left the room before answering Angelique, in no doubt she was using going to Kent as a ploy to remove herself from his company. “We will go to Kent together—”
“I am sure you are far too busy just now to bother yourself with such tedious household matters,” Angelique dismissed airily.
“On the contrary,” he drawled.
“But—”
“Your mother was apprehended in Portsmouth this afternoon, we believe with the intention of boarding a boat bound for France.”
Angelique drew her breath in sharply at this baldly made statement, knowing from the challenging expression on her husband’s face that he had done so deliberately. Possibly as a way to jolt her out of the polite conversation she had been making since the two of them joined each other for dinner.
There was no denying Angelique was shocked. Her mother’s actions in trying to flee the country seemed to confirm her guilt. But only of treason, or also of Lord Holmes’s murder?
“She has been brought back to London for questioning,” Nik added grimly.
Angelique drew in a shaky breath. “I want to see her.”
“I am not sure that is a good idea.”
“I want to see and talk to her,” Angelique repeated firmly. “I am sure you must be able to arrange that.”
Nik eyed her guardedly. “That depends on the reason you wish to see her.”
Angelique felt the flush of anger in her cheeks. “I want to know how she could do such a thing. Why she would betray her country and family and—and possibly have killed Lord Holmes.”
He shrugged. “From all accounts, she is not saying much at all at the moment.”
“Then perhaps I might be able to make her do so,” Angelique reasoned.
Nik could see some merit in Angelique’s suggestion, but he could also see ways in which Jacqueline Kingston might try to hurt her daughter. He was no longer fooled by Lady Jacqueline’s scatterbrained and obnoxious behavior. It would have taken an intelligent and devious mind to practice such subterfuge as she had been doing all these months, possibly years. The sort of devious intelligence that might think up any number of ways in which to hurt Angelique more than she had already been.
Jacqueline Kingston might not be the fool they had all taken her to be for so many years, but she was a traitor. With the specter of the gallows in her near future, she had nothing left to lose by anything she did or said. Nik had always believed Angelique to be far more loyal to her mother than Lady Jacqueline was to her daughter.
Except Angelique was not the same considerate and concerned daughter she had once been.
Any more than she was his beautiful, vivacious, and yet deliciously sexually submissive wife.
“I will see what can be arranged,” he said cautiously.
Angelique nodded. “I would appreciate that.”
Nik had to bite his tongue to prevent himself from asking how much she would appreciate it. Their conversation before and during dinner had been the stilted politeness of acquaintances rather than husband and wife, but he did not wish to risk even that tenuous truce by overstepping the line Angelique had drawn in the sand between them.
Except, unlike the Macedonian king challenged by the Roman senator, Popillius Laenes, Nik had every intention of eventually stepping over that line. Not to do so would be to accept her decision to end the physical side of their marriage.
He nodded. “I will speak with the Prince Regent tomorrow. I will also be giving him my resignation as a spymaster for the Crown.”
Angelique frowned her irritation. “I really wish you would not.”
“Why?”
Her gaze dropped from meeting his. “I have already told you the reason why.”
“Because it keeps me occupied,” he said dryly.
“Exactly.”
“Perhaps I would appreciate being less occupied and having more time to spend with my wife.”
She eyed him skeptically. “It is a little late for that.”
His lips thinned. “It does not have to be.”
Angelique let out a heavy sigh. “I really do not know what to do with all of this sudden…consideration for my feelings.”
Nik tilted his head to observe her across the table. She looked beautiful in a russet-colored gown that complemented the red of her hair and pale ivory skin. Beautiful and desirable, and no older than that night he had looked at her three years ago and actually seen her for the first time rather than looked through her as he did all the young debutantes.
And fallen in love with her?
Love was a concept Nik had never even thought about, let alone whether or not he felt the emotion for Angelique. He had offered for her and been accepted, and once she was his wife, declarations of affection or love had been unnecessary.
At least, he had thought they had.
He’d had time these past few days to realize he had never once told Angelique how much he admired and desired her. Perhaps shown the latter by his actions in the bedchamber, yes, but he had never said those words to her.
“Angelique—”
“I believe I shall go to bed.” She placed her napkin on the tabletop before standing abruptly.
“You have not finished eating your meal.”
“I am not hungry, and I also have a slight headache. No doubt it will be cured by a good night’s sleep.” She gave a brief nod before departing the room.
Nik knew Angelique’s words for the warning they were meant to be. She did not wish him to disturb her by attempting to join her in her bedchamber later tonight.
Which was exactly what Nik intended doing.
Angelique had, after all, declared she would never join him in his bed again. That did not mean he could not join Angelique in hers.
Angelique gave her husband a startled glance as he entered her bedchamber after the briefest of knocks. “What are you doing in here?”
He raised dark brows. “Joining my wife, of course.” He glanced about the room. “This is not as large as your previous bedchamber.”
The new bedchamber felt altogether strange to Angelique after sleeping in the one adjoining Nik’s for so long.
The maid had left her some time ago, after helping take the pins from Angelique’s hair and assisting her to undress and put on her nightrail. But this was the only occupied bedchamber at the back and the house, and it was so quiet here, with no carriages passing on the road outside and no late-night revelers making their way home, that every creak and noise in the house sounded alien to her.
Knowing she would only think of Nik if she went to bed, she had pulled on a robe over her nightrail to sit in a chair by the window and attempt to read a book by the candlelight.
Except her thoughts had kept wandering from the story in the book.
To Nik.
Always to Nik.
It was one thing to declare their physical relationship at an end, quite another to convince her body of that fact. She ached. No
t necessarily for physical lovemaking, but to have Nik’s arms about her, at least. To know and feel the warmth of his body lying in the bed beside her.
She needed that closeness tonight. Needed him.
Now here Nik was, as if conjured from her need for having him close.
He had removed his evening clothes and now wore a black brocade robe that reached to his bare ankles and feet. His dark hair was rakishly tousled, as if he had spent some time running his fingers through it before coming here.
Because he was unsure of his welcome if he came to her bedchamber?
Despite her having told him as much, such uncertainty of purpose did not belong to the man Angelique had come to know these past three years. Nik had always known what he wanted and how to get it. Including her.
“I did not change bedchambers for the purpose of having a larger room,” she answered frostily.
He turned that ice-blue gaze back on her. “Removing yourself to a bedchamber on the other side of the house is not sufficient reason to deter me from joining my wife in her bed.”
Angelique frowned her frustration. “But it should have been indicative of my reluctance to have you here.”
Nik shrugged. “I wish to sleep beside my wife tonight.” He unfastened the belt on his robe before removing it completely, turning to drape it over the stool in front of the dressing table.
Angelique’s mouth became dry as she stared at the long lines of Nik’s bare and muscular back as he bent to take something from the pockets of his robe. His shoulders were extremely wide, muscles rippling down the long length of his back, his buttocks taut and equally muscled. His heavy sac was just visible between his slightly parted legs, as was his long and hardening cock.
He turned to face her. “I brought these with me in case you had need of them.” He held up several pieces of black silk, as opposed to the red ones he had used to restrain her in Kent two nights ago.
Angelique’s already flushed cheeks burned with irritated temper. “I thought I had made it clear I have no further wish to join in your games, tonight or any other night.”
“Oh, these are not for me to play with you,” he assured her mildly. “I thought you might enjoy doing the honors to me tonight.” He held out the silk scarves to her.
Angelique stared at the trails of black silk as if they were vipers that were about to strike at any moment. Nik was inviting her to tie him to the bed? He had never done such a thing before. “If this is some misguided attempt on your part to atone for your previous despicable behavior—”
“Are you saying you have never thought of how it might feel to restrain me?” he challenged. “Of making me suffer, to hear me beg and see me squirm, while you torment and arouse me to the point of madness?”
Of course, Angelique had thought of it. She had imagined any number of things she might enjoy doing to her husband once he was tied and helpless to resist. But that was before. They could not… She could not…
Why not?
Nik deserved to suffer after what he had done to her. He deserved to be tormented until he begged for completion, as he had so often done to her.
Could she really do this?
And if she did, was it not completely contrary to her earlier declaration that this part of their marriage was over?
Chapter 15
Nik could see the war currently waging within Angelique.
The temptation to either tie him to the four-poster bed and arouse and tease him until he begged her to give him release, as he had so often done to her in the past. Or to maintain her stance that she no longer wished for the physical side of their marriage to continue, before asking him to leave her bedchamber.
Nik did his best to wait patiently for Angelique’s answer. But his cock was now fully engorged and his sac pulled tight beneath. Both those things were making it difficult for him not to start begging before he was even tied to the bed.
His breath caught in his throat, heart thumping loudly, as Angelique raised her chin as she obviously came to her decision.
“Lie on the bed,” she instructed in an imitation of that commanding voice he so often used on her.
Nik felt himself balk at the command even as his cock throbbed in approval, pre-cum slicking the mushroomed head.
The offer for him to be tied to the bed had seemed the only way to reach Angelique as he paced his bedchamber earlier, trying to decide how he should approach this. Indecision was as alien to him as submitting to a woman’s command.
But this was not just any woman, it was Angelique. If tying him to the bed and sexually torturing him was what it would take to heal this breach between them, then he would gladly submit to her every night for the rest of their lives.
Angelique was uncertain who was more surprised, Nik or herself, when he moved gracefully to the bed before lying on his back in the center of it, his only movement his head as he turned to look at her.
Her hands were shaking, her palms damp, and there was a tight band across her chest that prevented her from breathing properly.
“Arms above your head, legs as apart as you can make them,” she ordered abruptly.
Oh God…
Having Nik obey her, his naked body now stretched out at her command, the hardness of his roused cock and balls completely exposed, pre-cum glistening on the bulbous top of his cock, caused Angelique’s nipples to tighten and a gush of hot juices to flood between her thighs.
Was this how she looked to Nik on the nights she visited his bedchamber?
Naked body glowing golden in the candlelight. Nipples hard nubbins. Totally aroused and throbbing. And all there to be enjoyed, to be teased and tormented, or to pleasure.
If so, no wonder Nik relished those nights with her so much.
As Angelique did.
Had.
If she continued with this, then she would not be able to step back from it, knew it would be impossible for her to do so when she already felt this heady sense of triumph at Nik’s submission. He wasn’t yet tied to the bed, but once he was, he would be completely at her mercy. She could play with him, torment him, torture him, even fuck herself on his hard cock for as long as she pleased while denying him his own release, and he would be unable to do anything to stop her.
She frowned her uncertainty as to whether or not that was what she wanted. What Nik wanted. “Are you sure you wish to continue with this?”
“No,” he answered honestly. “But I will do it. For you.”
“Why?”
“Because you are my wife, and I need to make reparation for having wronged you.”
“Like this?”
“Exactly like this.” He nodded, a nerve pulsing in the tightness of his jaw. “If I had a whip in the room, I would ask you to flog me with it.”
“No!” she gasped. “I could never… This is a bad idea, Nik.” She turned away, her shaking hands tightly clasped together in front of her. “Please leave.”
“Angelique—”
“I asked you to leave.”
“I am offering myself freely to you. I promise there will be no repercussions—”
“And I have refused.”
“Why?”
She drew in a shaky breath. “I am so angry with you right now, I am not sure I would know when to stop,” she admitted shakily. “That I would even want to stop.”
“I will not ask you to do so.” His voice was a husky rasp and sounded so close, Angelique knew he was no longer lying on the bed but standing behind her. The warmth of his breath was a caress against her skin, the heat of his body melting some of the ice within her.
Even so, Angelique refused to turn and face him, knowing that if she once looked at Nik, she would be unable to resist the allure of his hard and sensual body or that heady aroma that was partly his cologne and the rest his natural male musk.
She could almost taste the pre-cum she had seen dripping from his glistening cockhead. Almost feel that velvety soft skin against her lips and tongue as she sucked his cock into her m
outh. The roughness of the sac beneath as she cupped his balls in one of her hands as the other stroked along that hard and throbbing length.
“If you will not punish me, will you allow me to make love to you?” Nik prompted huskily.
Her breath drew in sharply. She was tempted. So very tempted.
“Angelique…?” Nik’s gentle hands on her shoulders turned her slowly to face him, his eyes glittering a pale blue. “Will you let me show you how much I desire you and want to be close to you?”
Desire.
Want.
But never love.
Angelique could not, would not ever again accept the little Nik was prepared to give her. “No,” she answered evenly.
Nik flinched at the lack of emotion in Angelique’s voice, her denial so completely contrary to the press of her aroused nipples clearly outlined against her clothing and the heady musk of her arousal. Both told him that he could seduce her into wanting him.
But what would it really achieve if he made love to Angelique, knowing it wasn’t what she really wanted but was only a consequence of the betrayal of her own body?
To take advantage of that would only succeed in driving Angelique even further away from him.
“Very well.” He nodded before stepping back to gather up and pull on his robe before securing the belt about his waist. “I will make the necessary arrangements to accompany you to visit your mother tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
He hesitated at the door. “If you should change your mind—”
“I will not.”
That pain in Nik’s chest was back. Not a physical pain but an emotional one, as he sensed Angelique was slipping further and further away from him with the passing of each second.
Soon, she would be so emotionally out of his reach, there would be no going back.
For either of them.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Nik scowled. He’d arrived with Angelique a few minutes ago at the house where Jacqueline Kingston was being held and questioned, only to be informed by her guards that Viscount and Viscountess Romney were already here. “You were married only yesterday and should now be on your honeymoon.”
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