Page 39 of Sir Hugo Seeks a Wife
She laced her fingers together at her waist.“What hope of happiness will we have if you’re always pestering me for something I can’t give you?”
That jaw set in its familiar mulish line.“You’re afraid that I mean to nag you into the ground.I don’t.I’ll ask once a day.”
“No.Once a week.”Only when she saw his smirk did she realize that he’d played her.
“Agreed.”
Despite everything that she’d said, he hadn’t given up the idea of marriage.One day he would.After he realized that on this matter, she could not be swayed.She could be stubborn, too.“If I want to end our liaison, you’ll let me go without protest.”
“Don’t be a nuisance, in other words,” he said sourly.
“If that’s how you like to put it.”
“And what if our liaison never ends?”
“All liaisons end, one way or another.I don’t just write poems for courting gentlemen.I write poems for those same gentlemen to send to their mistresses.”She paused.“What?”
It rankled that Hugo regarded her with what looked like pity.“I hate the way life has beaten all the hope out of you.You’re too young to be this cynical.”
She stiffened, although she admired his gallant heart, even if it did nothing but cause her trouble.“And you’re too clever to be such a romantic.”
He didn’t remark on that.“Is that the last of your terms?”
Athene cast around for some other condition.She’d gone to a man’s bed as defenseless as a newly hatched chick when she was a girl, too overcome with her first taste of passion to protect herself.Was there something else she should demand?Nothing came to mind.“I…I think so.”
“You don’t ask for much.”
“I could ask you to guard my reputation and treat me with respect, but if I didn’t believe you’d do both of those things, we wouldn’t have this conversation.”
“Thank you.”
She spread her hands in inquiry.“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Do you have any demands?”
To her surprise, that elicited a low laugh so full of sensual anticipation, the hairs rose on her skin.“Of course I have demands, my darling.”
“Not those sort of demands,” she said, blushing again.The way he called her his darling made her want to melt.A warning, should she need it, that her emotions were involved here as well as her physical needs.The prospect of eventual devastation loomed closer.
But she’d been desolate without him this last fortnight.Since she’d sent him away, she’d ached to call him back.Now even though they negotiated like a pair of lawyers, she felt complete again.
Hugo shrugged.She could tell he forgave her for coming out ahead in their wrangling.“I want you, Athene.That’s enough to go on with for now.I imagine we’ll work things out.”
She rolled her eyes.“You’re such an optimist.”
“And you’re such a pessimist.”
A heavy sigh escaped her.“I don’t know how this affair will ever succeed.”
“Of course it will succeed.”He smiled at her as if she held up the sun in the sky.
She’d missed that unstinting admiration, much as she knew she didn’t deserve it.She’d worked so hard to go unnoticed in London, so it made no sense to revel in Sir Hugo’s appreciation.But whenever she saw that light in his eyes, her lonely heart expanded with joy.
Somewhere the discussion had moved from a prickly negotiation of terms to the sort of back and forth that marked their earlier interactions.Despite her worries, she relaxed into his presence.He had a magic ability to smooth her sharp edges.
“More optimism?”
