Read Online Jo Beverley - [Malloren] by Secrets of the Night - Free Book Online

petticoat, a bowl of water, and some soap.
    Everything was in place. It would take something drastic to cause Millie to climb upstairs again, and Jessie had no reason to.
    Now what?
    Rosamunde wandered to the drawing room, tangled in uncertainty. What on earth was the etiquette of this extraordinary situation? When should she go upstairs?
    What would Lady Gillsett do?
    Lady Gillsett would doubtless be up there now, ogling his body as he shaved, poised to ravish him at the first opportunity. Rosamunde, however, skulked here, her courage fled to the far sides of the earth, leaving a sick, trembling jelly in its place.
    She squared her shoulders. Even with knocking knees and quivering insides, she was going to do this. Now!
    She went upstairs, and faced the door to her captive lover’s lair. Oh dear. She did feel like a Christian about to face the lions. Lud …
    Smoothing her hands down her simple green dress, she wondered if she should change back into her nightgown. She couldn’t. She couldn’t go in there like that in daytime.
    Whatever was to happen, she had to go through the door.
    She tied on her mask with nerve-tremored fingers, then had to wipe them again on her skirt before she could turn the key.
    Her heart thundered, and her lungs sucked desperately for breath.
    She went in.

Chapter 5
    H e lay in the bed as if he’d not moved, but he was scrubbed clean and smooth shaven. Naked to the hips, hair curling lazily on his shoulders, eyes steady on hers, he stole what breath remained.
    Don’t faint! she commanded herself, and did get some control, but she was suddenly sure this was impossible.
    With a quirk of his brow, he patted the bed.
    Rosamunde sucked in a deep breath, summoned Lady Gillsett, and sauntered over to hitch herself up beside her lover. Still fully dressed.
    Oh dear. Should she have stripped first?
    Looking down, she saw her scuffed and sensible shoes on top of the bedcovers. No one could be seduced in their shoes! She hastily eased them off and tipped them over the edge of the bed, hoping he hadn’t noticed.
    Her stockinged toes felt shamefully naked.
    Now, she supposed, she’d have to look at him.
    Her eyes skittered sideways. Puzzled and surprised summed up his expression.
    “My dear lady, if you want a merry tumble in payment for your care, I’ll give you that. But why don’t you tell me what you really want?”
    Rosamunde turned fiery hot beneath the mask. Damn him for not being stupid.
    It was tempting to tell him the truth, that she needed a child. But she daren’t. Too much hung in the balance here, and her virtue and reputation were the smallest part. The welfare of all the people attached to Wenscote rested on this moment.
    “Why do you doubt what I want?”
    “A remarkable lack of lust.”
    She looked at him then, really looked at him—strong neck, broad shoulders, sculptured chest, and a soothing hint of plain soap….
    “I lust,” she said, and it was true. It was an unfamiliar state, but she recognized it. A dizziness, as if her heart were not quite reliable. A strangeness on the skin, as if it might hurt to be touched.
    Or not exactly hurt …
    “Perhaps you do at that.” Taking her hand, her left hand, he fingered her ring. “If it wouldn’t offend, I’d like to know something of your husband.”
    What?
    Why?
    Would this man ever do the expected? Was he typical of men, or had she just snared a very unusual one?
    Since he seemed set on it, she gave him as much truth as she could, unsteadied by the brush of his fingers on hers. “My husband is a good man, a kind man. But old. He doesn’t …” That might ring alarm bells. “He rarely … er … claims his marital rights.”
    He raised her hand and kissed it, kissed it—deliberately, she was sure—by her wedding ring. “And you want me, here, now?”
    The brush of warm lips against fingers. Such a little thing to stir her so. “Yes,” she said, over a thudding heart. “I want you. Here. Now.”
    It was true, but