Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 112133 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112133 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Wordlessly, he directed the girl behind the counter to remove the set from the case.
“It’s lovely,” Meredith sighed, picking up the hand mirror and turning it glass-side up.
Rhys moved to stand behind her shoulder. Catching her gaze in the reflection, he said, “It could be solid gold and encrusted with pearls, and it still wouldn’t be as beautiful as the woman reflected in it. But thank God something has caught your eye.” To the girl, he said, “We’ll take the set.”
“Rhys, no. It’s too expensive.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Not for me.”
“It’s lovely, but it’s not really the sort of thing I’d use. It would only gather dust.”
“So we’ll have a maid dust it.”
“You can’t—”
“Yes. I can.” Despite all his efforts to remain emotionless, his blood began to heat. His cravat felt glued to his throat. Lowering his voice, he muttered, “It’s a hairbrush and a tray and a bloody mirror. And I’m buying them for you, no matter how much you protest. So stop arguing.”
She looked away, pressing her lips together into a thin line. “If you insist.”
They stood in awkward silence as the shopkeeper finished wrapping their purchases and Rhys settled the account. After arranging for most of their packages to be delivered to the hotel, he turned to Meredith and handed her the parcel containing the dresser set. She thanked him demurely, then turned for the door.
And it was all ruined, damn it. Farewell to his fantasies of dragging that silver brush through her hair, arranging it around her bare shoulders and breasts. Now every time she looked in that hand mirror, she’d see an awkward moment when he’d lost his temper and snapped at her in the draper’s. Just one more beautiful, shining thing he’d managed to tarnish.
He’d make it up to her somehow. In fact, he’d start right now, with an apology.
Catching up to her, he stopped her in the street. “Merry, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pressed you to accept a gift you didn’t want. We can return the dratted thing this instant, if you like.”
Her hands tightened over the parcel. “Rhys, that’s not it. You don’t understand.”
“I want to understand. Explain it to me.” He gestured uselessly with his hands, hardly knowing how to form the question. “You have no problem buying fine things for your guests. Why can’t I give you fine things, too?”
She sighed. “It’s difficult to accept them.”
“Difficult? You perform six difficult tasks before breakfast.”
“Well, what about you? I don’t see you buying any luxuries for yourself.”
His chin jerked. “But that’s different.”
“No, I don’t think it is. You deserve fine things, too, you know.” Her eye settled on a shop window behind him, and he could see her gaze sharpening on something in particular. “I’m going to go in and buy you that, right now. And if you don’t want to be called an insufferable hypocrite, you’re going to wait right here while I do, and when I come out, you’ll not say a word about it other than ‘thank you.’”
He stood there, stunned, as she left him and entered the shop. Belatedly, he looked to the shop’s window just in time to see a pair of hands removing a gentleman’s shaving kit from the display. It was a quality set. The razor’s handle and the knob of the shaving brush were both fashioned from horn, with gilt accents. He couldn’t let her purchase that for him. She’d be spending straight down to the lining of her purse.
But if he tried to prevent her … she’d be furious. Poverty was an easier condition to remedy than a woman’s displeasure.
A minute passed, and out she came, delivering the wrapped parcel into his hand. He stood blinking at it.
Lifting her chin, she regarded him with a challenge in her eyes. “And …?”
He forced the words out. “Thank you.”
“You see? It’s not so easy to say as it would seem.”
“I’m out of practice, I suppose.”
“With gratitude?”
He cleared the emotion from his throat. “With gifts.”
“Hm.” She gave him a meaningful look. Taking his arm, she said, “If it helps at all, it was mostly for me. I discovered this morning how much I love watching you shave.”
He gave a shout of laughter, remembering the way she’d tackled him to the bed after he’d finished. God, her inner thigh had been like silk against his smooth-shaven cheek. His trousers pulled snug, just at the memory. That was it. Shopping be damned. He couldn’t get inside her soon enough.
Without hesitation, he guided her into a hairpin turn and set a course back to the hotel. “We’ve had enough of the shops for today.”
“Ahem.”
Several pleasant hours later, Meredith cleared her throat as she emerged from the dressing room. One of the hotel’s girls had helped her dress in the red silk gown and assisted her with a sleek upswept coiffure. Now she was anxious to see Rhys’s reaction. He stood before the wardrobe, peering into the small mirror hung inside the door as he tied his cravat. When he took no notice of her gentle clearings of the throat, she coughed. Loudly, this time.