Chapter 14
Fourteen
“Just the one drink,” Sebastian promised Margot. He left her by the door as he strode across the drawing room and toward the liquor cabinet. There, he produced two glasses and a bottle of whiskey. “And then it’s off to bed, I promise you.” He poured the whiskey.
“I will hold you to that,” Margot joked as she slowly entered the room. “You say one, but I sense that you’re not exactly known for your self-control.”
Sebastian could not keep himself from grinning.
“I thought by now you would have realized that you can’t believe everything you hear.
” He finished pouring the whiskey, picked up both glasses, and walked back across the room, where he met Margot in the middle.
He handed her one glass, she took it gratefully, and he held his out to clink them together. “What should we toast to?”
“Is that what we’re doing?”
“Anything to justify the excuse to have a drink?” he joked.
She laughed softly and shook her head. “Perhaps… to people not appearing as they seem.” She offered up her glass, raising an eyebrow at Sebastian.
“Or second chances,” Sebastian added as he clinked his glass against Margot’s. She rolled her eyes, but her smile told him how she truly felt. And then, still smiling, they took a sip of their whiskey.
“It’s good,” Margot said.
“Good enough that it will be hard to stop at one.”
“I did not say that.”
“You did not have to,” he said with a wink. “You are my wife, remember. And dare I say that I know you better than you know yourself.”
She snorted. “After a whole week? That’s quite the talent.”
“As you said…” He winked again, watching her over the lip of his glass as he took a sip.
She shied away from his probing stare, her cheeks flushed light pink, but she tried her best to hold his gaze, and Sebastian felt the tension mount between them.
“Not everyone is as they seem. I’m rather perceptive like that. ”
“Is that right?”
“We’ll find out once we finish these drinks, won’t we?”
She laughed softly and shook her head. “And what else do you know about me?” She looked at him, glanced away, but then went back to looking into his eyes.
Her voice was low, her stare was suggestive, and with the crackle and pop of the flames in the hearth, the dim lighting, the atmosphere built from an afternoon spent between them, Sebastian could quite literally feel the shift occurring around them.
“I am curious just how perceptive you are.”
“Careful…” He smirked and raised an eyebrow at her. “That is a dangerous game.”
“If you are scared –”
“I never said that.”
She flashed her eyes. “I’m waiting then. Tell me…” Those same eyes flicked up his body, pausing on his lips. “Just how well do you think you know me?”
I have been with enough women to know where this leads. The way she is looking at me. The purr in her voice as she licks those lips and tempts me as she must know she is doing. I would say this is the most surprising turn, but neither of us would believe such a thing.
The question thus became… did Sebastian want it as Margot so clearly did? To that, he could not say.
This entire day had been a revelation that Sebastian had not seen coming.
Indeed, he liked to believe that he had gone into this day with low expectations and a determination to behave himself.
If he could get through the garden party without making things worse, while also putting on airs of happy marriage so the ton would concede that there was no scandal around, then he’d count himself as satisfied and leave it at that.
In one of those ambitions, Sebastian had succeeded beyond his wildest imagination.
He was certain now that when people spoke of himself and Margot, they would praise the couple and admit to themselves that any rumors they had heard were either highly exaggerated or entirely made up.
But as to the other… have I only made things worse? That I cannot say.
Technically, things were not worse off between him and Margot – they were better!
The two were finally starting to warm up to one another, to engage and banter and treat the other not as some enemy but as an actual person.
Better, a person who they both seemed to realize wasn’t nearly as dangerous as they once thought.
It was, for all intents and purposes, a new path that Sebastian should have been looking forward to walking.
And yet that also presented a problem. A problem that he found himself in the middle of, and could not say what to do about it.
“What do I know about you…” He mused and rubbed his chin in thought
They were standing in the center of the room. Less than a foot separated them. The manor was asleep. The night was late. It was just them and them alone, the vibes that had propelled them to this moment still very much existing and seeming to grow as they looked at one another.
“You are not nearly as stand-offish as you would have me believe,” Sebastian started. “Guarded, yes. But not prickly.”
She scoffed. “What a nice thing to hear about oneself.”
“Nor are you as hostile. Mostly, it is an act, although I sense I have myself to blame.”
“Shall I tell you what I have learned about you?” She was looking up and into his eyes, her voice soft, her breathing heavy as she took a small sip of whiskey.
“To be honest with you, I can probably guess.”
She laughed. “I was rather vocal about my perception, wasn’t I? So let’s just say that most of what I thought has been proven as false.”
“Careful,” he said, a slight growl to his voice. “That sounded suspiciously like a compliment.”
“And your ego is big enough as it is.”
“Bigger than you think.”
“Doubtful,” she shot back. “In my mind, I wonder sometimes how you are able to stand. What, with the size of your head surely weighing you down.”
“And there it is,” he said with a wicked grin because his mind was starting to head in that direction. “Back to trying to hurt me. I should have expected it, and I suppose I should just be happy that, for a time at least, you treated me with less than your usual hostile temperament.”
“You just make it so easy.”
“And after I have been nothing but nice to you.”
She scoffed again. “Too nice, is what you were.” Then she narrowed her eyes. “And we both know why.”
He frowned as if he didn’t know exactly what she meant. “You might have to be clearer. How can one be too nice?”
“You…” Her cheeks continued to flush, and he could hear her breath rising in her chest. Still, she forced her eyes on him, not daring to look away as if to do so might break the spell. “You know… it was suspicious. Provocative. You are…” She bit her lip. “It was purposeful, is what.”
“Purposeful?” Still, he pretended to be uncertain. “To what purpose? Save wishing for a happy marriage. Is that not what we both want?”
“You know well what you were doing,” she said sharply, albeit with a playful cadence.
“Tell me.”
Her eyes widened, and she began to fidget. It was right there, on the tip of her tongue, hovering between them because they both knew where this was going. But could she say it? Or do I need to do it for her?
Sebastian knew now that he wanted Margot more than anything. And where that might have sounded like a positive admittance, he knew better than anyone how dire such a circumstance could be.
Was it just physical attraction, he might not have worried as much as he was.
Standing over her, his eyes ran across her body, taking in her soft curves, the glow of her skin, the warmth he could feel pouring from her.
Then, to her face, those full lips and the eyes…
There is mischief behind those eyes, and how much fun I could have, it makes me wild to think.
Alas, the problem was borne from how much he’d enjoyed himself today.
When Margot had spurned him, it was easy to focus solely on the physical.
When she had been hostile and dispassionate and wore her hate for him on her sleeve.
What was a night or two of fun if once it was over, she would turn her back on him and things would return to how they should be?
Nothing was what it was, and worth it in every sense of the word.
Dammit, Sebastian was finding that he liked his wife more than he thought possible.
She was fun and playful. She was intelligent and perceptive.
She was vicious and fierce and strong, but somehow also kind and caring.
Worse still, she seemed to like him too, and if that was the case, and if Sebastian went through with this…
a cold shudder ran up his spine, and he began to sweat from it.
I never wanted this. To marry. To fall for my wife – or anyone! There is a reason I have been so single-minded in my bachelorhood, and to threaten that now? No… I can’t do it…
“Do not make me say it,” Margot said softly, her eyes looking away as if embarrassed, but the smile she wore told otherwise.
Sebastian felt his blood pump hot through his body. His hand opened and closed, desperate to grab her by the waist and pull her into him. He felt his crotch harden. His mouth salivating. His arousal begging him to act! And yet…
Somehow, Sebastian curbed those feelings and buried them.
“You know what…” He took a deep breath, forcing calm and centering his mind. Then, he took a large mouthful of his whiskey, draining the glass in one go. “I think one drink will do me for tonight.”
Margot blinked in surprise. “Wh – what?” Then a wary smile as she searched for the joke.
“It is late…” He withheld the urge to grimace, and his stomach knotted when he saw the pain in her eyes. “And we really should be getting to bed. Alone,” he added, which had Margot wincing as if he had slapped her.
“Oh…” She blinked, still unsure. “Are you… I am not so tired.”
“I am,” he said. “It has been a long day. Best not to ruin it.” His expression was stone as he looked at her, all the desire and want once present in his eyes gone as if it had never been. She shied away, crestfallen, it looked like. For the best… and if she hates me, then so be it.
Sebastian did not dare to tempt fate and remain with Margot any longer.
Quickly, he put down his glass, said goodnight, and strode from the room, leaving her there.
His heart was racing. Still, he wished to go back and explain and then take her as he had wanted to do since they first met!
But no… that would only lead to trouble.
Trouble that was sure to find him. He had resisted this one time, but for how much longer could he possibly hope to? Perhaps she will be so angry with me that I won’t have to worry about such things? A man could only hope.