Edith Layton Read Online Free Page A

Annulment or divorce proceedings were rare and scandalous, beyond any vile thing the gossips had ever said about her. “No! I’m willing,” she said breathlessly. “It’s just that I hadn’t expected—I don’t know what I had expected. But I’m ready. What is it you want me to do?”
    He sighed again. He perched on the edge of the bed and touched her face with his fingertips. “This,” he said, almost to himself, “is going to be a long night.”
    Annabelle’s eyes flew wide.
    She was beautiful when she was horrified, Miles thought with wry appreciation of his bride’s expression. His sense of humor was aroused, along with another vastly interested part. She sat rigidly in bed, her rapid breathing making her lovely breasts rise and fall, her eyes so wide he could see their blue gleam even in the dimmed light. She really was a spectacular-looking woman, he thought again.
    He was tempted to bend to her, terrifying her even more, and then shock her by merely kissing the tip of her delightful little nose before leaving her alone for the night.
    Three things made him hesitate. The first was that he was fairly sure that it would be a disastrous way to begin this marriage.
    His bride wasn’t an innocent miss. She was a grown woman, who, if rumor could be believed—or even only half believed—had been head over her pretty heels in love with another man, or three. So she couldn’t be ignorant of what he intended. If anything, he’d counted on her being eager, frustrated after years of abortive lovemaking, because he doubted she’d ever completed the act. He was almost certain she was still a virgin. After all, she knew how the rules of society were played, and even more to the point, the men with whom her name had been linked were men of honor. If one of them had dallied with her, he’d have married her, and that would have been the end of that.Undoubtedly, if there’d been any extensive lovemaking, and she’d been as eager to wed as gossip had it, she’d have used that for a reason to have been legally married long before this.
    Virgin or no, she had to be sophisticated after so many years on the town. So she’d think a hesitant groom a poor specimen, and that impression would last long into their marriage.
    The second reason was that it was his bed, and this was his bedchamber.
    The third was that she was so damned beautiful.
    He liked dark ladies; he’d been dazzled when he’d first seen this one. That was nothing to how he felt when he’d walked into his room just now. He’d seen her dressed in magnificent gowns of gold cloth, azure silks, blue satins, and gossamer gauze. She was even more alluring to him tonight, sitting in his bed, clad as she was in a plain white nightrail. Because now he knew she was his.
    He knew her body well. Women’s fashions made sure of that. She was petite, but perfect in her dimensions. Her breasts were high and shapely. Whenever she’d danced with him, it had taken all his resolve not to stare at the curved valley between them and wonder if her skin would taste as cool and sweet as it looked. She was lean, but had rounded hips. He’d always noted her trim little derriere and found it enchanting. Her face was famous, but it was that delicious mouththat never stopped tempting him. He was fascinated by it, the way the short upper lip over the fuller lower one seemed to make her mouth beg for long, involved kisses.
    He hadn’t pressed her for them during their brief courtship. It wasn’t a love match, after all. Openly lusting for her would have made their arrangement look as if he’d wanted her only for his sexual convenience, and not a marriage for their mutual benefit. But there was no question that convenience had mattered to him.
    He’d needed a wife, and quickly, but he had other needs as well. Being married to a woman he desired was an important reason it was Annabelle and not another well-born lady there tonight. It was true he’d married because he’d had to,