James said, “You know, with Corrie as my wife, I’ll never have to worry about boring her with talk of silver cascades through the ring of Titan. I remember when I told her about my discovery-her eyes sparkled. Yes, sparkled, that was exactly what her eyes did. She listened to me, you know how she is-sits there, her eyes glued to your face, like she wants to grab the words right out of your mouth. She then told me to tell her about it again so she would be certain she understood everything.” And suddenly, James remembered her eyes sparkling like that when he’d given her a doll on her sixth birthday. He’d happened to be buying a gift for his mother when he saw the doll propped up against a bolt of material. Pale white face, big red lips, and eyes that reminded him of Corrie’s. He’d been embarrassed to buy it, even more embarrassed to give it to her, but she’d pulled it out of the paper, pressed it to her skinny little chest and looked up at him, eyes sparkling. With more, of course. With love. With adoration. He’d wanted to run then; he wanted to run now.
“As I recall,” Jason said, “you and Corrie used to spend a lot of time lying outside looking up at the stars, you telling her everything you knew.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“It was two months ago. I remember because you were excited about Mercury coming so close to the earth.”
It was true, dammit. So many evenings she’d sneaked out of her uncle’s house and they’d lain on their backs, looking up into the heavens.
“She always wanted to talk about the moon; she’s always been fascinated with the moon. And you know, she doesn’t need to talk, like most girls do. She’s perfectly fine with blessed silence.”
James wondered if Juliette Lorimer’s eyes would sparkle if she’d attended his talk at the Astrological Society meeting.
Marriage to the brat. Dear God, how could such a thing be possible?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, James had drunk some tea and eaten two slices of toast when Corrie suddenly appeared in the doorway of his bedchamber. She walked in, dressed quite nicely in a morning gown of pale golden brown, with a lovely matching wrap of darker brown that added a touch of gold to her eyes.
He raised a supercilious eyebrow at her. “Hello, Corrie. Did you ever leave?”
“Whatever do you mean? Of course I left.”
“It seems that you’re nearly living here now. In and out, in my bedchamber, in the estate room drinking my father’s Florentine brandy, you’re everywhere, including in the kitchen to steal biscuits, Willicombe told me. When we’re married, there’ll be little change.”
Not a word came out of her mouth, not even a curse.
“Did my father select that gown for you?”
“What? My gown? Well, yes, he did.” She fidgeted a moment. “Do you like it?”
“Yes, it’s lovely.”
She waved that away. “Listen, James, your mother paid my Aunt Maybella a visit. It was just the two of them, and they had their heads together for a full hour. Since you’re still on the weedy side, I had to come here to see you. I want to know why your mother was with my aunt.”
She’d begun pacing, and he liked the way she looked, thank God. Then she tossed her wrap to a chair along with her reticule, turned to say something else and he saw that that damned gown she was wearing was nearly falling off her shoulders.
“Put your damned wrap back on. Your gown is cut far too low. I cannot believe that my father ordered up a gown that leaves you nearly naked to the waist.”
To his surprise, she grinned at him. She shrugged her shoulders, slipped her fingers beneath the gown and tugged it down a bit more. “Actually, your father didn’t know that Madame Jourdan winked at me when he ordered her to cut the bodice nearly to my chin.” She actually leaned toward him and poked out her breasts. “It looks perfect, so you will hold your tongue.”
James, without thinking, with no consideration at all, bounded from the bed and stomped over to her, so angry he was panting.
He grabbed her bodice and jerked it up to her chin. And heard a rip. Corrie didn’t say a word, just stood there, staring at him.
He was naked.
“James,” she said, looked down his body, and gulped. “This is a lovely treat, but perhaps your mother might walk in and what would she think? I’m an innocent young girl, and here you are, stark naked, and so very lovely that I’m ready to burst into song. And that male part of yours that I shouldn’t know anything about, is gaining in stature, James. It’s getting rather alarming.”
He cursed, she was right; it seemed when he was angry with her he got harder than the bedpost. Or maybe it was whenever he remarked upon her breasts, he got harder than-He stomped back to his bed and grabbed his dressing gown. He shrugged it on, tied the belt at his waist, and walked back up to her. He took her shoulders in his large hands. “I ripped your gown. I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not. You must be feeling much better. You roared out of that bed ready to hurl me out the window.”
“No, I just wanted to cover you so I wouldn’t have to lie there in my bed and slaver.”
She blinked. “Looking at me would make you slaver, James? You’re not lying to me, are you?”
“No, dammit, I’m not lying. Now look at you, your right sleeve is hanging off and your gown is still so low it makes me want to howl at the moon.”
“Hmmm, I must ask Devlin if vampires can howl at the sun.”
He gritted his teeth. “Do not speak of Devlin Monroe to me again. Do you understand me, Corrie? Now, I trust you burst in on me to inform me of your decision to marry me?”
“I came to tell you that my aunt and uncle are already planning our wedding, at least they were until I told them I was not going to allow you to sacrifice yourself. I told them I was going to marry someone else, someone who actually wanted me.”
“Do not say his bloody name!”
“All right. He came to visit me this morning. It turns out that Jason tracked him down at his club last night and told him marriage to me would do him in. Can you believe Jason told him I would kill him if he kept his mistresses? Actually kill him, that’s what Jason told him. He also said that since he’d known me from the age of three, he knew what I was capable of. He asked Devlin-oops, I didn’t mean to mention his name-if he were willing to tread the path of faithfulness until he stuck his spoon in the wall. Devlin said he laughed when Jason asked him that. Then he asked me if I would really kill him if he were unfaithful.”
“And what did you tell him?”
“I told him I’d kill him deader than the dinner trout.”
“And what did he say to that?”
“He laughed some more, told me then that there was no gentleman of his acquaintance who could safely marry me, given my stand on fidelity, despite all my money, unless the gentleman was teetering on bankruptcy, and the good Lord knew that such a gentleman would promise anything at all to get what he wanted, including-horror of horrors-fidelity. He laughed again, told me that when it came down to it, even the promise of murder wouldn’t deter a man from promising anything, and then doing what he wanted. That was the way of the world. It’s not right, James, just not right.”
“My father has never broken faith to my mother, nor she to him.”
“I suppose the same is true for Aunt Maybella and Uncle Simon. I don’t think it’s particularly due to Uncle Simon’s fortitude in matters of the flesh. I think it would take too much time away from his leaf studies. What do you think?”
“I can’t believe you’ve gotten me off on this ridiculous tangent. Will you marry me, Corrie?”
“No.”
“Why the hell not?”
“I will never marry a man who doesn’t love me.”
“Are you saying that you would marry Devlin if he swore to be faithful to you?”