Ruined by Moonlight by Emma Wildes Read Free Book Online

needs that romantic kiss I’ve supposedly neglected.
…
    “My lord?”
    His attention riveted on her feminine allure, it took a moment before he answered. “The snuffboxes? They belonged to my father.”
    “Now, you see how much we do not know about each other? I had no idea you were that sentimental. What was he like?”
    A certain masculine affront rose at being called sentimental and he evaded the question about his father. “I kept them because they are valuable,” he said coolly, admiring the graceful line of her neck. “I assume he acquired them for the same reason.”
    She reached out and picked up an agate piece, cradling it in her palm and running a fingertip over the polished stone cover. “I would think he collected them because they are both lovely and interesting. Did he have other hobbies?”
    “I have no idea.”
    There was a hint of reproof in her dark blue eyes when she glanced over, and he relented. After all, the walk in the garden might have been a mystifying turn of events, but it had not been unpleasant, and, he reminded himself, she’d come to
him
this evening. He would do what he could to encourage her affection toward him. “His horses,” he told her. “A love of racing his stable. Something, I do admit, I inherited.”
    “Why?”
    “I suppose because it is rather exhilarating as a sport and challenging as an owner, and—”
    “No. I was asking why you had to admit it. Is there some reason you wouldn’t enjoy the excitement of the races or the triumph of having one of your own horses compete against champion bloodstock and win?”
    He had absolutely no idea how to respond to the direct challenge in her gaze…except, perhaps, honestly. Discussing his feelings was not his normal behavior, so he weighed his response for a moment with due measure.“No. Obviously not. I simply meant that it isn’t precisely a cerebral exercise, but more one of primal emotion…the race, the wind, the final victory, and that is not how I usually see life.”
    “I agree. It isn’t.” His wife gifted him then with a compelling smile. “Now,” she said in a low whisper, “we are finally getting somewhere.”
    It was rather difficult to imagine someone as detached and sophisticated as her husband to give up his inner thoughts easily, and Alicia had already come to that conclusion, hence her extreme strategy.
    Even now while he still just stood there, his eyes were watchful and his tall body noticeably tense.
    Good. She wasn’t particularly skilled at it but she’d exacted some sort of response, and the disclosure he’d just made was one of the first truly personal revelations he’d given her in six months of marriage.
    It was a start.
    “Somewhere? I am not sure the journey is one I wish to take.” His voice was wry. “Alicia, I am getting undressed and ready to go to sleep, and you’ve made it clear I must bring you a posy or write a bit of doggerel for you to wish my attentions. I don’t have either at hand. Perhaps you should return to your bed and your book.”
    At no point had she ever said she didn’t want his attentions. She simply wanted them to be a bit different. Or maybe a great deal more different. The problem was she had no idea what that ideal was exactly, but definitely something more romantic than his previous obligatory visits to her bed.
    “I never asked for flowers or poetry,” she informed him, her voice quiet.
    “No? You see how much at a loss I am as to what you
do
want?”
    More personal confidences would be welcome, but this evening had already showed some promise. At the same time he was resistant to the change in their relationship, which was no surprise. Before he’d had it entirely his way.
    She was going to have to seduce him on an emotional level and she had absolutely no notion how to go about it.
    Though it
was
helpful he was even more remarkably attractive with a glimpse of his bare chest showing through the gap in his shirt. She was much more used to