A Rakehell's Heart by Annabel Joseph

Author:Annabel Joseph [Joseph, Annabel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Goodreads: 38321852
Publisher: Scarlet Rose Press
Published: 2018-01-31T05:00:00+00:00

Gideon left the ballroom soon after his bride. He knew Bertram would be waiting to spruce him up for his wedding night duties, but instead of turning right at the top of the stairs to go to his new bedroom, he turned left and took the other set of stairs, drifting down a quiet hallway to a room just past his mother’s. There was someone he’d missed at the wedding, someone he needed to see. He knocked softly and opened the door.

Adele looked up from an elaborate work of embroidery, already dressed for bed.

“Are you lost, Your Highness?” she asked. “Your new residence is in the east wing.”

He entered and closed the door behind him. “I need a moment. A moment to breathe.”

She put down her embroidery and came to him, and touched his forehead in a gesture she’d used since he was a young boy, as if she were testing his level of calmness. He did not feel very calm.

“You have to help me,” he said, stepping back from her. “I’m supposed to go to the princess now.”

“Well, then, you ought to go. You aren’t worried, are you? You know what to do.”

He gave her a look. “I’ve known what to do since I was a fourteen-year-old miscreant. It’s not that.” He struggled to find the words he needed, the words to express his dread of doing the wrong thing.

“You’ve never slept with a virgin. Is that it?” she asked.

“Yes, that’s part of it. And she’s not just a virgin.” He paused and cleared his throat. “Things frighten her, Adele. She hasn’t had a peaceful childhood. At the wedding dinner, she didn’t know how to dance. She was so afraid.”

“But you helped her.”

“I had to. I didn’t want her to feel anxious. I wanted to protect her. And the thing is...” He laced his fingers together, trying to explain the maelstrom of his thoughts. “The thing is, I’ve never felt that way before, that this was very, very important, and that I mustn’t allow her to be frightened or hurt. I felt it in my chest and shoulders, in my spine. It was a tightness, a heaviness of purpose that I can’t describe. Is that what marriage does to a person?”

“Your Highness,” said Adele, hiding a smile, “that’s what love does to a person.”

He waved a hand, dismissing such romanticisms. “I can’t be in love. I only met her two days ago.”

“Explain to me, then, why you fret about her welfare? Not only that, but you’ve been in my room for nearly five minutes and haven’t attempted so much as a tweak of my nipple. Good sir, are you turning into a devoted husband before you’ve even consummated your vows?”

The consummation. That was what weighed heaviest upon him. His bride would be in the nuptial chamber with the ladies now, freshly bathed, having flower petals drawn about her hair to scent and relax her.

And here he was, in his secret lover’s room. But she spoke true: he hadn’t come for sex.

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