The Heiress Bride - Catherine Coulter [134]
That made him grin. She was bloodthirsty when it came to his safety. He thought of Aunt Arleth, a woman who’d lost her grip on things, only he hadn’t recognized it in time. Because of his blindness, Joan could have died. He clenched his teeth at the thought. It was quite true, Aunt Arleth had even admitted that the little slut would be better off dead. Then things would return to normal; then she would be in charge again.
But she hadn’t told MacPherson anything. Colin sighed and opened his eyes when he heard footsteps coming up the tower stairs. He recognized the light step and leaned forward in his chair, his eyes fixed on the iron-studded door.
It was Joan, pink with exertion, her forehead damp with perspiration.
He rose immediately and went to her. “You’re still not back to your Amazon self. Come and sit down for a moment and regain your breath.”
She did as she was bid. “It’s lowering to be puffing about over some simple stairs. Hello, Colin. I haven’t seen you. Are you all right? I wanted to get away from everyone for a while. Did you, as well?”
“Yes, but I’m glad you’re here.”
She drew a deep breath. “I came for a reason.”
“You want to know about Aunt Arleth.”
“Perhaps, but not really. That is, there’s something else, but I don’t think it was Aunt Arleth or you would have hunted me out immediately. No, it’s about something else entirely, but it can wait. I see you’re holding a book.”
He cocked one of those black eyebrows of his, then handed the book to her. “Thank you for trying to mend this book. It was my grandfather’s. He used to read to me from it. It’s Chesterfield’s Letters to His Son. I was thinking it was time for me to read the letters on mythology and history to Philip, and I was right.”
“Chesterfield’s son was named Philip also. Isn’t that curious? Douglas didn’t introduce me to Chesterfield, but I found him very quickly. He was miserable with his wife and thus has a very low opinion of women, but Douglas said he’d never met me so he’d been deprived, thus I wasn’t to pay him any attention. Ah, this is one of my favorites: ‘Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket . . . . Above all things, avoid speaking of yourself, if it be possible.’ ”
He could but stare at her. He wondered if she would continue to surprise him for the rest of their lives.
“My books from home are still in crates. There’s been no time to unpack them.” She looked at him then, and her expression was tentative. “Also I don’t know where you would like me to put them.”
Colin felt like a self-centered ass. If she hadn’t been the kind of person she was, he would have completely terrorized her, ground her under. Even now she wasn’t at all certain of his reception. About her damned books, for God’s sake.
“You know,” he said slowly, smiling at her, “there are dozens of rooms in the castle. You can use any of them you wish to. However, if you would like, I should be delighted to share this chamber with you.”
She gave him a dazzling smile and jumped to her feet. “Oh, Colin, I love you so much.” She leaped into his arms.
He held her, laughing and kissing her ear and her nose and smoothing her eyebrows with his fingertips. He whirled her about. “All this just for the offer of this benighted room and a few bookshelves?”
It was part of himself he was offering, something he’d held dear and very close so it wouldn’t be taken from him, but she didn’t point that out. He was offering it to her because he trusted her; he knew she would never take from him. “I came to see you for a specific reason,” she said, her eyes brilliant. She kissed his chin.
“Yes, but you didn’t tell me what it was.”
“I came to make love to you, Colin.”
“You mean you want me to make you scream with more pleasure?”
“No, I want to do it to you.”
He was nonplussed. He was the man, dammit, he was the husband. It had been his plan to seduce her slowly, so when he finally came into her she wouldn’t realize what had happened. Now here she was . . . No, he couldn’t be