Page 46 of A Bride for the Heartless Duke
They traveled the rest of the way in silence.
Dean’s Park was a lovely stretch of green, overseen by the Minster and fringed by cherry blossoms which had, by this time of year, lost their leaves. Flowerbeds along the back of the park boasted bright roses and other blooms that Isadora didn’t know. She had taken classes in flower arranging while still living with her sisters, but that had been so long ago, nor had she ever especially been good at it like her eldest sister Aurelia; her eye for color did not extend to knowing what the flowers in questionwere.
The footmen followed them to a free patch of grass in the shade, where they first set up the blanket and set the wicker picnic basket to one side.
Isadora took a seat immediately, Sophia beside her, and eventually Nicholas did the same, stretching his legs out before them.
“Look!” Sophia chirped up immediately, pointing out a particularly spectacular butterfly. “That’s amonarch. Isn’t it beautiful?” She rose, as though to follow, and Isadora cast a glance at one of the footmen, who discreetly followed the girl. She encountered a boy of a similar age, and they stood conversing by the edge of the flowerbeds.
Isadora glanced at Nicholas’s face, which was pointed in Sophia’s direction with a contemplative expression. “Is it strange watching her grow up before your eyes?”
He chewed on his lip before answering, and she wondered if he ever would, when he eventually murmured, “Sometimes it feels as though she’s growing both upanddown. I’ve seen sides to her that I’ve never seen before.”
A warm glow alighted in Isadora’s chest. “Is that so?”
“She laughs more freely.” His hand came to rest on his thigh, and she did her best not to look at his fingers, although the strength of them held her attention more than she’d like to admit. Something about his hands appealed an inordinate amount, although she didn’t fully know why. She hardly went around admiring most gentlemen’s hands.
There was just something unquestionably erotic about Nicholas’s.
Or perhaps there was just something erotic about Nicholas himself.
Maybe it was that they had created something erotic together, and even when she did her best not to think about it, memories of that sensual pleasure crossed her mind too many nights and wouldn’t leave.
“She has settled into my arrival better than I could have ever hoped,” she said.
Nicholas slid her a wry glance. “I think that may have something to do withyou. When I asked you to be my wife, this was…” His throat worked, and he looked away, back toward where Sophia laughed as a butterfly perched on her outstretched finger. “This was precisely what I had in mind.”
In terms of Sophia and the family they were making, this was what Isadora had in mind—at least, mostly. There was the question of her own children, too, but for that, she had to…
Well.
Nicholas stretched full-length upon the blanket, his shirt pulling taut against his corded muscles as he reached for the strawberries that the other footman was unpacking from the picnic box. He offered one to Isadora, who accepted it cautiously. Would their truce last only as long as the sunshine, or had they finally turned a corner?
“Wine?” he asked, eyes glinting in the sun. He looked like a forbidden prince there, all tousled dark hair and sharp blue eyes and a chin that could cut glass.
That mouth had been on hers.
His hands had been on her hips, guiding her movement. She’d heard his rough exhalation as he’d found his pleasure from her, with her, and he’d held her after as though he was afraid she might shatter into a thousand tiny pieces if he let go.
How could she reconcile that man with the one who lounged opposite now, so close and yet so unobtainable?
“There’s a regatta next week,” she said carefully, choosing her words as though they were hot coals. Quickly, carefully, placing them down without lingering too long. His gaze was on her, watching with that needle-sharp observation that missed nothing. “I thought perhaps we might take Sophia.”
We. Together.
The words resounded between them, though she didn’t say them aloud.
Then Nicholas inclined his head. “Very well.”
“Oh.” Surprise made her laugh a little. “That was easier than I anticipated.”
Once again, Nicholas looked at her, his eyes tracing across all her features one by one, his gaze so hot, it was as though blazing fingers singed over her skin. “It’s important,” he said finally.
Isadora parted her lips to say something more, but before she could, someone approached them and claimed Nicholas’s attention.
“Goodness me, Your Grace,” she purred, fluttering her fan at her face, light blond curls bobbing in the manufactured breeze. “It has been an age since I have seen you out and about. Not since—” She broke off with an affected laugh, though Isadora could tell it was entirely intentional. “I suppose I should say nothing about it. And no doubtyoudon’t know, my dear!” She aimed the comment at Isadora, who gritted her teeth.
“Forgive me,” Isadora smiled, although she really wanted to scream. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”
