Page 78 of Twice Tempted by a Rogue

“I want to understand. Explain it to me.” He gestured uselessly with his hands, hardly knowing how to form the question. “You have no problem buying fine things for your guests. Why can’t I give you fine things, too?”

She sighed. “It’s difficult to accept them.”

“Difficult? You perform six difficult tasks before breakfast.”

“Well, what about you? I don’t see you buying any luxuries for yourself.”

His chin jerked. “But that’s different.”

“No, I don’t think it is. You deserve fine things, too, you know.” Her eye settled on a shop window behind him, and he could see her gaze sharpening on something in particular. “I’m going to go in and buy you that, right now. And if you don’t want to be called an insufferable hypocrite, you’re going to wait right here while I do, and when I come out, you’ll not say a word about it other than ‘thank you.’”

He stood there, stunned, as she left him and entered the shop. Belatedly, he looked to the shop’s window just in time to see a pair of hands removing a gentleman’s shaving kit from the display. It was a quality set. The razor’s handle and the knob of the shaving brush were both fashioned from horn, with gilt accents. He couldn’t let her purchase that for him. She’d be spending straight down to the lining of her purse.

But if he tried to prevent her … she’d be furious. Povertywasan easier condition to remedy than a woman’s displeasure.

A minute passed, and out she came, delivering the wrapped parcel into his hand. He stood blinking at it.

Lifting her chin, she regarded him with a challenge in her eyes. “And …?”

He forced the words out. “Thank you.”

“You see? It’s not so easy to say as it would seem.”

“I’m out of practice, I suppose.”

“With gratitude?”

He cleared the emotion from his throat. “With gifts.”

“Hm.” She gave him a meaningful look. Taking his arm, she said, “If it helps at all, it was mostly for me. I discovered this morning how much I love watching you shave.”

He gave a shout of laughter, remembering the way she’d tackled him to the bed after he’d finished. God, her inner thigh had been like silk against his smooth-shaven cheek. His trousers pulled snug, just at the memory. That was it. Shopping be damned. He couldn’t get inside her soon enough.

Without hesitation, he guided her into a hairpin turn and set a course back to the hotel. “We’ve had enough of the shops for today.”

“Ahem.”

Several pleasant hours later, Meredith cleared her throat as she emerged from the dressing room. One of the hotel’s girls had helped her dress in the red silk gown and assisted her with a sleek upswept coiffure. Now she was anxious to see Rhys’s reaction.

He stood before the wardrobe, peering into the small mirror hung inside the door as he tied his cravat. When he took no notice of her gentle clearings of the throat, she coughed. Loudly, this time.

In response, he swore. He tugged the half-knotted cravat loose and started all over again.

So much for a dramatic entrance from the doorway. The soles of her new slippers glided over the carpet as she covered the space between them. He flicked her a brief glance, then turned his attention back to his cravat.

“Well …?” she prompted.

“Yes?” He frowned at the reflected knot of linen. “What is it?”

“How do I look?”

“Beautiful.”

“Rhys! You scarcely looked at me.”

“I don’t have to,” he said, his brow knitting in concentration as he unworked the knot for a third attempt. “You always look beautiful.”

“But …”But this will be my first evening out in fashionable society, and I’m terribly afraid that every personin the Theatre Royal will turn on cue, take one look at me, and instantly know I’m a country girl wearing a courtesan’s discarded gown.

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