Chapter Six
Georgina kept her arm locked around Teddy’s slim waist as they lumbered toward the bed. She felt strange. Some odd combination of giddy and guilty, exultant and dread-filled.
Holding Teddy close, having all his attentions focused on her, was all she’d ever wanted.
But she’d known the desire to be a fantasy, with no basis in reality.
Teddy had never given the slightest sign he felt anything other than friendship for her.
Considering the way his hand kept flexing on her waist, inching up her ribcage ever higher, she could say with near certainty he had no intention of banishing her from his chamber, at the very least. And why would he not avail himself of her body?
He thought they were married, thanks to her.
But they weren’t. If he knew the truth, if he knew how nattily she’d set him up to ruin her, he’d chase her out his bed chamber faster than she could blink.
She angled her body to help him onto the mattress. “Here now,” she said, hoping he read the breathlessness in her voice as owing to her efforts to support him rather than the truth. His nearness, his hands on her and hers on him, had all combined to wreak havoc on her senses.
She released him, edging back, then gave a muffled, “Oof,” as she nearly tumbled onto his lap, thanks to his reluctance to unhand her. She managed to keep her footing, barely, skittering back at the last minute.
“Sorry, darling,” he drawled, reclining onto his elbows. A small smile played at the corners of his mouth, as he gazed up at her through heavy-lidded eyes and stretched out his long legs to bracket hers.
Warmth pooled low in her belly at the sight of him half sprawled on the bed before her.
The barely-large-enough-for-him bed with its too-feminine cream-and-rose coverlet.
Though he’d lost weight since last she’d seen him, something she could say for certain since she’d felt his wiry hardness against her frame as they made their way here, he was still so large and masculine.
Her chamber wasn’t any less feminine than this one, but she really ought to have given him the master bed chamber with its much larger, four-post bed.
“What has you grinning so, Georgina?” He said her name slowly, as if savoring it and crooked one finger toward her. “Why don’t you come here and tell me?”
He was flirting with her. Oh, God. How many times had she fantasized about just such a scene, of having Teddy all to herself to touch and kiss and do any number of wicked things with to her heart’s content.
Now, here he was, ready to offer himself up, and she could do none of those things because she wasn’t actually married to the man.
She dragged her gaze off of him and crouched at his feet. “Let’s get these off you, shall we?” She unbuckled his hessians with quick, efficient moves, then levered the boots off.
“Thank you,” he murmured.
She took a moment to regard his feet, well-shaped, high-arched, and large. She really should go. Instead she peeled off the first stocking.
When her fingers brushed the arch of his foot, he jerked and gave a muffled laugh.
Glancing up in delighted surprise, she asked, “Are you ticklish?”
“No,” he answered, far too quickly.
She bit her lip, staunching a grin, and started on the next stocking. This time, she eased it off while simultaneously running one fingertip ever-so-lightly along the underside of his foot. He kicked his foot free of her grasp and hooted with laughter that proved too contagious to resist.
“You she-devil,” he accused, hinging up to a sitting position to finish removing the stocking himself while slanting her a mock look of annoyance.
Utterly charmed, she rose to her feet. Oh, the power he had over her. It had always been like this. One look, one crooked smile, one quiet word, murmured for her ears alone as if they shared some special bond. Which of course, they didn’t. He couldn’t help it if she was mad for him from day one.
“Well, then,” she said, backing for the door.
He unfolded from the bed with languid grace, no longer looking the least bit woozy.
As she watched, frozen in place, he closed the distance between them. “Care to help me with my buttons, pet?”
Pet. He’d always called her that.
“I…” Her heart in her throat, she looked up into his achingly familiar face, even with the unkempt beard she’d never imagined she see on him.
Though hardness and lines and the fading bruise marred his usual perfection, she saw through them to the man she knew and loved.
She would do anything she could to see him returned to himself in full measure.
Anything. Wasn’t that why she had brought him here?
She must not act on selfish impulse, thereby ensnaring him into a real marriage when all this was through. Because he would do right by her, once his memory returned, if she allowed this farce of a marriage she had commenced to cross the point of no return.
Which meant she must nip this mouthwatering temptation in the bud—for his sake.
He inched closer ’til she could feel the heat pulsing off his body. “Must I beg?” he breathed.
Gooseflesh sprouted over her. “I’m happy to h-help,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.
She began unbuttoning his waistcoat, her fingers trembling, her body yearning for something unknown, but which she understood intuitively only he could give her. To have everything she ever wanted so close she could taste it, but unable to take the first sip…agony.
She knew what she must do. She must force a wedge between them, something to make the thought of physical intimacy with her abhorrent to him. But what? She had no notion.
Unless…the semblance of an idea came to her. A perfectly horrid idea. Before she could talk herself out of it, she forced herself to speak. “There’s something I need you to tell you.”
She had his jacket undone and bought herself a moment, helping him out of it.
“Do you? What is that?”
She folded his coat, keeping it squarely between them, and searched her mind for anything else to accomplish her hated goal. Nothing came. “While you were gone, I realized…What are you doing?”
“Doing? Why, listening to you, of course.” His nimble fingers had, in no time flat, unworked the tie of his cravat. “Oh, you mean this? Removing my neck tie?” He left the white silk hanging loose around his neck.
Eyeing his bared neck, she watched his Adam’s apple bob and wondered if his skin would taste salty. Would the stubble there be rough against her tongue? Not so much as blinking, she draped his folded jacket, still warm from his body, over her forearm and took a mind-clearing step back.
She had to think of Teddy. What was best for Teddy was all that mattered.
“I filed for an annulment,” she blurted.
The room went silent save for the harsh sound of her own breathing.
Teddy cocked his head. “I beg your pardon?”
“You were gone so long, you see, and then you stopped writing and I realized your feelings for me must have changed.”
“Oh, aye? My feelings? And yet you filed for annulment.”
She swallowed, or rather, she tried to. She found the attempt stymied by the hard lump that had formed in her throat. “A-and then, mine changed. So you see, I really do not think we should…er…”
He gazed at her with narrowing eyes. “Yes, I think I see exactly where you’re going with this. I’m no longer the prize you thought you’d married so you thought you’d un-marry me. No need for any of that.” He waggled his fingers at her with one hand and nicked his jacket from her with the other.
“No need for what?” Feeling cold air on her cheeks, she realized that several tears had leaked from her eyes. She scrubbed them away, mortified.
“You’ve made your position eminently clear. I must apologize. I completely misread the situation. However, I do have one remaining question.”
She nodded for him to continue, unable to speak. He had it all wrong. He thought she was rejecting him—and she couldn’t risk correcting him without undermining her goal.
“Why did you come for me? You could have simply left me to rot.”
“Because I love you,” she answered honestly, unable or unwilling to keep her feelings inside. Then she uttered words that turned the truth she’d spoken into the biggest lie of her life. “Just…not like that. Not anymore.”
“I see. I suppose that explains the separate bed chambers.” He jammed a hand through his hair. The thick brown waves, already slightly mussed thanks to being badly in need of a proper cut, stuck out in wild disorder. “Well, then, I s’pose you’d better run along.”
She hastened to the door, then turned to face him, certain he would not receive her next words well. “Teddy, about your medicine…”
He cursed under his breath. “Mustn’t forget that. Best go fetch it.”
She opted to ignore his snarky tone and hurried from the room. When she returned with the tea tray a short while later, he had opened the French doors to the balcony, shared between her chamber and his, and now stood at the railing, looking out.
She took in the scene, fear exploding in her chest. “T-Teddy,” she cried, the teacup rattling on the tray she held.
He turned to face her and whatever he saw had him stalking back into the chamber toward her. “For God’s sake, Georgina, I’m not going to jump.”
“I never said—”
“You didn’t have to. Leave the damned tray. I will drink it.”
She pondered addressing his sharp tone, then settled for sending him a speaking frown before setting the tray on the small inlaid table situated in the corner beside the open French doors. When she straightened, he had moved to stand, sentinel, at his chamber door.
Holding the brass lever, he sent her an icy smile and gestured in a wide sweep toward the corridor. “Good night, dear wife.”
She hesitated. She’d imagined staying to watch him drink a cup. That would probably be asking too much, at this juncture. Crossing to the door, she considered what she might say to lessen the tension between them.