There was nothing Letty could say to that, not without sounding churlish. But Geoff correctly read the slight tightening of her lips, and the way her eyes slid away from his.
"You really have no idea, have you?"
Letty bristled. "I have a mirror. And eyes."
"And no idea how to use either," muttered Geoff, before realizing that probably wasn't quite fair of him.
He looked down into her flushed face, framed with its tangle of hair that alternated between copper and gold in the candlelight, and knew that no number of compliments would convince her. With her sturdy common sense, she would write them off as pure flummery. To a certain extent, she would be right. She would never be a beauty by the accepted standards. Pretty, yes. Even lovely. But she lacked the stateliness and symmetry society demanded of its chosen goddesses.
She made up for it, in Geoff's opinion, with something far more valuable, something that went past the mere prettiness of her features, a candid appeal that her more conventionally beautiful counterparts lacked. Even her sister. It was, Geoff realized, the difference between admiration and genuine desire. One might admire a well-carved statue, but it would be deuced uncomfortable to cuddle up with at night.
He also realized that there was no way to impress any of that upon Letty. Especially, he thought guiltily, not after he had done his part to reinforce her belief that she came a poor second.
Other methods of conviction would have to be found.
"Right." He raised one brow in an unspoken challenge. His voice dropped seductively. "Then I'll just have to show you."
"Show me what?" Letty asked warily.
His breath was warm against her ear. "Just how desirable I find you."
His tongue traced the delicate shape of her ear, eroding Letty's defenses, forestalling the tart comment just on the tip of her tongue.
"Like this…"
His lips slid down her throat to her collarbone, while his hands explored the shape of her waist and the curve of her hips, tracing them as reverently as any sculptor shaping his masterpiece.
"…and this…"
He followed the line of her cleavage down to her breasts, taking his time, lavishing attention on each one in turn, making Letty feel as pampered and desired as any sultan's favorite houri.
By the time his lips moved lower, Letty was having difficulty remembering what they had argued about in the first place.
"…and this."
The words were barely a breath of air, scarcely audible, skimming along the coppery curls at the join of her thighs.
"Oh," said Letty inadequately, only the word seemed to have attained several extra syllables. She hadn't known—she hadn't thought—Her fingers tugged at Geoff's dark hair as she gasped, her breathing coming raggedly through her lips. Above, Aphrodite beamed contentedly down. Letty's back arched as her husband's clever tongue plied bits of her body she hadn't known existed, twisting and turning in a complicated form of torture that had her begging him to stop…and not to stop…and several less coherent pleas that scarcely registered in her own ears and didn't mean anything at all, as a series of painfully pleasurable tremors overtook her, reducing her from murmurs to moans.
Rapidly divesting himself of his breeches, Geoff rejoined Letty on the pink satin coverlet. "Convinced yet?" he asked huskily, as Letty wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing up against him in a way that wore his already tattered self-control to mere shreds.
"Mmm," said Letty, running her hands along Geoff's chest in a way that rendered questions and answers entirely immaterial.
Her mouth sought his in a kiss that was part gratitude, part raw passion. She twined her arms and legs around him in an instinctive need to press closer, to feel him against her, skin to skin, from her shoulders all the way down to her toes. Her bare leg slid between his, and she felt the muscles in the arms wrapped around her go taut as corded iron.
Emulating what he had done for her, she pressed her lips to the base of his neck, thrilling at the way his body trembled at the touch.
"Letty." Geoff barely managed to force out the two syllables of her name. Her breasts were flattened against his chest, her nipples rubbing against him with every moan, every movement. Her scent filled his nostrils, drowning his senses. Using every ounce of will remaining to him, trying very hard to go slowly, he stroked gently between the moist curls at her thighs, and felt her quiver in response. With a clumsy movement, she nudged closer to him, instinctively trying to aid him.
Geoff's arms tightened around her in a convulsive embrace. His breath came out in a ragged laugh. "I don't deserve you."
"I know," murmured Letty indistinctly, pressing closer as he carefully positioned himself between her legs. "But you can—"
The rest of the sentence was lost, her fingers biting into his back as he entered her. There was a slight soreness, but it scarcely seemed to matter, not when Geoff was kissing her as though it were the last thing that mattered in the world, and she could feel a delightful tension beginning to build at the base of her stomach. Threading her fingers through his hair, Letty gave herself up to the spiral of sensation, locking her legs tightly around him as he cried out his release.
Together, they lay there, damp, disheveled, and entirely content. Opening her eyes, Letty saw the gilded nymphs and satyrs dancing along the wall through a happy haze. They, she felt quite sure, would approve.
Rolling them both sideways, Geoff brushed back the damp hair from her brow and somewhat haphazardly kissed her temple. "Thank you," he said simply, adding, with a crooked grin, "Happy wedding night. Somewhat belated."
"But worth waiting for," decreed Letty, spoiling the effect with a yawn. She cuddled sleepily against Geoff. So they were truly married now, she mused fuzzily. It didn't seem quite real, any more than anything else had since that night in High Holborn, but at the moment she was too deliciously exhausted to fret about it.
"Tired?" Geoff ruined his otherwise ideal pose as pillow by speaking.
Oh, well, a man had to have some faults, Letty concluded generously.
"A bit," she admitted, scooting to the side as Geoff extracted the coverlet from beneath her legs so it could be used for its proper purpose. He draped it over her before scooting down next to her, rearranging her hair so he wouldn't accidentally tug on it during the night.
"Mm-hmm," agreed Geoff, leaning over her to blow out the candles, and dropping an absentminded kiss to her lips in passing. There was something husbandly about the very inattention of it.
Perhaps they might really be married after all.
Letty drifted off into slumber with a smile on her face.
Chapter Twenty-six
Sunlight glistened off the glass sides of the vial, casting faint smudges of red, yellow, and blue along the pale skin of Letty's wrist. Letty gave the glass vial a diagnostic shake and watched sludgy liquid slosh sullenly from one side to the other, coating the glass with a reddish-brown film and smudging her rainbow to shadow.
Letty thrust the vial back at Geoff. "I just don't see the point of it."
Geoff closed her fingers back around the glass, covering them with his own. "It's only as a last recourse."
Even through two pairs of gloves, the pressure of his hand sent a weakening wave of warmth through her, fraught with memory.
Letty made a concerted effort to keep her mind on the matter at hand. "It's not much of a recourse, is it? Even if I manage to get Vaughn to drink something and empty the potion into the glass without his seeing it, I can't imagine it will take effect immediately."
"True." Geoff's fingers tightened momentarily around Letty's before letting go. "But it should at least slow him down. Just take it."