“Yes,” Raven agreed, still fuming. “We have had quite enough entertainment for one afternoon.”

The crowd dispersed then, one of the gentlemen limping, the other carrying himself rigidly as if nursing a grudge.

Brynn would have followed, but Lucian caught her arm and said in a dangerous voice, “I thought I warned you about the need for propriety.”

She stiffened at his touch. “I was simply learning to shoot,” she replied, her chin lifting with a measure of defiance.

Lucian had to clamp down on his own anger. “If you care to shoot, I will be the one to teach you.”

“How curious. I suddenly find I have lost my appetite for archery.”

Pulling her arm from his grasp, Brynn turned and walked away.

Lucian swore under his breath, struggling against the urge to follow her and drag her back to him. He wasn’t normally given to fits of jealous rage, but his possessiveness where Brynn was concerned was utterly savage. Bloody hell, he had to get control of himself.

Bending, he snatched up a bow and notched an arrow, then drew it back and let the missile fly with a whooshing thud. It struck the target dead center.

When he turned, however, he realized he wasn’t alone. Dare was regarding him with something akin to sympathy.

“I must say, I don’t envy you,” his friend said softly. “If this is what marriage leads to, I believe I shall pass.”

Only when Lucian was alone with Brynn in the carriage, driving home, did he have the chance to mention the fray on the archery range that had caused a minor scandal among the company. “Would you care to explain how you managed to create a sensation less than an hour into the party after you agreed to behave with circumspection?”

Brynn gave him a wounded look that was edged with indignation. “You cannot believe I deliberately encouraged that dispute?”

Lucian found himself gritting back a reply. Perhaps she wasn’t entirely to blame. Perhaps she hadn’t purposefully orchestrated a public fight over her attentions. But she could certainly have prevented a spectacle by simply keeping away from those two young hotheads and not giving them cause to drool over her. “Can’t I? I think you deliberately encouraged those pups to make fools of themselves over you.”

“You are quite wrong. I’ve told you before. The curse makes men do foolish things when they are around me.”

“Then I suggest you not allow them to be around you.”

“Are you saying I must shun their company?”

“I am saying I would like you to avoid scandal. I don’t enjoy seeing my countess become a public spectacle.”

“Then you should never have wed me,” Brynn said stiffly. “I warned you how it would be.”

Annoyed, Lucian frowned. “What are you about, Brynn? Is this your means of revenge for having to wed me-to disgrace me and our marriage before the ton?”

“No, of course not. It is merely the curse at work.”

“I don’t believe in such things as curses.”

“Perhaps you should.”

His eyes narrowed. “I have been tolerant until now,” he said finally, “but my patience can be stretched only so far.”

She gave him an arch look. “And what will you do when it breaks, Lucian? Beat me? Lock me away with nothing but bread and water? ”

“I can think of far more pleasant ways to control a recalcitrant wife.”

Brynn flushed but lifted her chin. “I may be your wife, but you do not rule me,” she retorted before lapsing into chill silence.

Lucian set his jaw as he surveyed his beautiful wife sitting rigidly in her corner of the carriage seat. How had their relationship deteriorated to this? This icy contention wasn’t what he had planned when he had taken her in marriage.

The urge to melt Brynn’s coldness, to destroy her aloofness, surged through him. How satisfying it would be to draw her into his arms, push up her skirts, and thrust deep inside her, giving her pleasure while taking his own…

Swearing at himself, Lucian forced his mind away from the thought. Passion could succeed in turning Brynn’s ice to fire, at least momentarily, but it would do nothing to help him overcome his dangerous attraction to her.

Determined to regain his control, Lucian turned to gaze out the carriage window, his face as coldly aloof as Brynn’s own.

Brynn took a steadying breath as she paused at the door to Lucian’s bedchamber. When they arrived home, he had repaired to his rooms to change his attire for the evening. She’d waited several moments, debating what to do. Finally she pulled the pins from her hair, then crossed through her sitting room into his. But she hesitated as she reached for the door handle.

Lucian claimed not to believe in the curse, but she could prove to him that it was very real. Yet did she dare risk the danger of a demonstration? If she purposely sought to arouse him, there might be no controlling the outcome.

Still, the incident on the archery range this afternoon had only bolstered her belief in the Gypsy’s spell. Her behavior had actually been quite modest, not in the least alluring, certainly not compared to Raven’s charming demeanor. But the two gentlemen hadn’t fought over her friend, Brynn reminded herself. Only her. She was a fool to have hoped she could simply ignore the curse’s power.

She needed to convince Lucian of its potency, though. She had to show him that he was just as vulnerable as any other man-more so, in fact, because of his intimate conjugal demands. She had to make him understand the danger so he would help her avert the dire consequences.

Knowing it was better not to allow time for her courage to wane, Brynn opened the door and stepped inside his bedchamber. She had never been in her husband’s room before. It was decorated with masculine elegance in rich dark colors of forest green and gold. A massive bed dominated the room. Her gaze was drawn to it, then skittered away to find Lucian at the washstand, toweling his face dry.

Brynn came up short. He was shirtless. The sight of his sleekly muscled torso made her breath catch in her throat.

He hadn’t heard her enter, fortunately, which gave her time to recover her composure. She shut the door softly behind her.

Lucian looked up then and froze, surprise flickering in his blue eyes before he quickly masked his expression.

“Have you lost your way?” he asked coolly.

“No. I need help with the buttons on the back of my gown. Will you do me the kindness?”

Lucian eyed her with suspicion. “Why don’t you call your maid?”

“I don’t want to trouble her.”

“But you want to trouble me? ”

She merely smiled, a slow, sultry smile that made his features visibly harden. “Do you mind?”

His gaze raked her, taking in the sight of her hair loose and falling around her shoulders. Without answering, he crossed to her. When Brynn gave him her back, he pushed her hair out of the way almost roughly.

At his evident impatience, Brynn couldn’t help but feel a measure of satisfaction, but she held her tongue as he unfastened the buttons in grim silence.

“Thank you,” she said when he was done, keeping her voice low and husky.

She turned to face him. He was so close, she could feel the heat of his body. He felt the same heat, she knew. The same taut sexual awareness. She could see it in his eyes that were glittering like sapphires.

“What game are you playing, Brynn?”

“No game. I am simply proving a point.”

“And what point is that?”

“That the curse is extraordinarily potent. I did not purposefully try to arouse those gentlemen this afternoon. If I had wanted to, I would have behaved far differently.”

“Like you’re behaving now?”

“Yes.”

Holding his gaze, she bit her lower lip provocatively and raised her hand to the neckline of her gown.

Lucian went rigid as she drew the silk fabric down to expose the lush swell of her breasts beneath her chemise. She meant to undress in front of him, he realized, and deliberately incite him. He felt his loins tighten with a savage ache.

“That is far enough,” he said tightly, determined not to respond.

“I don’t think so.”

She didn’t stop with the bodice of her gown. She pulled her chemise down, freeing her exquisite breasts, high and firm with rose-hued nipples. His mouth went dry at the thought of tasting them.

“Do you truly think you can resist me?” she asked, her husky voice wicked and tempting.

He sucked in a harsh breath. He damned well should resist her. A man could grow addicted to a body like Brynn’s and forget everything else that mattered. Already he wanted her with a fierceness, a longing that stunned him.

“You are playing with fire,” he warned, his voice thick with desire.

“Perhaps. But I suspect you are the one who will be burned.”

He would be burned, he had no doubt. Her hair was an abundance of pure flame, flowing around her ivory shoulders and naked breasts with shimmering life. And yet even knowing the danger, he couldn’t stop himself from reaching for her.

“Take care, Lucian-”

She never finished her sentence. His hungry mouth swallowed her words as his arms crushed her to him.

He kissed her fiercely, anger and arousal making his blood surge hot. She tasted like fire. Flame seared him as he thrust his tongue deeper into her mouth, while savage possessiveness burned inside him.

He felt her involuntary response. She had gone rigid at first, but suddenly Brynn opened to him, her lips parting to accept his thrusting tongue. His hardened shaft cramped beneath his breeches with primal need.

He groaned against her mouth, the sound thick and raw. He wanted more of her, needed more…