Page 32 of The Marriage Debt
He held her, not brutally, but firmly so that she could not escape without making it very clear she wanted to be free and that, somehow, did not seem to be an option. He held her with those long, strong fingers while his mouth systematically removed every trace of resistance.
Her own lips had no choice but to part under the pressure of his, her own tongue seemed to know just how to meet the challenge of his as it touched, flickered, tasted, then plunged and took quite ruthlessly.
Suddenly he left her mouth and began to nibble the length of her throat, down the tender curves, down to where the pulse raged in the angle of her collarbone.
Katherine moaned, part in protest that he had abandoned her mouth, part in exquisite agony at the havoc he was wrecking now with his teeth and lips.
She was so hot, so...needing. She wanted him to touch her everywhere and did not know quite why. Her body arched against him, untutored, demanding…something.
Theo growled deep in his throat in response and his mouth was suddenly on the curve of her breast, impatiently pushing aside the modesty of the fichu she had tucked in around her shoulders. She moaned.
‘Purr for me, my Kat.’ His voice was husky, muffled against the swell of her breast. And then he swung her up into his arms. It was several confused, giddy moments before she realised he had one foot on the bottom step of the stairs to the bedrooms.
Where did the strength to resist come from? Or was it simplycommon sense reasserting itself the moment his drugging mouth left her hot skin?
‘No. Theo, put me down.’
He paused, still half way through the doorway, then bent to find her mouth.
‘I said,no.’ Katherine twisted her head away and instantly he set her on her feet. She found herself standing on the second step, high enough to meet him eye to eye. ‘Theo, what do you think you are doing?’
‘Making love to my wife.’ He was breathing hard but somehow he kept his voice light.
‘But we must not. We will never get an annulment if you do – what are you thinking of?’
He raised one hand and twisted an errant lock of her hair between his fingers. ‘Do you want an annulment so badly?’
‘OfcourseI do.’ Katherine stared at him as though he had lost his senses. ‘You can’t want to be tied to this sham of a marriage any more than I do.’
‘You were willing to be a true wife to me in Newgate.’ His voice was still light and in the gloom she could not read his face.
‘But we had a bargain and I could not break that, it would have been dishonest,’ Katherine protested. ‘And anyway you were–’ She broke off, appalled at where that train of thought was leading her.
‘Going to be hanged so that would have drawn a convenient line under the whole messy business?’ Now he sounded angry.
How dare he? she thought,Idid not start this.‘That is not what I meant and you know it. You promised me an annulment in a month’s time. What you were about to do would have made that impossible.’
‘I promised you that we would get an annulment if you wanted one. I thought perhaps that after tonight you might not want that.’
‘Oh! You arrogant…’ Katherine fought for words. ‘You thought you would seduce me, did you? I am sure you would succeed with many women – you appear to be very good at it, doubtless as the result of much practice.’
‘And why would I want to seduce you?’ He shifted slightly so the light from the room struck his face. His voice was dangerously calm but his eyes were hard with anger.
‘Other than simple carnal desire? Presumably you would feel humiliated having to tell your family that your marriage was about to be dissolved.’
‘More humiliated than living with the thought that I had seduced an unwilling woman? I thought we understood each other, Kat. It appears I was quite out.’ He stepped back from the stairs and took the edge of the door in one hand. Kat found her eyes unable to leave the long finger where the mark of his signet ring still showed white against the tanned skin. On her own hand it seemed to burn with its own heat. ‘I suggest you go to bed before we start hurling the fire irons at each other like a real married couple.’
He reached out and picked up a chamber stick from the side table. ‘Here, Madam Wife, a candle to light you to bed. I wish you a good night. It will doubtless be better than the one I anticipate.’
Chapter Twelve
Katherine passed a night of restless wakefulness interspersed with dream-wracked snatches of sleep. She kept trying to push away the memories of Theo’s caressing hands and demanding lips but whenever she tried her strangely aching body recalled her to the recollection of every touch, every frisson. Their furious exchange of words at the end she simply refused to recall.
In an effort to distract herself she tried to rehearse how she should greet his father and brother the next morning. What should she wear? What would Mr Lydgate senior expect of his unexpected new daughter-in-law? And when would Theo reveal the true state of their marriage and the news that his sham wife had saddled him with a vast debt?
Unfortunately the image she conjured up of her father-in-law closely resembled Theo in forty years’ time and in the throes of an icy rage. This was not comforting, and the knowledge that her in-laws would be justified in being appalled and angry did nothing to help.
Pushing those thoughts aside, Katherine tried to plan for what she should do once she had obtained her annulment. Somehow she would have to earn her own living.
