Page 85 of Her Baseborn Bridegroom

“Yes, but . . . I thought you were just being nice,” she said weakly.

He laughed at that. A low, somewhat wicked laugh. “Nice?” he echoed. “Only you could think that about me, Linnet. I’m not nice. I just happen to be in love with you.”

And just like that, Linnet’s insecurities seemed to just slide away right off her shoulders. She gazed up at him, feeling almost completely weightless.

“Don’t cry,” he said, leaning in to kiss her gently on the lips. “I don’t like it when you’re upset. It makes me want to do crazy things, like kill people. Do you know how I felt when you fainted like that earlier? A couple of royal guards tried to reach you first.”

He frowned as if remembering something.

“What happened to them?” asked Linnet with misgiving.

“I’m sure they’re fine,” he shrugged.

Linnet gazed up at him. “You . . . you said you didn’t cause a scene, Mason,” she said, trying to sit up.

He pushed her firmly back down. “I didn’t,” he said calmly. “They’re trained to bear arms. I doubt I hurt them. . . . Much,” he added as an afterthought.

Linnet gaped up at him. It suddenly occurred to her that there must have been rather more to that business in the throne room than he’d let on. And that probably it had added more grist to the palace rumor mill.

“Oh dear,” she muttered.

He took hold of her left hand and held it before her face. “Which reminds me, wife,” he said. “Walking around without my ring is not acceptable behavior.”

Even as she opened her mouth to explain, he was drawing a ring off his pinky finger and then threading it onto hers. “Lucky for you, your husband is the vigilant kind who misses nothing.”

She glanced at her hand. “My ring! Where did you find it?”

“In my bed,” he admitted. “Lucky thing you left it or I would have thought I’d been visited by a red-haired succubus in the night.” He smiled as she blushed. “I would never have had the nerve to tell you the wicked things she did to me.”

Linnet cleared her throat. “It’s never seemed to me that you’re lacking in nerve, Husband.”

He gave a low laugh and shifted down her body. “You’ve no idea, have you? You, Linnet, have reduced me to a quivering mess. A shadow of my former self.”

“Me?” she yelped as he kissed her belly before shifting further south.

He sighed against her womanhood. “Gods, but I love red hair,” he murmured.

A hammering on the door jolted them both.

“Go away!” roared Mason.

“’Tis by royal command, Sir Mason.” shouted someone against the door. “The King has ordered your presence.”

“For fuck’s sake,” he murmured angrily. “I’m taking care of my wife in here!”

Linnet’s cheeks burned.

“Lady Vawdrey is summoned also,” the voice answered with an apologetic cough.

Mason rocked back on his haunches. “I’m getting heartily sick of life at court,” he growled.

“We’d better go,” whispered Linnet.

“Don’t look so frightened, Love,” he said a few moments later as he helped her back into her yellow silk dress. Cuthbert never had shown up with her trunk of clothes. “After all,” he added grimly. “They can’t strip you of anything else.”

“They could,” she said quietly. “They could take the one thing that means the most to me in all the world,” she said, looking up at him.

He closed his eyes a moment. “There you go again,” he said. “So sweet, I can hardly stand it.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his arms. Kissing the top of her head, he breathed out noisily. “If you mean me . . . ”