“I prefer you in less drab clothing,” he said, leaning against one of the posts of her bed.
“I believe I shall wear the black velvet,” Tess said, just to be contrary. And then, to be even more contrary, she turned her back to him, and said, “If you would be so kind as to tighten my corset, Lucius. Gussie has gone to the kitchens on an errand.”
“Of course,” he murmured, walking over to her.
Tess couldn’t help it; the very touch of his fingers gave her a peculiar physical sensation, like a melting in her lower stomach. Even the notion that he was standing just behind her—and now, lacing her corset in such a way that her breasts seemed to swell to at least twice their size. But it wasn’t the corset that gave her the tingling sensation that her breasts were lush and—and desirous. That was the memory of last night. Her heart slammed against her ribs at the very thought.
Why should she allow her husband to think of her as a woman only at bedtime? And only when they were in her bedchamber? From which he discreetly departed at sometime during the night—and she didn’t like that either, now she thought of it.
She walked away from him, feeling his eyes on her waist and allowing her hips to take on a sultry sway that she wouldn’t even have understood only days before. After a few steps she glanced back at him over her shoulder. “If you would be so kind, Lucius,” she said casually. “The gown.”
A moment later the sweet smell of new velvet came over her head. Protecting her hair, she settled it over her shoulders. This was no drab mourning gown. It was cut extremely low, so low that the little sleeves fell down her shoulders and almost touched her elbows. It wasn’t cut straight across either. The bodice dipped just at her cleavage. The best part of it, to Tess’s mind, was the ermine trim, which nestled between her breasts and the glowing black velvet.
He still hadn’t said a word. So she turned around quite slowly, and said, with every drop of casual interest she could muster, “Do I look unbearably drab, then, Lucius?”
He wasn’t leaning against her bedpost any longer. His eyes had blackened to inky-dark, and he didn’t look like a composed, perfect gentleman anymore.
Tess pulled up her skirts to reveal a slender ankle clad in silver silk that shimmered slightly in the candlelight.
He looked down obediently, and she arched her foot. “Do you suggest black slippers,” she asked. “Or the shoes with the high heels? The shoes buckle on one side, like those of gentlemen, which is a rather amusing touch.”
He stared at her feet for a moment, and then gave his sudden smile, the one he gave so rarely. It transformed his whole face. The power of it jolted down her legs like an electric shock. “I can only think that I am being punished,” he observed. “Although I am uncertain of my transgression.”
He knelt at her feet and slipped on the buckled high heels, his fingers sending shivers up her leg.
“Nonsense,” she said, when he had finished, turning to her mirror and picking up a necklace of emeralds she had found on her breakfast plate two days ago. “Will you fasten this for me, Lucius?” And she bent her neck obediently and waited for his fingers to touch her there.
She seemed to spend a great deal of her day waiting for his fingers to touch her, now she thought about it.
He took the emeralds but let them slide back down to the dressing table.
“What would you like me to do, Tess?” he said. “Other than dress you?”
“Be impetuous,” she whispered, her cheeks flaming with the boldness of it. But she met his eyes in the mirror and made herself relax back against his chest.
With a wild thrill of excitement she felt his fingers trace a delicious path from her throat to her collarbone, and then to the swell of her breasts.
“We are due at the table within the hour,” Lucius said, turning her slightly and bending his head so that his lips could begin kissing the trail blazed by his fingers.
“Yes,” Tess said weakly. She wanted to wrap her fingers into his hair. But she couldn’t help him at all. Not at all. He had to make up his own mind. So she didn’t reach out and—
“It’s extremely ill bred to inconvenience the chef,” Lucius observed. His lips had feasted on the delicate hollow of her collarbone and were sliding onto the plump slopes of her breasts.
“Yes,” Tess said. Could she simply touch his shoulder? No. He had to make up his mind without her persuasion.
Suddenly, Lucius straightened and walked a few strides to the door. He opened it, and said briskly, “Why don’t we enjoy a preprandial drink in the parlor?”
Tess stared at him in bewilderment. He had made up his mind—and he wanted to leave? To go to dinner?
He had made up his mind incorrectly.
And it was up to her, his wife, to inform him of that fact.
Of course, Lucius was standing in the doorway looking the very picture of domestic tranquillity. As if they’d been married some forty years! So Tess took matters into her own hands.
“I must say good-bye to Chloe,” she said, turning toward the large cage in the corner. The moment she approached, Chloe squawked at her and tipped her head to one side in a charming greeting.
“That parrot has a rather annoying shriek,” Lucius observed, walking over to the cage. “I had hoped that she would be company for you while I’m away, but her salutations may be more aggravating than cheering.”
“Do you travel often at night?” Tess asked, as she took Chloe from the cage. “It sounds so uncomfortable.”
“To London and back on a regular basis. If I travel at night, I lose no working time.”
“And do you see your parents when you are in London?” Tess carefully didn’t look at him. Chloe came out of the cage with an enthusiastic screech, clinging to Tess’s finger and waving her wings furiously to balance herself.
“Aren’t they supposed to be graceful birds?” Lucius said, stepping back as Chloe almost disbalanced. She flapped her wings so vigorously that a few small seeds flew into the air.
“Do you ever see your parents in London?” Tess repeated.
“Never. And they wouldn’t wish it,” he added.
There didn’t seem to be any way to ask further questions without seeming inquisitive, so Tess allowed Chloe to walk up her arm. Chloe leaned against Tess’s cheek for a moment and nibbled her ear affectionately. Tess scratched her head, and Chloe let out another shriek. She was getting more and more excited, shifting from leg to leg and squawking.
Lucius was staring at her with a raised eyebrow. “What a peculiar animal,” he remarked. “Are you—”
But his voice broke off as Chloe succumbed to pure excitement.
“Damnation!” Lucius roared.
“Don’t frighten her!” Tess said sharply, picking up Chloe and stowing her back into the cage. Chloe knew she’d done something wrong; she was making little squeaks that sounded somewhere between penitent and delinquent.
Typically, Lucius had moved from anger to practicality without another breath. “How are we going to get you out of this gown without risking your hair?”
Familiarity had not made Tess any happier with Chloe’s bodily functions. “It has to go down, rather than up,” Tess said. “Pull it down, if you please, Lucius.”