Wagered to the Duke (BookStrand Publishing Romance) by Karen Lingefelt

Author:Karen Lingefelt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Published: 2013-01-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

“Share the same bed?” she burst out in a raspy whisper. “Are you mad?”

He removed his shirt. “Am I mad? I’m not the one who was running up and down the hallway unclothed, knocking on other people’s doors and meddling in affairs that are none of my concern.”

“I had every reason to believe he was beating her to death!”

He offered her a crooked smile. “I concur it certainly sounded that way, but I promise you that is not what he was doing. Must I spell it out to you? They were engaged in c-a-r-n-a-l n-o-w-l-e-d-g-e.”

She stared at him for a moment with wrinkled brow, obviously putting the letters together in her head, before saying, “I believe you left out the k.”

Did he? He’d take her word for it. “Then you understand what they were doing.”

She looked thoroughly—and, he thought—adorably appalled. “That’s what they were doing?”

“Yes, that. She’s fine and very much alive. You don’t hear her screaming now, do you?”

“Maybe that’s because she’s already dead.”

He chuckled softly. “Katherine, Katherine. Here you are, eight and twenty, and yet you really don’t know what happens between men and women.”

“At least I know how to spell it. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m just a plain old spinster who’s never been courted by anyone.”

A plain old spinster? Hardly. Certainly not now. Nathan could scarcely take his eyes off her as he reveled in the sight of her damp shift clinging to every curve of her body. To think this was what lurked beneath her heavy wool pelisse and shapeless frock! He clearly saw the outline of her small but delicately upright breasts, with pink nipples threatening to poke holes in the flimsy fabric. A dark, triangular smudge drew his gaze to the juncture between her thighs, and he felt a heated stirring in his own juncture. To his amusement, she seemed too transfixed by the sight of his bare chest to realize he was seeing parts of her she probably didn’t want him to see.

Or did she?

Finally, he said, “Have you no idea why husbands and wives share the same bed? How babies come about?”

“Yes, I do know that, but that’s not what it sounded like they were doing.”

“And how do you know what it sounds like?”

“I don’t. But surely it’s not supposed to sound like that.”

“It’s not. At least it shouldn’t, if the woman knows what to expect, and if the man knows what to do. Obviously Mrs. Driscoll’s mother didn’t have a little talk with her daughter about what to expect this evening, while Mr. Driscoll didn’t seem to put much effort into—well, preparing her in such a way that she would’ve been less likely to scream.” His eyes bored into hers, and not for the first time he marveled at the paleness of those green irises burnished with silver that gleamed in the candlelight as they stared at his chest.

She sighed. “I’m sorry for causing so much trouble.”

“Don’t apologize to me. At least now I won’t have to sleep in a chair down in the taproom or parlor.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.