Page 126 of An Inconvenient Vow
On the fourth and final night, Sabina had upbraided him again during their lovemaking and once again it had excited him beyond all reason. “You’re such an arrogant swine,” she had gritted out. “It’s a good thing you’re so pretty, or I would not suffer you in my bed!”
He had gasped at her words and thrust up his hips with a harsh groan. “Sabina!” Even thinking of it afterward made him shiver and burn for her. Why did he like it when she took him to task? He did not know; he only knew she was the one person he would tolerate it from.
After they had cleaned up, he had given in to temptation and dragged down the sheets and explored her lush body in the candlelight.
“What are you doing?” she asked with a yawn.
“Not cold are you?” he asked with sudden concern.
She snorted. “On a warm night in July?”
He ran his hands over the globes of her arse and then shifted down the bed and kissed them both in turn.
“Jeffree!” Sabina’s startled yelp made him frown. “What are youabout?”
“Just thinking what a pity it would have been if the smooth perfection of your buttocks had been marred by a harlot’s brand.”
“I don’t know about a pity,” Sabina responded critically. “But it would have been a travesty of justice and hurt like hell!” He murmured his agreement as he ran his hands over them again. “And it’s disgusting that you would have gotten away with it scot-free too!” she continued darkly. “While I was branded and paraded through the streets barefoot or stuck in a pillory! Men don’t get branded for harlotry,” she finished crossly.
“My crest might look well here,” he mused, tracing his finger over her bottom.
“What?” Sabina turned about to squint at him suspiciously and he realized he had spoken the thought out loud. “You want to brand me like one of your cattle now?”
He grew a little red. “I don’t own any cattle. I spoke without thinking.”
“You—” Words seemed to fail her for once and she stared at him. “Sometimes you are so odd, Jeffree de Crecy.”
He cleared his throat. “It was naught but an idle thought… I did not mean it. You know I would never let anyone burn your flesh.”
She shook her head. “Maybe I should add this remark to the one about my rope-like hair?”
He cleared his throat with a frown and hurried to extinguish the candle. Thinking about it afterward, he realized that speaking any words while stupidly sated was likely a mistake. He could not count on himself not to talk like a lovesick fool.
28
They reached Morecotte by late next morning. Penny and Lancer both came running to welcome them home. Lancer’s curly dogs bounded around their legs barking as Osborn led the horses into the stable.
“That Sir Charles Ellis has sent word over these last three days to check if you was back, Sir Jeffree,” Sabina overheard Lancer report to her husband as Penny chirped away in her other ear.
Sabina felt sick dread once more rise up in her stomach as she followed Penny inside the house. During the journey, she had managed to mostly push it out of her head but there could be no more burying her head in the sand. They were on the brink of disaster.
On the threshold she almost started, for she had forgotten all of the new furnishings that now filled the house. Sadly, in her current mood, she could take no pleasure in them.
“You look tired, milady. Let me heat you some water for washing off your travel dirt.”
“Thank you, Penny, I would be most grateful.” Sabina started up the stairs, before pausing on the third step. “I don’t suppose my sister has sent me any word in my absence?”
Penny shook her head. “That she haven’t, milady.”
Sabina sighed and carried on up to wash and change. She had just finished putting on a clean dress when Jeffree came into the dressing room.
“Here you are,” he said looking her over. “I wondered where you had slipped off to.”
Sabina noticed he had not changed and still wore his boots. “Are you off somewhere?” she asked with misgiving. Was the newfound accord between them to be shattered so soon?
He nodded. “I had better see what Charles has uncovered.”
Sabina gulped. “So soon?”
