Page 4 of How To Seduce A Wife

With extreme trepidation, Louisa opened the door to the breakfast parlor. It was only eight in the morning, and she hoped to catch her husband before he went about his daily business. Not that she knew quite what he did all day, only that he was rarely home, leaving her to her own devices. The smell of coffee, sausages, and toast assailed her nostrils, and her stomach growled.

Louisa slapped a hand over her stomach and felt herself start to blush. At the table, the newspaper twitched to one side to reveal her husband’s startled face. Nicholas rose to his feet and bowed. He was dressed in a brown coat, buckskin breeches, and top boots as if he intended to go riding. “Good morning, my dear.”

“Good morning, my lord.”

Before he could come around the table to aid her, she slipped into a chair opposite him and sat down with an audible thump. The solitary footman poured her some tea and provided her with her usual plate of toast and marmalade. She glanced at the back of the newspaper, but there was no further sign of Nicholas.

Louisa nibbled her toast and sipped her tea, the sounds loud in the quiet of the sunny breakfast room. Eventually, she sighed so hard that the pages of theTimesbuckled inward. A moment later, Nicholas’s face appeared.

“Is there something you wish to discuss with me, my lady?”

Despite the fact that he was smiling, there was none of the genial warmth that normally filled his blue eyes when he spoke to her. She swallowed hard and only succeeded in choking on her toast. By the time she finished coughing, Nicholas had dismissed the footman and put down his paper.

“I wish to apologize, my lord.”

He raised an eyebrow. “For what?”

She made a helpless gesture. “I should never have spoken to you so openly. My motherinsistedthat I shouldneverdisagree with you. Apparently men don’t like their wives to think for themselves or have an opinion aboutanything,let alone the delicate topic of marital relations.”

A smile flickered at the corner of his generous mouth. “Indeed.”

She tried to look apologetic. “If we could just go back to the way things were? I promise I’ll keep my immodest opinions to myself and simply agree with everything you say.”

He frowned. “But I don’t think I’d like that at all.”

“Are you sure? Most menseemto like it, although in my opinion, if that is all they require in a wife, they might as well purchase a parrot.”

A dimple appeared on Nicholas’s cheek, and Louisa clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, I’m so sorry and after I promised to keep quiet.”

He regarded her seriously. “I can’t see how we can go back to where we were, and, to be honest, would you want to? If I can counter your honesty with some of my own, I confess I haven’t exactly looked forward to sharing your bed.”

“Oh.” Louisa folded her napkin and looked down at the toast crumbs scattered over the pristine white linen tablecloth. She jumped as Nicholas reached across the table and grasped her hand.

“Louisa, we can do better than this, don’t you think?”

“I’m not sure, my lord. What exactly do you require me to do?”

“To start with, you can stop pretending you no longer have an opinion of your own. I’m quite sure you do.” He hesitated. “I’m not that much of an ogre am I?”

She looked up at him then. “No, not at all, you have always treated me with respect and kindness and...”

He squeezed her hand. “And I always will, but perhaps I have been at fault.”

She blinked at him. Her father had never uttered those words to her mother, of that she was certain. “Youhave been at fault?”

His charming smile flittered across his face. “Don’t sound so surprised. I’ve been thinking about what you said to me last night.”

“Really?”

“Indeed.” He released her and sat back, his other hand now curved around his coffee cup. “Mayhap I have neglected you after all.”

Louisa went still. What had she roused with her impudent questioning? Her mother had always said her quick tongue would be her downfall.

“In truth, you have offered me an interesting challenge. Howshoulda man seduce his own wife?”

“I have no idea, sir.”

His gaze was full of sensual intent, and he patted her hand. “Perhaps I should start by reading that gothic novel you were so enamored of. Do you have it with you?”

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