Page 51 of Bought For The Marriage Bed

‘No…I was just asking.’

‘I’m crying because I always cry when I have my period,’ she sobbed. ‘I can’t help it. I get overly emotional and start blubbering over the stupidest things.’ She blew her nose on the tissue he handed her from the box nearby and continued, ‘I didn’t mean to wake you. I’m sorry…but I…’

‘Hey.’ His hand cupped the back of her head and brought it into his chest, his fingers stroking through the silky strands of her hair in soft soothing strokes.

Nina buried her head into his warmth, her cheek pressed against the steady thump of his heart, her arms going around his waist before she could stop them.

‘Shh,’ he said softly. ‘Don’t cry.’

His kindness and gentleness only made it worse. Her guilt over all the lies she’d told him assailed her and she sobbed into his chest all the harder.

After a while Marc felt her settle against him, her crying bout over. He stood with her in the circle of his arms, his chin resting on the top of her head, his nostrils filling with the gardenia scent of her hair. He wished he could freeze time and stand here forever with her, holding her close to him, his body silently communicating the love he had been unable to stop himself feeling in spite of her past.

‘I’m sorry.’ She eased herself away from him and let her arms fall to her sides. ‘I’ve made your shirt wet.’

He looked down at the damp patch and smiled. ‘That’s all right. I was just about to take it off anyway.’

Nina gave him a little embarrassed glance as her hand fluttered in the door’s direction. ‘I…I’d better go back to bed. It’s late.’

‘Nina.’ He captured her fluttering hand and brought it up to his mouth, his lips brushing each of her fingertips as his eyes secured hers.

‘Marc…I…’ She swallowed as his lips closed over her little finger, the rasp of his tongue instantly curling her toes.

‘Do not talk, Nina.’

‘I don’t think we—’ She stopped when he pressed a finger to her mouth.

‘No talking,’ he insisted. ‘I have changed my mind. I am taking you to bed, in my room.’ He kept his finger on her lips as he continued, ‘Not to have sex with you; that can wait. I just want to hold you.’

‘W-why?’ she asked as soon as his finger moved away from her mouth.

His eyes held hers for seemingly endless seconds before he answered. ‘Because when I hold you I forget about my brother. I forget about my grief. I think of nothing except how you feel in my arms.’

She drew in a breath that got caught somewhere in the middle of her chest, her heart squeezing at the honesty in his dark gaze as it rested on her.

‘All right.’ She lowered her eyes. ‘I will sleep with you.’

He led her out of the bathroom, his fingers curling loosely around hers as they walked down the passage to his bedroom, every step she took reminding Nina of every lie she’d told which had paved the pathway to this.

He thought she was Nadia and was attracted to the persona she’d projected, never once suspecting the woman he’d married was a fake, a total lying fake who had no business being in his life, let alone in his bed.

Marc pulled down the covers for her and she slipped between the cool sheets, carefully avoiding his eyes as she curled on her side.

She heard him in the en suite bathroom brushing his teeth and a few minutes later the sound of the shower running. She closed her eyes and willed herself to sleep before he joined her but her nerves were on high alert, finely tuned to pick up every single sound he made.

The bathroom door opened. She tightened her eyelids and, keeping herself to the furthest edge of the mattress, held her breath as he approached the bed.

She heard the soft rustle of cotton as he slid the covers back, felt the depression of the mattress as it took his weight and the sound of his small sigh of relief as his head finally met the pillow.

The silence seemed to be creeping towards her from every shadowed corner of the room, curling around her, making it impossible for her to relax enough to sleep. Her legs felt twitchy and uncomfortable and she longed to stretch the tension out of them but didn’t want to encounter his long legs in doing so.

She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to count back from a thousand but she’d only got to nine hundred and twenty-seven when she heard Marc turn on the bedside lamp and felt him move towards her.

Her eyes sprang open to see him propped up on one elbow, his mouth tilted as he looked down at her. ‘Are you always this restless in bed?’ he asked.

‘I’m not used to sleeping with—’ She stopped mid-sentence as she realised what she’d just said, her cheeks heating from the inside out.

The smile went from his mouth. ‘You mean that in the past you loved them and left them? Got the business done and moved on?’

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