Page 25 of Miss Barton's Mysterious Husband
Chapter 9
It was still dark when Charmian stirred. Roland’s arms encircled her, and she was pressed close to his naked body. She was warm inside and out in a way that she hadn’t been since that devastating quarrel in York.
She needed a moment to realize that the silence meant that at last the rain had stopped. Perhaps some of the inn’s guests might manage to make it home for Christmas after all.
Very carefully, she shifted in Roland’s arms. She had no idea what time they’d gone to sleep, but the weariness weighing down her body told her that it wasn’t long ago. Strangely, given that she probably hadn’t managed much more than an hour of sleep, she felt more rested than she had in years. Discovering that she hadn’t loved in vain and that she and her husband were reunited had done wonders.
Her lips curved in a smile, as she gingerly perched on the edge of the narrow bed where she’d found such rapture. The chance to salve her sexual frustration contributed to her wellbeing. Although it would take more than a single tumble to satisfy her physical craving for the man she loved.
She glanced back at him. By heaven, he was handsome. The fire had died down a little, but it provided enough light for her to make out his chiseled features.
Her unruly heart did a little jig of joy. Even better, he was all hers, when she’d been so sure that he was lost to her forever.
The world couldn’t have given her a better Christmas gift.
The urge rose to lie down again, to nestle back in his arms and let Puddlebrook go on its merry way without her. It was an effort to stand and collect her clothes ready to go downstairs. As shestood, muscles that she hadn’t used in ages twinged, reminding her of that passionate swiving.
At least the water Roland had brought her last night was still lukewarm. Proof enough of how little time she’d slept. As quietly as she could, she sponged the traces of their lovemaking from her body. Pink marks on her skin where Roland’s whiskers had chafed her provided another reminder of what they’d done.
“Good morning, my love,” a sleepy voice said from the bed.
Charmian found Roland regarding her with such unconcealed appreciation that she shivered with desire. The traitorous urge to crawl back into bed strengthened. “I didn’t want to wake you.”
He shifted to sit on the edge of the bed and rub his eyes. With his rumpled dark hair and bare body, he was beguilingly disheveled. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going down to help my aunt. The inn is bulging at the seams. She’ll need another pair of hands, especially when everyone starts demanding breakfast.”
The lazy delight faded from his eyes. “After what she did, she deserves to rot.”
Charmian sighed. “I know. But she’s still family and anyway, it’s not just her. It’s John and Milly and everyone else here. I don’t want to let them down. We have so much. We can afford to be generous.”
His lips turned down in wry acceptance. “And it’s Christmas.”
To her relief, she saw that he wasn’t angry. She slipped her shift over her head and reached for her stays. “And it’s Christmas.”
He yawned and scratched his chest. With another ripple of pleasure, she remembered that curling hair rubbing against her breasts last night when they’d joined together. “Can I help you to dress?”
“Thank you, but I can manage.” Since coming to the Spotted Fox, she hadn’t had a maid. Everything she owned these days fastened at the front.
“Stop it,” she muttered, as she fumbled with the hooks.
Roland tried and failed to look innocent. “Stop what?”
“Watching me like a cat watches a mousehole.”
He laughed. “You can’t blame me for enjoying the show, when a beautiful woman gets dressed in front of me.”
She blushed. “I’m so glad you think I’m beautiful.”
“You’ll be beautiful when you’re eighty, my darling.”
Her hands stilled, and she stared at him, lost in a fog of love. “You make it so difficult to go when you say things like that.”
He gestured to the bed. “We could start the day in a much better way than you running off to wear your fingers to the bone.”
Charmian almost yielded to temptation. Then she remembered her responsibilities, and she went back to dressing. “Don’t tease me.”
His expression turned serious. “I’d like to take you away from here as soon as the roads are passable. You’re not saying you intend to stay on at Puddlebrook as your aunt’s dogsbody, are you?”
