A Matter Of Temptation by Lorraine Heath

Author:Lorraine Heath
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: ePub Bud (www.epubbud.com)
Published: 2012-11-20T22:00:00+00:00

Robert had only trekked a few feet when the forest thickened, and he decided he’d best stop to wait for his wife. She moved carefully, cautiously, elegantly. He didn’t know if he’d ever seen any one as graceful as she was as she picked her way over the forest floor.

As she neared him, she lifted her gaze, smiled, and with her attention no longer on the ground, she tripped, squeaked—

He quickly reached out, caught her hand, her waist, and it was as though the world receded and time stood still. Although they both wore leather riding gloves, in the coolness of the forest he could feel the heat of her skin mingling with his. He wanted to draw her nearer, press the length of her body against his, until her warmth completely saturated him. At the same time, he wanted to hold her away so he could gaze into her wondrous brown eyes. He’d never seen eyes so large, so lovely, and when she smiled or laughed, they danced like a thousand stars in the night sky.

He could clearly see why his brother had chosen her.

His brother.

And she had chosen John.

The reality of that choice hit him hard in the gut.

“Steady now?” he asked, hoping she didn’t detect that he sounded as though he was strangling.

She nodded.

“Good.” He let go of her and stepped back. “We should go a bit more slowly, to prevent any mishaps.”

“Did you play in this forest when you were a boy?”

He began the journey again, going at a leisurely rate until she fell into step beside him, then increasing his pace only a bit. Her strides weren’t as long as his, so he adjusted his to accommodate hers.

He thought for her that he could make many such adjustments. Perhaps his brother had felt the same. Not to the extent that he might have released Robert from his hell, though. To do so would reveal John for the fraud that he was, and a woman who had thought she’d become a duchess would have discovered that she wasn’t. Her disappointment might well have made for a miserable marriage.

“Yes,” he finally answered, remembering a time when he’d thought he was happy, when he’d loved his brother and thought his brother loved him. He wondered if Abel had possessed the same misconceptions regarding his brother Cain’s feelings toward him. At least John hadn’t killed Robert. Although there were many moments when Robert had wished he had. Only now he was grateful that he hadn’t, grateful for the woman walking beside him, her sweet fragrance wafting over him from time to time to mingle with the pungent earthy smells of the forest that surrounded them.

“What did you play?” she asked.

“The Napoleonic Wars. John liked to be Napoleon.”

“And you were Wellington?”

“Of course.”

“I always thought it would be great fun to have a twin. Tell me about one of the times when John pretended to be you.”

She’d given him the perfect opportunity to reveal the truth of the situation. While he was courting you.

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