The presence of numerous servants in the entry hall interrupted Ravenna’s hope of whisking her husband upstairs to continue their unfinished interlude. Simon had received several messages during the evening from Heath.

Aunt Glynnis had also sent another of her reminders that Ravenna was giving her first tea tomorrow afternoon. Glynnis added that she had taken it upon herself to invite a half-dozen or so of her own acquaintances. She had instructed the duke’s staff to bring out the finest china.

“I completely forgot about the tea,” Ravenna said over her shoulder to Simon as they made their way upstairs to their bedchamber. “According to my aunt we are serving crumpets, iced cakes with crystallized rose leaves, and Souchong. Thank goodness for Isolde. It looks as if she has laid out my entire wardrobe from my tea gown and gloves to -- Simon, are you listening to me?”

“Yes. You’re serving tea tomorrow.”

“And?”

“Better you than me.” He took off his boots and neckcloth. “Now I can breathe. I wouldn’t worry about tomorrow. I survived your tea parties. A glass before bed?”

They lingered on a low curved couch over Madeira and discussed the play -- or rather the people who had crowded their private box after the performance to offer Simon and Ravenna belated congratulations on their marriage. Ravenna scribbled names in a notebook as fast as Simon could rattle them off.

“No one struck you as familiar?” he inquired, lifting her feet from his lap to remove her stockings. She smiled at him in rue. His hand idly sketched a circle around her garter.

“Only you.” She placed her pen inside her notebook. “Everyone saw you kiss me at the theater. Including Rhys. I suppose I’m no better, ravishing you in the carriage.”

“The truth is that I couldn’t have given a toss whether we attended a play or an opera tonight,” he said. “When I was not looking at you, I was intercepting the looks you drew.”

“Because I am your wife, Simon. No one in England would have noticed me otherwise.”

“Nonsense,” he said. “Everyone notices a Boscastle. You must cease this false virtue.”

“It astonishes me you can utter that last word with a straight face.”

“Blame it on our voluptuous passions. I made sure your brother was looking away. By the way, I very much approve of how unladylike you were on the way home. You may take advantage of me whenever the urge comes upon you.”

His hand disappeared under her skirts. His fingertips stroked the tender flesh between her thighs. She was instantly stricken by a need to move, and not away from his touch. “You have the intense look in your eyes that used to intimidate me,” she said softly.

“I never meant to intimidate you.”

“I understand that now,” she said. “Your effect on me is all the more potent because it’s unintentional.”

“Hmph. Am I affecting you now?”

“Quite so,” she said, her breath hitching. “I fall apart when you tempt me without trying.”

“Should I stop?” he said with a half-smile.

“I shall never speak to you again if you do,” she whispered, her notebook sliding to the floor. “Twice in one night is unthinkable.”

“Can I lure you to the bedchamber?”

“Shall we race?”

“On your marks.”

Simon let her win. They swiftly undressed each other in their unlit sanctuary. Her petticoats slid off and buried his vest in a pink-lace froth. She heard him sneeze and realized he’d sent a jar of her face powder flying. He knocked over a bottle of orange water on the dressing table. She caught it before it spilled, her corset half unlaced.

“What a mess,” he muttered. “Heavy hands, haste, heavy -- well, you know.”

She ran her fingers over his prominent erection. He closed his eyes, briefly, then grasped her by her shoulders. “Wait. Dearest, please give me time to speak. I have something to confess. I can’t let another night pass without lightening my conscience.”

“Now?” she asked in dismay, hands dropping to her sides.

“It’s waited too long.”

She pulled up her corset as if anticipating a blow to her heart. “Does it have anything to do with another woman?” she asked in a hollow voice. “If it does, I shall need another drink on the couch -- no, I won’t stay long enough for a drop.”

“Good God, Ravenna. If anything, what I have to say proves that I’ve loved you for practically forever.”

She forced a smile. “Well, then, confess all.”

“I asked Liam for your hand shortly before he died.”

She drew up, staring at him incredulously. “This is one of your games. You’re playing again?”

“I am not,” he said, exhaling, his eyes searching hers.

“And neither of you thought to ask my opinion?” she asked in a stark voice.

“There wasn’t much reason to tell you before our marriage. He turned me down.”

“On what grounds?” she demanded.

“You’d been promised to another man. Liam professed I was on the road to ruination. He saw the signs. He and I shared a certain experience during a drunken revel.”

“You shared a woman,” she said slowly. “I believe he bragged of it, but I didn’t understand then what he meant. Liam could be a bad influence on those closest to him. I loved my brother, but he had deep faults. You aren’t like him at all.”

“I can’t blame him for protecting you. And I’m a grown man who has to accept responsibility for his own actions.” He gathered her back against him. “But all that is past, and it’s at this point you’re supposed to admit you loved me too and didn’t realize it until we were reunited.”

“Is there anything else you want to admit?”

“I asked Griff and he turned me down, too.”

“Simon.”

He shook his head. “I know it sounds as if I’ve been deceiving you. But I approached Liam for your hand because I wanted you. And I married you for the same reason.”

She was silent.

He went down on his knee. “Give me absolution.”

She bit the edge of her lip.

“For God’s sake, say something. Show me your anger. Slap me. Throw a perfume bottle across the room. Do anything except leave -– are you giggling?”

“This goes to confirm what I’ve said all along, Simon. You are a romantic.”

He gave her a disgruntled look. “Obviously you are not. Yes, I realize I should have approached you first. I should have told you about my proposal before the wedding. But we were caught up in events beyond our control. I’d never deliberately trick you.”

“Why didn’t you make an effort to contact me? You had years to express your feelings.”

“I kept apprised of your activities, if it’s any consolation,” he said, rising from the floor.

“And you cared for me all this time?” she asked, shaking her head. “You could have hinted.”

“I thought I had. But after a while I began to wonder if Liam had been wise to reject me. I led a sophisticated life. Yours was sheltered. I had to subdue myself when you came near.”

“You don’t now.”

A wicked sparkle warmed his eyes. “And what a profound relief that is. It’s one of the benefits of our wedding license.” He tugged her toward the bed. “I do love you. You love me, too.”

“I shouldn’t,” she said, falling into his arms. “I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to love anyone ever again after Grayson’s ball.”

“But you do. I knew I loved you a long time ago. I had every intention of telling you until I spoke to Liam.”

“It isn’t a terrible secret,” she whispered.

“Thank you.”

“But it was terrible of you to keep it.”

“Will you forgive me?”

“I haven’t decided. Give me a year or so to mull it over. Perhaps you should do penance.”

“As long as you don’t leave me. Or ask me to leave.”

He rolled on top of her, his knee pressed between her thighs. She opened herself to him instinctively. His feverish kisses warned her there’d be no prelude to his dark play tonight. She draped her arm around his neck and pulled him down hard. Fire underlit her belly, and then she was burning with impatience to feel him melded to her. His mouth moved from hers to whisper in her ear. She wasn’t sure exactly what he said. His voice was a growl of urgency and promises.

Was there anything to forgive?

Moonlight and the man she adored -- her blood clamored in craving. His timing impeccable, not a trace of propriety to his name, he nudged her thighs further apart and drove into her sex. She dug her left heel into the mattress, locked the other around the small of his back, bracing herself. His first thrust took her breath and filled her body. The next emptied her mind.

Then bliss. She gripped, he gave, and greedy thing that she was, she took until he left her trembling and close to tears. She gloved him inside her as he splintered, shivers rippling across his stomach. She fought to breathe and stared up at him in silence, thinking back to all they’d shared.

“What is it?” he whispered, looking puzzled and sweet when moments before he had pounded her to a veritable pulp and turned their bed into a battleground.

“I don’t know. But -- ” She eased out from beneath him. His chest and shoulders felt warm to her touch. She was bathed in the scent of him, of uninhibited sex. “Why couldn’t Liam have chosen you? He handed me over to a weasel. I’d much rather have had a wolf like you from the beginning.”

“Questionable praise. Remind me to devour you after I wake up.” He turned onto his side, studying her with dark concern. “Your family trusted me. I couldn’t break that trust. When the opportunity presented itself to make you mine, I wasn’t about to lose you a second time.”

“How long would you have let me believe you’d only married me to satisfy honor?”

“Probably until Rhys forced my hand.” He leaned in for a deep kiss, his hand stroking a path down her arm to her wrist. “We were both afraid to tell you.”

“It’s the first time he’s kept a secret from me.”

“I’m your family now.”

They drifted into another silence, pulses slowing. Simon stirred.

“Did you love him?” he asked.

“David?” She frowned, resenting the intrusion of his name. “I believed so for a time. He seemed to be a gentleman -- thoughtful, true, and kind at heart. We weren’t together often enough to discover each other’s flaws, I suppose.”

He listened with a hooded expression. “And your current opinion?”

She ran her hands across his chest, respecting his need to understand. He was a solid man, strong in every meaning of the word. She knew why he had hidden his caring nature from others. He had been raised to rule. A duke could not show weakness to the many who looked up to him.

“David is a cad who pays more attention to other women than he ever did to me,” she said. “He’s patently disloyal and cruel to the core.”

He inhaled at her touch, his shoulders rolling in pleasure. “Blunt,” he said with a droll smile. “I admire that. What do you think of me?” he asked with an unflinching stare that went through her. “I know you’re incapable of dishonesty.”

She attempted to wriggle away from him until he pinned her down with his lower body to subdue her movements. Being imprisoned beneath her husband was a sweet domination she had scant desire to resist. And he loved her.

“I once thought you were a moody, complicated, and unfathomable man whose visits to the castle were the secret delight of my life. You filled me with fire and confusion.”

A reluctant laugh rumbled in his chest. “Now?”

“My opinion hasn’t changed in most regards.” She sucked in her breath as he shifted upward slightly to rub his heavy cock against her belly. “How am I to complete a sentence when I’m diverted by your prowess?” she said, her hips moving in frustration. “Do you want me to finish or not?”

“Please. I am fascinated. All ears.”

“Not below the waist,” she said dryly. “And I maintain my original opinion of you. The only difference between the past and today is that you are now my husband as well as my friend … and what I considered a threat to my well-being is what makes me the happiest I have ever been.”

He was quiet for some moments, absorbing all she had admitted. “I need you,” he said, holding her immobile now with only his voice. “I am not ashamed to confess it.”

“You aren’t a man easily brought to shame,” she agreed.

As if she demanded evidence of this, he entered her again in a deep thrust, muttering, “And you do love me.”

“I do,” she said, swallowing a gasp at the sensation of piercing sweetness she felt to her spine. “You know that.”

“Say it over and over until we fall asleep. My God, Ravenna, I have never been this hard.”

“Romantic,” she said with a breathless laugh.

The large hand he had hooked beneath her bottom lifted her higher. He filled her to overflowing, pleasured her without restraint, his secret -- his longing for her, body and soul -- revealed.

“I love you -- ” She choked back a cry, doubting she would sleep at all. If she did, she would dream about a duke who had desired her for years and she would wake up wondering why he’d hidden his love away when it was obvious she had been meant to be his.