Page 94 of Who Wants to Marry a Duke

“Thorn?” Grey said. “Tact isn’t his forte. I mean, he was right about Bonham, but he doesn’t have a tactful bone in his body.”

“Do you remember the time when the king came to visit our stepfather—” Sheridan began.

“Meeting adjourned!” Thorn said and marched out the door. He was done dealing with his family for the moment. He wanted his wife.

Hiswife. And duchess and bed partner and the woman who knew him better than anyone. He smiled in spite of himself. She made everything better. He must have been daft not to fight harder for her nine years ago.

He found her talking to his mother in the drawing room and stood back to listen.

“You have to understand,” Olivia said. “Thorn is a typical bullheaded man when it comes to ordering his mother around. He thinks he has every right to tell you what to do.”

Mother said something he couldn’t hear.

Olivia laughed. “Exactly.”

Mother said something else, and not being able to hear it frustrated him, so there was no point in eavesdropping. Besides, Olivia would tell him later.

He entered the room. “Mother, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

His mother rose and came over to give him a kiss on the cheek. “It’s all right. Olivia explained how you were just being a man.”

“And you agree with her?”

“I do, actually.” She smiled faintly, then leaned up to whisper, “I like your wife a great deal. And she seems to love you quite a bit, too.”

Even as he was grinning to himself about that, Mother went out into the hall to oversee the delivery of the refreshments to the crowd in the dining room.

Meanwhile, he went to join his wife. “Mother likes you,” he said as he offered her a hand to get up off the sofa. “I’m not surprised. She’d have to be out of her wits to dislike you.”

“Why?” Olivia said with a wry smile. “Becauseyoulike me?”

“Precisely,” he said. “And I have excellent taste in women.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “I’ll have to take your word for it since you have yet to give me the name of even one of your former paramours.”

“And I don’t intend to do so ever,” he warned. “You’ll just have to trust me when I say that none of them could hold a candle—or a bit of phosphorus—to you.”

She laughed. “You are incorrigible.”

He pulled her into his arms. “Precisely why you like me, sweeting. Women are always drawn to us wicked fellows.”

“That may be true,” she said, smiling up at him. “But what drew me to you wasn’t your wickedness.”

“Oh?” he said as he kissed a path from her temple to her ear.

“It was your acceptance of me and my quirks. Before we got caught that first time, you clearly liked me, despite my obsession with chemistry and my refusal to take anything in society at face value.”

“I liked youbecauseof all that, my darling wife,” he murmured. “It just took me a long time to realize it. Apparently, you’re not the only slow learner in this marriage.”

“Then let me do the explaining this time,” she whispered. “Though perhaps we should close the door before we scandalize your family.”

“Or retire to our bedchamber?” he suggested.

“Thorn!” she cried. “It’s still morning! If we return to our bedchambernow, everyone will know what we’re doing.”

“I should hope so. You married into a family of wicked fellows like me, sweeting, and we’re all rather unrepentant about such things.” He released her, only to go over and shut and lock the drawing room door before returning to her side. “On the other hand, enjoying another consummation of our marriage in the drawing room might actually scandalize them, my love. Shall we experiment?”

“Oh, yes,” she said with a laugh. “You do know how I like experiments.”

All in all, the experiment was a resounding success.