Wicked Temptation (Regency Sinners 6)(39)

“Then where else can we go so that I might have the privacy to kiss you, at least?”

Pru’s heart leaped in her chest at the intensity of Romney’s tone and expression, her stomach fluttering wildly. “You are not going to kiss me. In fact,” she continued triumphantly as an idea occurred to her, “I have decided there shall be no more kisses, or anything else, until the traitor is found and arrested.”

Romney’s brow darkened. “Once you are my wife—”

“Our marriage will change nothing.” Pru might come to regret this decision, wanting Titus as much as she did, but she felt a need to take back control of her own life. “If I am to be bullied and coerced into this marriage, then I shall at least have a say in its future.”

Romney’s scowl deepened. “Refusing to share a bed with your husband is more than having your say!”

“Then we will have the marriage annulled.”

“I shall be sharing your bed if your refuse to share mine.”

“Then you will have to divorce me,” she challenged. Divorces were rare and usually took years to accomplish, but they did happen.

He reached out to grasp her arm and turn her to face him, allowing Pru to see that he really was angry. “Is the idea of marriage to me so abhorrent you are talking of divorcing me before we are even wed?”

Pru felt flustered by the question. The truthful answer was she could imagine nothing she would like more—would love more—than to be Titus’s wife. But the circumstances under which it was to happen were far from ideal. “No more abhorrent than it must be for you to be forced into marriage with me.”

“Do you really think me a man who would allow anyone or anything to force me into doing something I do not wish to do?” he bit out between clenched teeth.

Her eyes widened. “Are you saying you—” The clanging of the front door pull, quickly followed by a loud and persistent knocking on that wooden structure, prevented her from completing that question.

A loud and urgent knocking, which demanded an immediate answer.





Chapter 14


“Your father and I found the arrival of Romney’s visitor yesterday evening, followed by his hurried departure soon after, to be slightly…alarming?”

Pru wondered what her mother would say if she knew the whole story of why Romney had come into their lives in the first place. Not that Pru could or would tell her mother any of that. “I believe he was needed urgently on—on a family matter,” she dismissed, the two ladies once again comfortably ensconced in the countess’s private sitting room.

Her mother’s brows rose. “Surely what family he has is retired to the country for the winter.”

“Well. Yes. But all in Society know that The Sinners are more family to each other than any of their blood relations.”

“So it was one of The Sinners who needed him so urgently?”

The truth was Pru had no idea why Titus had left so abruptly yesterday evening after going outside to speak with whomever had been knocking on the front door of her family home. Romney had returned only long enough inside the house to offer his apologies to her and her parents and a promise to speak with her the following day before he had hurried off into the night.

It was now after luncheon the following day, and Pru had neither seen nor received word from Titus as to what the emergency had been the previous evening.

Pru rose abruptly to her feet. “I believe so, yes,” she answered noncommittally.

“But you do not know for certain?”

“Not for certain, no.”

“Darling—”

“Mama,” she interrupted firmly, “I know you to be an intelligent and perceptive woman—”

“Why, thank you, darling.”

“That being the case,” Pru continued, “I believe you to also be aware that all is not…not as it seems in regard to Cilla and Worthington dying in a carriage accident and then Parker and Romney having been shot.”

The countess eyed her ruefully. “I am, yes.”

“Father too?”

Her mother smiled. “I did not marry your father only because of his good looks and ability in the bedchamber.”

Pru did her best to shut out the images in her head that followed that remark. “I believe Romney’s hurried departure last night to be connected to those deaths.” But she did not know that for certain, because Titus had not confided in her.

She would not be kept in the dark this way once they were married—

If they married.

Pru sat abruptly in the armchair she had only recently vacated. She had done nothing but think about the reason Titus had left so suddenly, and about their possible marriage, since he’d left her the previous evening. The first she was sure she would hear about in good time. But she was still concerned as to whether Titus had made the offer of marriage because of their lovemaking, or possibly as another way of giving her his protection. Neither seemed a good basis upon which to embark upon a marriage.

There was their undeniable physical attraction to each other too, of course, but how long would that last? How many months, possibly weeks, before Titus tired of making love only to his wife and went off in search of fresh bed partners?

Pru did not wish to be one of those long-suffering Society wives, sitting at home with her embroidery before retiring to her cold and lonely bed, whilst her husband wallowed in whatever den of debauchery happened to be his particular choice for that night.