Page 86 of The Viscount's Unwanted Bride
“We’ll have two slices of fruit pie,” Theo said to the man Kate assumed was the baker.
The baker wrapped their slices of pie and Theo swept Kate back out into the street where the carriage was waiting. The driver must have realized they would want to leave soon. Theo opened the door, mopping his snow-speckled hair off his forehead, and Kate clambered in past him and sat on her cushion.
Theo leaped in behind her, pulled the door closed, and offered her the wrapped bundle. “You should eat.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Before I take a single bite, I’d like to know what you meant about being a husband and wife in every way.”
He looked down at his hands, and a faint flush touched his cheeks. “Despite our growing closeness, I know we’ve both been holding back from being totally open with each other, and that’s my fault. I let my past with Elizabeth cloud my present with you. I don’t want that to happen again. I want us to embrace everything we could have together, even if it’s scary.”
She considered this for a moment, trying not to let her hope show on her face. She didn’t want to get excited if she was only going to end up disappointed. “How are you going to handle it if the pregnancy doesn’t run smoothly?”
He grimaced. “It won’t be easy. All I can promise is to take each day as it comes. You’re pregnant anyway, so whatever we decide to do now, it won’t change that. We’ll have to face it together.”
“And intimacy?” Because she had enjoyed his attention recently, but though they’d shared kisses and cuddled together, they’d never revisited the pleasure they’d found together that first night she’d been in Oxfordshire.
His grimace transformed into a wicked smirk. “You’re pregnant anyway. That’s what I was most afraid of happening. I see no reason to hold back from intimacy unless….” His face fell. “It’s not something you want.”
“Oh, I want it,” she assured him.
“Then we should start practicing as soon as we’re back,” he murmured, and for a moment, she thought he might attempt to seduce her right there in the carriage. Unfortunately, they then went over a bump, and her stomach lurched, and she had to thrust her head through the window in order to not cast up her accounts.
Instead of exploring intimacy somewhere as scandalous as the back of a carriage, Theo unwrapped the pie, and she ate as much as she could without being sick.
When they arrived back at Blackwell Hall, they retreated to his bedchamber, where he stripped her damp clothing from her until she was naked and reminded her exactly how lovely it was to feel him inside her.
At first, it was a little strange—although not painful because of the care he took with her—but with every moment that passed, she came to crave the way he filled her more. There was something incredible about being connected to him in such an intimate way.
He stroked her belly and held her close, warming her heart and making her feel almost… cherished. She was new to lovemaking, but she instinctively knew that what she shared with Theo was special. It wouldn’t be like this with anyone else.
Afterward, she snuggled up to his side, listening to the rain drum on the roof, and smiled. This morning, she’d never have guessed the day would take this turn.
Her cheek rested over his heart, and she listened to the steady thump, a little relieved that he hadn’t panicked the way he had last time they’d been intimate.
Eventually, they got hungry, so she called for tea and biscuits to be brought in. Indulgent, perhaps, but she was enjoying their quiet time together and didn’t want to relocate. That said, shedid get him to help her put her dress back on so that she wouldn’t look completely debauched when the maid arrived.
There was a knock on the door, and she went to answer it, expecting to find a maid on the other side, but instead, it was Theo. Startled, she spun around.
No, it wasn’t Theo. It couldn’t be. He was still sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for her to return with the tray.
“Is something amiss?” he asked, looking concerned.
Kate turned back to the man. It must be Nicholas. When he was clean-shaven, he looked far more like Theo than he had with a beard.
“Good evening, Nicholas,” she said and heard Theo swear behind her.
Nicholas wore a thick coat with snow dusted on the shoulders. He must have just arrived here from London. “Lady Katherine,” he said, wiping his chin as water dripped off the tip of his nose and down his face.
That was when she noticed.
There was a small, sweet freckle on his chin.
A freckle sherecognized.
A freckle that was not a smudge, and which her husband did not have.
“It was you,” she breathed.
Nicholas’s eyes widened, and he backed up a step. “I think I’d better leave.”
