It was well into the evening by the time the carriage came to a stop, far too late for his girls to be awake. But Juliet would be. He swallowed. What would she say to him? It had been obvious something had been wrong when he’d left. For as much as he’d tried, he’d not been able to hide completely behind a mask. Likely, she thought he was distraught over the birth of Marcus’ son. Though she was right to some degree on that score, he’d rather admit to that being the sole cause of his distance than tell her the shaming truth of his past.
Nodding to the butler and waving off his attempt to take his coat, Patrick mounted the stairs. It was time to find Juliet. He couldn’t wait another moment to see her.
Without a thought to what he might find on the other side, Patrick swung open the door to the room they shared.
“Juliet,” Patrick whispered. The image of his beautiful wife standing in the middle of the floor wearing nothing but a sheer red nightrail robbed him of his breath.
She took a few steps toward the bed, her beautiful globes bouncing with each step. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” in more ways than one. He pushed away the thought and clenched his fists. “How did you know I’d returned?”
“I didn’t.”
“You didn’t?” he breathed, his eyes focused on all the curves and contours of his wife’s delectable body.
“No,” she confirmed. She picked up a little scrap of fabric lying atop the counterpane. “I was just hoping you’d come.”
His mouth watered, and his heart picked up its pace. “And if I hadn’t?”
“Then, I’d have just had to wait for tomorrow night.”
His heart didn’t know whether to squeeze at her admission of waiting up all night for him again or crack at the knowledge she was presenting herself to him this way because she thought it was her duty to greet her returning husband thus. “What is your plan here, Juliet?”
She took the silken sash that had been resting on the bed and wrapped it around his neck. “Seduction.”
He groaned. She wasn’t going to have a very unwilling “ seductee” in a minute if she didn’t stop swaying her hips like that. “Why?”
“Why what?”
He clenched his fists tighter, and commanded them to stay in his pockets. If he brought them out, who knew what would happen. Even a week away from her in London had done nothing to curb his desire for her. He still wanted her. No, he craved her, hungered for her. And her sauntering around in a few strips of transparent silk was not helping him. “Why do you want to seduce me, Juliet?”
Her face turned a fetching pink. “Because I want to.”
Choking down his desire and forcing his thoughts away from her budded nipples that were dangerously close to his chest now, he said, “Do you feel forced?”
She stilled. “Forced?”
He nodded, too overcome with emotion to voice his fear that she felt forced or pressured to behave this way.
“No, Drake, I don’t feel forced.”
Patrick’s eyes searched hers, but he was unable to find the answers he was looking for. “All right, not forced, but pressured.”
“Pressured?” she asked, wrinkling her brow. “Why would I feel pressured?”
“Because I’m your husband.”
Juliet dropped her sash and put her fingers to work on the buttons of his coat and waistcoat. “No.” She pushed the two articles of clothing off his shoulders, and let them fall to the floor. Her fingers slipped the knot from his cravat and he closed his hand around her wrist to stop her before those wandering fingers of hers could remove anything else.
“Juliet, if you’re only doing this because you think I expect you to, don’t.”
“I’m not.” She lowered her lashes, and started to pull her hand from his hold.
Unsure how to interpret her response, he tightened his grasp and asked, “Then why are you?”
Her lower lip trembled and he used his free hand to tilt her chin up toward him. “Because I want to.”
“You want to?”
She broke eye contact with him and swallowed. “Yes. I want to.”
“Why?”
“Because I enjoy it,” she said with a blush.
“You what?” Surely he couldn’t have understood her right.
“I said, I enjoy it,” she whispered.
He blinked. “Every time?”
“Every time what?”
“Every time we’ve shared intimacies, have you enjoyed it?”
She bit her trembling lip, and nodded once.
“You’re sure?”
She nodded again.
“So there’s never been a time you haven’t wanted to share your body with me or wished I wouldn’t touch you?”