Page 100 of The Danger of Desire

His throat closed up. She’d said she was beneath him by choice, but he knew bloody well that he could be aggressive in his dreams. And she might just be putting a good face on it because she wanted so badly for him to get past his fears.

He wanted that, too, but not at any cost. Not if there was a chance of losing her in the process.

I love you.

Damn, but those words enticed him. Which perversely made them all the more terrifying.

He glanced at the clock. Nearly 5:00 a.m. Normally he would be going to bed about now, but there was no point in trying to sleep anymore. So he headed down the hall to his study. Might as well get some work done, since he’d fallen behind on estate affairs of late.

Besides, it would keep his mind off his lovely wife and what to say to her when she arose. He had to saysomething. He couldn’t let her go on thinking she could change his dreams by the sheer force of her will.

Two hours later, he was startled by a noise in the doorway. He looked up to see Hart, wearing just a pair of drawers and a dressing gown, eyeing him with a bemused look.

“You’re awake,” Hart said inanely as he entered the study.

Warren leaned back in his chair. “I have been for a while. What are you doing up so early?”

“I came looking for you. I was about to knock on your bedroom door when I heard you in here.” Hart wandered the study like a caged tiger. “I see nothing much has changed since the last time I was in London.”

“Other than the wife, no.”

Hart chuckled. “I like her.”

“I could tell,” Warren bit out.

“Oh, come now, you know perfectly well my flirtations were merely meant to annoy you.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Doesn’t make them any less irritating.”

Hart grinned at him. “I’ve never seen you jealous before. It’s rather entertaining.”

“I’m not jealous,” Warren said sullenly.

“All right, then. Besotted.”

No point in disputing it. “Now,thatI very well may be.”

Sobering, Hart sat down in the chair before his desk. “Can’t say I blame you for that. She’s quite a character, your new bride. Seems different from most women in society.”

“She is.Verydifferent.” To say the least.

“That’s why you’re besotted with her, isn’t it?”

“For that, and so many other reasons.”

“Yet you never told her about the cellar.” Hart glanced at him, an earnest frown on his face. “I suppose I shouldn’t have said anything. I just figured she must have seen the scar, so she had to knowsomethingabout it. You don’t mind that I revealed all that to her, do you?”

“No.” He really didn’t. Hiding the past indefinitely wouldn’t have worked, anyway. Delia wasn’t the sort to stand idly by while he kept such a massive secret. Eventually she would have wrested it out of him.

“Good. That’s actually why I came to talk to you. Wanted to make sure you weren’t furious with me over spilling your secrets. Now that I know you’re not, I’m returning to bed.” Hart reached up to rake his fingers through his hair, and his sleeve fell down to expose his forearm. And a tattoo just above the wrist.

Warren caught his breath. “Damn it all. It can’t be.”

Hart blinked. “What?”

Lunging over the desk, Warren caught his brother’s arm and shoved the sleeve up to expose an inked image of a sun. “What the hell is this?”

A flush rose up Hart’s neck. “It’s... it’s a tattoo. What of it?”