Read Online The Earl Claims His Wife by Cathy Maxwell - Free Book Online Page B

his eye. He meant to sleep with her and win her over. He truly thought that she was that simple.
    So much for the pact.
    But if he thought she was the same foolish girl he’d married years ago, he was wrong.
    A woman’s will was much stronger than a man’s…and her husband deserved the lesson she was going to happily teach him. Her heart belonged to Andres and there was no way to make the fact clearer than letting Wright know exactly where he stood in that most sensitive of marital battlegrounds—the bed.
    “May I have another glass of sherry, my lord?” she asked sweetly.
    “Certainly,” he said, almost filling the glass to the brim. He lifted his in a toast. “To tonight.”
    Men could be such fools. Four years ago, she hadn’t understood the power a woman could exercise over one of them. Now, she did.
    “Yes, to tonight,” she echoed.

    Brian sensed a new ruthlessness to his wife, especially when she gave him such a sweet, “come hither”
    smile.
    She was laying a trap. Years in the military gave him a sense of when to be wary.
    And the problem was, the very male part of him didn’t care if it was a trap or not. That part of his anatomy wanted to come to her “hither.”

    It had been a long time since he had made love. Too long. Yes, he did want to share a bed with Gillian. Not only were they man and wife, but she had quickly become one of the most fascinating women he’d ever met.
    Muscles that had been sore with exhaustion from weeks of sleepless nights now hummed with energy and he went light-headed as blood flowed to another part of his body.
    Gillian slid a look at him from beneath her dark lashes with a feminine knowledge as old as time. She knew she had him hard.
    And he knew she couldn’t wait to rebuff him.
    It was suddenly a game of cat and mouse they were playing. The question was, which one of them was the cat?
    Brian grinned, certain it would be him.

Chapter Five
    Wright’s arm came over to rest protectively on the back of her chair as he held up the sherry bottle.
    “More?”
    Gillian had to swallow a smile. This was almost too easy. She knew his intentions. Fortunately she had a good head for drink, but she shook her head anyway. “I’m fine.”
    He frowned his disappointment as he set the bottle back on the table.
    He did not remove his arm. A moment later, the innkeeper brought over a bottle of wine. Gillian did let Wright pour her a glass and his spirits seemed to be restored by that small allowance. It was actually a respectable vintage and went well with the chicken. Gillian felt herself start to relax.
    The truth was, Wright could be a charming companion. Especially when he set his mind to the task.
    He started telling her the tale of a Portuguese boy who had climbed to the highest boughs of a tree to save a cat. Both of them became too afraid to climb back down. Wright’s soldiers managed to bring the boy out of the tree but the child was distraught until they agreed to save the cat. The smallest man under Wright’s command had bravely climbed for the cat, only to have the animal hiss and claw at him.
    In the end, Wright had gone up himself.
    “You are adept at climbing trees?” she asked.
    “I am one of the best,” he answered.
    Gillian frowned her disbelief and he laughed. “It’s true,” he assured her. “I like climbing them. The higher the better. I climbed almost every one of them at High Meadows.” High Meadows was the Atherton country seat estate in Berkshire. “But I understand why you are laughing. My men weren’t too certain of me either. I had arrived only a few weeks before. I was an untested officer, the worst sort.”
    “So what happened?” Gillian asked.
    “I proceeded to climb the tree,” Wright said, cutting a slice of his chicken. “Unfortunately, the cat kept moving—upward.”
    “Perhaps he didn’t want to be rescued,” she suggested, drawing a parallel with her own circumstance.
    He indicated with a lift of his brow he knew what she