Page 51 of The Nightshade's Bride
To my surprise, my wife neither wept nor screamed, only pushed her dark brown hood aside.
“You're drunk. Who is thisDeliverance? You’re talking to Brother Frederich.”
To my fevered imagination, her belly seemed a little rounder, her face more glowing. Her shorn hair only emphasized those wide hazel eyes, with the thick dark lashes, made her look even more desirable.
When I had first talked about an heir to Deliverance, it had been a way to frighten the little mouse I had married. And then fucking her had turned into breeding her. And breeding her had turned into an obsession. . .
I swallowed down my rage and attempted to sound contrite.
"I was wrong to treat you the way I did. Please come home. I promise things will be different."
Deliverance's lips curled and she looked very hard at me.
"Save your breath, Gideon. You are wasting your time pretending to be sorry. You see,I know your secret. I know who you are and what you did. That's how I know you could never truly love me. You miss me like you'd miss a favorite dog, or an old servant. You aren't capable oflove."
"You don't knowwhatI'm capable of," I said, and I didn't know if that was a threat or a promise.
Mysecret? There was no way my innocent, young wife knew it.
“Come home,” I tried again, repressing my urge to throw myself at the bars like a rabid boar. If she wanted a holy man, I would be that. . . until she got within arm’s reach.
Deliverance rose, her slim hand on her belly, and I felt another pang of unexamined emotion. A baby. It wasmy seedthat had swelled her belly.
Until her, I had never wanted a family. In fact, for as long as I could remember I had lived my life with one goal. And it wasn't marriage. It was money, more and more of it until I had enough to gain what I really wanted.
"I know exactly who you are and what you’re capable of, and this is my offer to you. Leave me alone and I won't tell what I know about Grayspires Manor."
Grayspires?My blood ran cold.
She did know my secret.
CHAPTER 21
Deliverance
"What do you know about Grayspires?" my husband bit out.
And that was all the confirmation I needed that my guess was correct.
"I knowyou aren't really a Nightshade, are you, Gideon? You didn't inherit Grayspires at all, did you? Everything you've ever gotten you'vestolen,and it can all be taken away from you."
"Shut your slut mouth," Gideon said, slamming his big palm on the bars between us. "It's a lie."
But had that been a flash deep in his eyes, something hard and feral there as the winter wind swirled around the bulk of his body, that showed me my shaft had struck true?
There was a soft touch on my elbow, and I heard Bartholomew's voice in my ear.
"Come away," he coaxed, putting his arm gently around me and gathering up all the herbs that had fallen on the ground.
ButI didn’t want to. I was toe to toe with my powerful husband and Ididn’t want to stop. He was looking like he wanted to strangle me and for once hecouldn’t.
"Don’t touch my wife," Gideon raged.
He couldn't stop me. He couldn't lock me in a room. He couldn't enforce his brutal desires on me.
I pulled away from Bartholomew and walked right up to my husband, side-stepping the grasp of his bloody fingers.
"Hecan touch me if he likes."
