Page 40 of Pawns of Fate
ROSE
They made love three more times that night. Each coupling was more heated and frantic than the last. Their time together was running out.
After the fourth time, Rose fell asleep in Nicholas’s arms, far too tired to continue. But when he left a soft kiss on her head, she wished they could have made love the entire night.
A gentle knock at the door woke them late in the morning.
“Lady Rose? Lord Nicholas?” a servant’s voice nervously inquired.
Rose, still resting on her husband’s chest, felt himsigh.
“Bring out breakfast in five minutes,” Nicholas replied brusquely. He kissed Rose a few times and wrapped his arms around her.
She wanted to tell him that last night had been one of the best of her life. She didn’t care about going to the Ojoh. As soon as she was back, they’d make a wonderful life together and make love every single day. She’d give him as many heirs as he desired, assist with managing the estate, and be the perfect lady of House Sharp. Whatever he needed. Rose didn’t care—she’d fallen for him.
But the words clung in her throat. Doubt lurked in the back of her mind. After all, many couples had pleasurable sexual relations and little else between them. What if that was all Nicholas wanted? Uncertainty urged her to think with her head instead of her heart.
She needed to prepare for the meeting.
Instead, she decided to trace the outlines of Nicholas’s well-sculpted chest and lightly kiss his neck, just for a minute or two.
His manhood brushed up against her sensitive thighs. He was already rising to the occasion. She leaned into his heat.
A loud knock at the door poured cold water on the pair.
“As reluctant as I am to deny newlyweds their pleasures” —Syzman’s smug voice cut into their chamber— “your poor servants are huddled just around the corner with your breakfast, about to lose their minds because they’re terrified of interrupting your lovemaking. The meeting starts in an hour. I’m sure neither of you is ready.”
“Damn it all,” Nicholas huffed.
“You’re welcome, my lord.” Syzman snickered.
Nicholas threw on a robe. He caught the servants at the door and brought the food in himself, so Rose had more time to make herself presentable. She wrapped herself in a discarded robe and ran her fingers through her tangled hair—sure she looked as disheveled as she felt.
They ate breakfast in a hurried, miserable silence.
Nicholas, who’d spent their entire breakfast glancing around the room, sighing, and fiddling with his silverware, had just found the courage to speak when yet another knock at the door interrupted them.
“Excuse us, my lord, my lady,” Betty said with a frantic curtsey after she and Lyla entered the room. “We don’t have much time to prepare.”
Rose put down her fork and glanced at the clock on the mantle. There were only three-quarters of an hour to bathe and dress before the delegation arrived. She didn’t have time to finish a leisurely breakfast.
She reached a hand out to Nicholas, eyes imploring him to break the tension that had built up between them ever since Syzman had knocked on their door. “What did you need to say?”
He shook his head. “It’s fine, Rose. Go with your maids.”
Rose snagged a pastry, then followed Betty and Lyla out the door. She cast one last glance at Nicholas, her smile forced and tight. He returned her smile, but his was full of hesitation and melancholy.
Rose wanted to run back into his room, back into his arms, but the door slammed shut, and before she knew it, Lyla andBetty had whisked her down the hallway and straight into the bath for a scrub.
The maids had her looking prim and proper within the hour. Betty worked so fast that Rose thought she might be using speed-enhancing magic. Even Lyla, who usually did little more than comb a few strands of hair, attended to Rose as if she were actually a maid, not a bodyguard in disguise.
“Are you ready for our trip?” Lyla bent down to ask Rose as she styled her hair.
“What do you mean byourtrip?” Rose quipped back, wincing as Lyla worked at a particularly snarled section of hair.
Lyla leaned down to whisper, “Did Lord Nicholas not tell you? I’ll be joining you. My dressing as a maid was never meant to fool the staff at Castle Sharp. The Ojoh would never let me accompany you if I walked around with knives strapped to my hips.”
Rose looked at Lyla with confusion.
