Page 56 of The Spinster and Her Rakish Duke
“Oh, of course, Your Grace,” he said with mock contrition, though his eyes gleamed with something she didn’t like. “Forgive me. Old habits.”
They separated again as the dance required, and Samantha tried to use the brief respite to steady her nerves. When they came back together, Adam was standing closer than propriety dictated.
“I’ve been thinking about the last time we met,” he said quietly, his breath warm against her ear as they promenaded.
Samantha did not want to encourage whatever he was talking about. “Excuse me?”
“I couldn’t help but notice how uncomfortable your husband made you.” His hand tightened on hers as they turned. “You’re unhappy, aren’t you? In your marriage.”
Samantha’s step faltered slightly. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Come now, Samantha. I have heard about why Valemont married you. A man like that… he doesn’t know how toappreciate what he has.” Adam’s voice was low, persuasive. “Not like I do.”
What was this cad talking about, right in front of her? “You forget yourself?—”
“I think I am simply saying what we’re both thinking.” They were moving to the edge of the dance floor now, and the disgusting man steered her toward a shadowed alcove behind a cluster of potted palms. “We had something once, you and I. Something real.”
“We hadnothing,” Samantha said firmly, trying to step away from him. “And we have even less now.”
“Oh, come now.” His hand caught her wrist, not painfully, but firmly enough to prevent her from leaving. “I can see it in your eyes, the same longing that’s been eating at me for months. We could have that again, Samantha. We could?—”
“Let go of me.” Her voice was sharp with panic and disgust.
“Just listen?—”
“I said let go.” She tried to pull free, but his grip tightened.
“Think about it,” he continued urgently. “We’re both trapped in boring, loveless marriages. Your husband clearly doesn’t value you as he should, not like I would, you know.”
The sheer irony of his words were not lost on her, however. The fact that the very man who’d broken her heart was now claiming to be the one better suited to caring for it, only made her skin crawl.
But of course, the arrogant idiot was oblivious to the disgust he was stirring within her.
“No one need be hurt.” He continued, obviously already in a fantasy of his own. “We could meet discretely, rekindle what we once?—”
“You are despicable,” Samantha hissed, her voice shaking with fury. “How dare you suggest such a thing to my face? Howdareyou?”
It was then that his face hardened at her rejection. “Don’t play the virtuous wife with me, Samantha. I know you better than that. You’re not happy, and neither am I. Why should we both suffer when we could?—”
“Get your hands off my wife.”
The voice was deadly quiet, but it cut through Adam’s words like a blade. Samantha’s head snapped up to see Ewan standing at the edge of the alcove, his green eyes blazing with a fury that made her breath catch.
Adam’s grip on her wrist loosened fractionally, though he didn’t release her entirely. “Your Grace. I was just?—”
“I know exactly what you were doing.” Ewan stepped closer, and something in his posture made the other man take an involuntary step backward. “Remove your hands from my wife. Now.”
For a moment, the two men stared at each other, tension crackling between them like lightning before a storm. Finally, the earl released Samantha’s wrist with obvious reluctance.
She saw the way Ewan’s eyes twitched at that detail, and she knew that she would not be able to stop him should he decide to draw blood for Adam’s blatant disrespect of their marital status.
“We were simply having a conversation,” Comerford said with forced casualness. “Nothing improper.”
Ewan’s smile was sharp as a razor. “Is that what you call accosting married women in darkened corners? How illuminating.”
Adam’s face flushed with anger and embarrassment. “You’re being dramatic, Valemont. Samantha and I are old friends?—”
“Samantha,” Ewan interrupted with silky menace, “is the Duchess of Valemont.Myduchess. And if I ever see you lay so much as a finger on her again, old friend or not, I will make sure to cut off your hands and feed them to the dogs.”
