She searched his face uncertainly.
“Come, you are friends with all the gossips, are you not?” he demanded. “If it were happening, do you really think they’d miss it? Have you heard any such talk?”
She faltered. “Well—no.”
“I have no mistress, nor do I want one! Unfaithful?” he barked. “I don’t even have the time!”
“You don’t have time for anything!” she angrily agreed. “Not even your sons! If you don’t start making time, you’re going to end up as much a stranger to them as your own father was to you!”
Her warning struck home, for he knew full well it was the truth. Not for the world would he repeat that pattern. Archer lowered his gaze, sobered. “I know I’ve been too busy. And I may have been neglectful of you and the boys, but you need to know above all that I’ve never been untrue. I swear this to you on my life.”
Elle was beginning to feel completely out of sorts, holding his stare. She saw no lie in those fierce gray eyes.
This was confusing. She had been so sure—but as the fog of battle cleared, she realized she had judged, tried, and convicted him on very flimsy evidence, not much more than a fleeting glance.
It was true that at least in other matters, he was not one to lie—though if he stayed in politics, no doubt, he’d learn. Relief began to turn her knees to jelly, but oh, this was awkward. She was struck with remorse at the way she had lost all semblance of control. “I—I’m sorry I slapped you. I don’t know what came over me.”
“It’s all right. You’ve got a good arm, lady.” Wryly, he soothed her with a fond, chiding smile. “Your doubt of my character hurts more than any slap. But at least you showed some emotion for once.”
She was taken aback. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Do you expect me to read your mind? I had no idea what was wrong with you all this time! You wouldn’t talk. I thought you had transferred all your love to our babies.”
“Archer.”
“If you had only told me what was wrong, I could’ve set the record straight months ago, but you never even gave me a chance. Didn’t you think I’d tell you the truth?”
She looked away, embarrassed. “I figured you considered it a gentleman’s prerogative.”
“To cheat on you? What rubbish.”
“I don’t know!” she cried at his sardonic stare. “I didn’t ask because I couldn’t bear for you to tell me to mind my own business.”
“So you resigned yourself to stoic resolve. But of course you did. That’s my Ellie.” He shook his head. “Mind your own business? Is that what you really thought I’d say? Because if so, then you do not know me at all, and you especially don’t know how much I adore you.”
“Archer.” She looked up into his eyes, knowing the moment of truth had come. “I just want for you to love me, as much as I love you.”
“Ellie, dearest.” Amazed, he took her face tenderly between his hands, and as he gazed into her eyes, for once she let him see into them all the way down to her heart.
“I wouldn’t have been so jealous if I weren’t mad for you,” she choked out. “It terrifies me sometimes, how in love with you I am.”
Archer searched her face as though seeing her for the first time. “Sweetheart.” He marveled at the intensity of her confession. “I feel the same way for you. I thought you were aware . . . Don’t I give you everything you want?”
“Not everything,” she whispered.
“Diamonds, gowns, carriages—”
She clutched his coat. “It’s you I want, you fool!”
“You have me, Ellie.” He covered her hands with his own against his chest. “God’s truth, I am yours.”
She looked into his eyes in searing hunger. “Show me.”
He was undressing her before the door to his candlelit chamber was scarcely shut. Her gown was already loosened, her lips bee-stung from the kisses they’d exchanged the whole way home in the carriage.
She shivered in breathless anticipation as the blue silk whispered down her body to the floor. Then Archer was unlacing her stays as his mouth consumed hers, as hurried and passionate with her as if this were indeed some illicit liaison; she unbuttoned his handsome uniform coat, her fingers trembling.
When she was naked but for her white, gartered stockings and the necklace he’d put on her earlier, he thrust her against the wall with a groan. Elle reveled in his wild abandon and hastened to finish undressing him. He laid her in his bed, then shed the rest of his clothes and joined her with fire in his eyes.