Chapter 12
Nicholas was certain he could have looked at his new wife’s surprised expression for hours on end. She simply stood there, staring at him for a few seconds without saying anything.
“Well? Will you?”
She looked breathtaking in the new gown he had bought for her, one of many.
He’d been provided with her measurements from her former dressmaker, and thus had requested a number of fresh new gowns befitting her new station.
Her dark hair had been pinned up again, and she wore a pearl necklace.
She was his duchess now, and he would take pride in bedecking her in whatever gowns and jewels she pleased.
It would make the eventual removing of them all the better.
Slowly, she entered the room, opening and closing her mouth, staring at the food on the table as well as the many chairs.
“I thought it was customary for a husband and wife to sit at either end of the table.”
“Surely you know that I am not a man of custom. And I am always eager to have a beautiful woman sit next to me.”
He winked, and she blushed her usual shade of lovely pink, but she did as she was bid, coming to sit in the proffered chair, and he slid her into the table, being sure to brush his fingers along her neckline, however briefly.
He grinned at her slight shiver. His gaze didn’t leave her face as he sat down, poured champagne for each of them and then passed her her glass.
He wanted to laugh as she hurried to take a sip.
“You seem, nervous, my dear,” he told her, leaning closer to get that scent of rosebud in his nose again.
“I am not nervous,” she said stiffly, taking another gulp. “I am simply surprised. We are only pretending at man and wife, you know,” she told him. “You didn’t need to do all this.”
She waved a hand at the feast before them as well as the footmen standing nearby.
“I did need to do all this because you are a duchess now, and you have lived for too long without life’s comforts.” He’d spoken a little more harshly than he’d meant to, but thoughts of how shabby her home had looked when he’d first seen it infuriated him.
She will be better taken care of now.
He noted a softening in her face as she looked at him and quickly changed the subject, waving the footmen over to bring the first course.
“Besides, the servants need to see that we are faring well as a couple. We have not taken a wedding trip after all, and we are here now for everyone to gaze upon us.”
There was a teasing tone to his voice, and he liked how it made Cordelia visibly relax.
“Very well.” She sipped from her glass. “You have been busy?”
“Yes, but I am always busy. A gambling den cannot run itself. I have an assistant who manages most matters, especially unruly customers, but I like to keep a hand in. I keep the books myself.”
She looked impressed, and he nodded at her. “You have been very busy too, I see. Running about after two wild things and also too busy to have dinner with your new husband.”
She blushed. “I’m getting used to being run ragged. I’ve been exhausted every night."
"They seem as though they would tire anyone out. Not avoiding me, are you?” He lifted a teasing brow. “I never knew Cordelia Debrett to shrink away.”
“And she is not now,” she replied, with a slight smile. “I’m here, am I not?”
You certainly are.
He had not really eaten with someone in his own home for so many years, and it was strangely…comforting. The fact that it was Cordelia made it somehow better.
“They ask for you, you know,” she said softly.
“The children? Well, they’re only human. Many people ask for me.” He tried to keep his tone light, but something about her telling him that made a heaviness sit in his stomach.
She frowned at him. “They want you to come and play. At first, I was seething with jealousy that they should wish to add you to our games, when I have been playing with them for years.” He noticed there was a spark of teasing in her eye.
“But I relented at long last and said that I would ask you. Will you come?”
Nicholas was on uncertain ground. He loathed discussing softer matters. It only reminded him of when he was a child, weak and nervous and frightened at all times.
“I shall have to consider the invitation,” he said, and she beamed.
“Oh, they’ll be delighted.”
Hurriedly, he rushed to change the subject, to go back to where he was comfortable.
He gave her a smooth, practiced grin. “Another reason for my request that you join me at dinner. For how else am I going to tempt you, love, if I never see you?”
“Tempt me? To do what?” she asked, not looking at him, lifting her spoon to dip into the first course of soup.
Nicholas nodded at the footmen to leave the room, which they did, shutting the door softly behind them.
“What are they--?” Cordelia asked, but then she stopped, her lovely brown eyes catching in his.
He had moved his chair closer, and he leaned forward, turning towards her cheek so that he could whisper in her ear.
“My dear wife, do not pretend to be ignorant of what temptation I speak of,” he said, his lips just brushing against the lovely soft skin of her ear. She shivered again, and she did not move, only fluttering her eyes closed and parting her lips.
She breathed in sharply, and he pressed a kiss next to her ear, pulling back to sit where he originally had been, lifting his spoon to dip into his soup.
He watched her carefully as her eyes opened again, and she took a few moments to settle before she started to eat.
He smiled but did not say anything. He had only meant to tease her, but now his own blood was high, and he wanted nothing more than to bed a woman, to drive this need from him and out of him, and he could only imagine the sweet softness of Cordelia’s thighs around his waist as he sank deep into her.
He had not expected to kiss her as he had, and now, the memory of her soft skin against his lips only stirred his desire into further heights.
He wanted her to come to him; he needed her to, for he only wanted a willing woman.
He would have to take care of himself yet again that evening, as he had been doing since their time in the library.
But nothing could lessen his need. No woman had ever driven him to such madness, and she was trying to pretend as though there was no heat between them.
Whatever she thinks of me personally, she cannot forever deny that a desire lingers.
“You mean to frighten me, I think,” she said after a few seconds and after a mouthful of soup. “But I shall not be frightened.”
“Excellent,” he quipped. “I don’t want you to be afraid.”
“Good then. I’m not.”
He chuckled. “Yes, we’ve established this. Do you think me afraid?”
She narrowed her eyes at him and pursed her lovely lips. “I don’t know what to think of you, Nicholas. I never have.”
“I thought I was a rake through and through.”
“That is true.” She nodded. “But—”
He tensed, not eager to return to any discussions of honor or to return to the discussion they’d had in the nursery.
“It is true,” he said with his usual smile. “I am a rake, thoroughly untamable.” He finished his champagne and poured more into each of their glasses. “And I shall inform you that after dinner, I will be going to my club.”
“Your club -- again…?” Her eyes widened.
“Yes, back to the very club you so disapprove of.” He ate another spoonful.
“But I thought that you might not return so soon.”
“Why would you think that?”
When there was a knock on the dining room door, he allowed the footmen entry to bring the next course.
“Well, we are still very newly wed,” she said softly. “Everyone will think me a fool, for not getting her husband to stay with her the first few nights at least.”
“In fact, I think everyone will find you incredibly strong. That you were able to resist me, the handsomest man in London, and keep me from your bedroom.”
He chuckled, but he saw the hurt in her eyes. “Cordelia, you are able to remedy this at any time. Ask me to stay and stay with you. If not, I will be going to my club. I have business to attend to.”
He waited a few beats, his breath held in his chest as he waited for her answer, but when she opened her mouth, she said, “Very well. Attend to your business.”
She looked displeased but also resigned. But she changed the subject, to his delight.
“What is it that it takes to run a gambling den?”
Nicholas grinned, eager to share all that he’d accomplished.
“It was more difficult at first, with everything being in my head and not in action, but now, as I said, it runs smoothly. I’d say one of the most important parts is how to keep customers coming and keeping them happy.
Without giving into all their wildest desires, of course. ”
She nodded. “Desires?”
“Yes. Like they mustn’t win too much at the tables, or get too drunk that they wish to be too familiar with the women who work for me as servers.”
“Ah. That’s very sensible, I suppose.”
“I can be quite sensible, you know.”
She smiled and shook her head. “Very sensible, indeed.”
“And what about you? What do I see you scribbling away at in the early mornings when you think no one is there?”
Cordelia blushed. “I haven’t really done that since I’ve moved here. Too tired, and the children are a first priority.”
He would have to find a way to get Cordelia to relax a little, to enjoy her life rather than endure it. “I saw you occasionally when we would stay with David and Helen. You would be outside while doing it if you could muster.”
“How did you see me?” She asked in a whisper.
It had never been hard to notice Cordelia over the years, even if she had loathed him.
“I would ride most mornings. Clears my head. So, what did you write?”
“Oh, nothing, really, whatever came to mind. Those mornings at their home were always so inspiring.” She looked off into the distance before coming back. “I’m sure riding was similar. Especially when the morning was especially beautiful.”