Wicked Surrender (Regency Sinners)(12)

Dante stepped closer. “I thought I had more than proved my own…sincerity in that regard.”

She turned fully to face him, her cheeks red. “I do not recall inviting you into my bedchamber.”

He smiled confidently. “You may have succeeded in acquiring this second room with your charm, Bella, but that only means I will now be sharing this bedchamber with you rather than you sharing the one next door with me.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Apart from the obvious?” His gaze moved over her slowly from head to toe, leaving no doubt as to his desire for her. “Left alone here, you might persuade Mr. Rogers into helping you return to London.”

“As is my right.” The deepening of the blush in her cheeks confirmed she had intended doing exactly that. In all likelihood once Dante was asleep and snoring.

“You have no rights when you are with me, Bella,” he stated firmly.

“Of course I have rights,” she snapped. “I am a free woman—”

“You are my captive,” he reminded her. “Besides, you are sorely in need of a lady’s maid to assist you in undressing for bed.”

Her brows rose. “And you are offering to perform that role?”

“I am eager to do so,” he drawled.

Bella was nearing the end of her endurance. Today had been one emotional trauma after another. Dante’s visit. His having kidnapped her. The kisses they had shared in his carriage a short time ago. His presence now in her bedchamber. His insistence he intended to share this bedchamber with her.

She sat heavily on the side of the bed. “What have I done to deserve being treated by you in this way?” Tears stung her eyes once again.

“That is for me to know and you to find out,” he answered grimly.

She shook her head. “You talk in riddles.”

“Which will all become clear to you tomorrow.” Dante wanted the two of them safely ensconced at his hunting lodge before he began to question Bella in earnest.

“And in the meantime, I am to be forced into sharing a bedchamber and bed with you after all.”

It was clear to Dante from the pallor of Bella’s cheeks and her air of defeat she was near the end of both her physical and emotional strength. And who could blame her after the events of today?

He also knew if it should transpire Bella was not guilty of treason, then she would in all likelihood never forgive him for having doubted her.

He sighed. “If it pleases you, for tonight at least, we might put a Hadrian’s Wall of pillows between us.”

Tears glistened on her lashes. “Thank you.”

Dante was unable to stop himself from sitting on the bed beside her. He placed an arm about her shoulders as he drew her head down to rest against his chest. “I promise no harm shall come to you at my hands, Bella.”

“I do not understand why you are doing this to me at all when I have done nothing to you.” Her voice broke with emotion. “I have never even asked that you so much as acknowledge a family connection between the two of us these past seven years.”

He knew that, damn it. Perhaps if she had, if their relationship was not already so strained by past events, his behavior now would not seem so strange to her.

Dante despised himself utterly for what he was now putting Bella through. Unfortunately, he did not have the luxury of time or self-disgust where this business was concerned. Not when the fate of Napoleon was shortly to be decided for a second time. The traitor to the English Crown had to be found and apprehended before that happened.

He released her and stood up as a knock sounded on the outer door. “You will feel less emotional after you have eaten and drunk a glass of wine.”

Bella somehow doubted that. How could she possibly feel anything but emotional when she had no idea what was happening to her or why. All would become clear tomorrow, Dante promised her.

In the meantime, she had the onerous task of spending the night at this inn with Dante to get through.

Even with a Hadrian’s Wall of pillows in the bed between herself and Dante, she very much doubted she would be able to sleep.

Bella had never shared a bed with anyone but Jeremy. Even then her husband had preferred to return to his own bedchamber once their sexual relations were concluded.

Nor did Dante’s presence in her bedchamber, silent though it might be, make her feel any less nervous of the night to come, as they both ate a little of the food. Bella drank a single glass of wine from the jug, while Dante indulged in the brandy.

She breathed a sigh of relief when, after unfastening the buttons at the back of her gown for her, he returned briefly to the adjoining bedchamber to prepare for bed, leaving Bella to the privacy of her ablutions behind a screen in the corner of the room.

She heard Dante come back into the bedchamber several minutes before she emerged from behind the screen, feeling utterly self-conscious as she stepped back into the main room. Her hair was loose about her shoulders, and she wore only a light robe over her night rail.

A quick glance across toward the bed showed her Dante was already lying beneath the bedcovers to one side, his bare chest visible above the sheet as he lay back against the pillows. A chest covered in a fine dusting of dark hair.

Hadrian’s Wall showed clearly in the mound of pillows down the center of the bed.

“Good God, did I do that?” Dante cursed when Bella, having walked to the other side of the bed, turned away to remove her robe and he could clearly see the finger-shaped bruises on the backs of her arms.