Page 69 of Cold November Rake

"Oh," she said. "Because we are playing it for show. Is that what you were doing when you kissed me?"

"You kissed me first," he said, then shook his head, feeling childish. "Was that not what you were doing as well?"

She lifted her chin and opened her mouth, and he saw the yes form on her lips. Then she closed it and looked at him with a vulnerability he had not seen in her before.

"No," she said. It came out honest and a little unsteady. "That was not about appearances. I rather enjoyed our kiss. And my displeasure with you kissing Marie was not about appearances either. I wish you would act with me the way you do with her. No pretense."

"Wasn't tonight all about pretense?"

"It was," she admitted. "But as I sat in the theater box, surrounded by a house full of people whose names I do not even know and whose company I do not particularly enjoy, I realized—" Her voice broke, and she shook her head. "I realized I do not care to pretend any longer. I only care that my husband seems so honest, so free, and so himself with his mistress, and not with me."

"How new is that feeling?" Sutton asked carefully. "You did not seem to care what I did on my own time until now."

"What gave you that impression?" Her voice rose. "I asked you not to spend your nights with Marie the morning after we made our deal."

"Which was understandable," he said, "since we were trying to conceive an heir. But I did not think you cared beyond that."

"Well, I do," she said, so forcefully she might as well have stomped her foot.

Warmth washed over him.

He liked hearing that she cared. That she was jealous.

Though he did not quite know what to do with that revelation.

They reached their carriage, and he stopped beside it. Cool air puffed from their mouths in small clouds.

She twisted the button of her glove round and round until she noticed him watching and made herself stop.

She was nervous. Was there something else she wanted to tell him?

"What?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Pardon?" He blinked.

"You are looking at me," she said.

"You are still bothered." He tilted his head. "Is there something else you wish to ask me?"

She hesitated.

"What we walked in on tonight," she said at last.

Did she mean Marie kissing another woman?

"Yes?"

"Do you like that?"

Of all the things he had expected her to ask, this had not been on the list.

"Like... it in what sense?"

Her face burned crimson. "Do you like to watch women... kissing each other? Or lying together? Perhaps you like to join them in bed?"

One corner of his mouth kicked up. "Are you offering?"

She gasped. "No! I am decidedly not! I am only wondering whether that is why you are with her."