«I’m going to lift my hand from your mouth, but if you scream again, so help me God I’ll slap you into sanity as I would any hysteric.»

Jessica watched Wolfe with pale, glittering eyes. There was no comfort in his face — his eyes were black, his face dark and grim, his mouth a flat line. Even so, she nodded her head, for his hand was no longer invading her body. Slowly, Wolfe freed her mouth.

Jessica didn’t scream, even though she was pale and trembling. When she spoke, her voice was like breaking glass and her breath was coming in bursts. Despite that, her words were all too clear.

«No wonder you were called theviscount’ssalvage. Gentlemen who can’t control their baser urges make use of whores, not wives. If I had thought you would ever do anything so vile to me, I would never have sought a marriage. You have no need of an heir to inherit a title or a great estate, no reason to so foul my body, yet you would rut upon me like a beast!»

Wolfe looked down into Jessica’s face and felt her contempt beating at him with thick, invisible wings. Silence stretched and stretched until it was a living thing quivering between Jessica and Wolfe.

«What do you expect?» Wolfe snarled. «Ever since we got on the stagecoach together I’ve been breathing your air and watching you look at me when you think I won’t notice.»

Jessica didn’t deny it, for it was true. She had always watched Wolfe. He fascinated her. And the older she became, the more the fascination had deepened.

Wolfe continued speaking, his voice harsh with frustration and anger. «You keep watching me with hungry eyes and wondering how it would be to couple with a savage, but when I —»

«Never!» Jessica interrupted wildly. «Never! I never thought of coupling with you. The thought horrifies me!»

Wolfe’s eyes narrowed until they were little more than splinters of black. «Then you will agree to an annulment.»

The words were so soft, Jessica didn’t understand them at first. When she did, she closed her eyes and sought to control the fear clawing at her.

«No,» Jessica said, her voice shaking. «You may be a savage, but you won’t take me by force.»

Deliberately, Wolfe’s hand settled on the mahogany nest just above her thighs.

«Won’t I?» he asked softly.

She stiffened as though he had taken a whip to her. When her eyes opened, they were so dilated with fear that there was barely any color to them. She tried to lift her hands in a silent plea, but her arms wouldn’t respond. She tried to speak, but all that came from her lips was a hoarse whisper that could have been Wolfe’s name.

With a barely controlled fury at himself, at her, and at the sham marriage, Wolfe surged to his feet beside the bed.

«Get out,» he said flatly.

Jessica looked up at Wolfe without comprehension.

«Get out of my bed, your ladyship. You disgust me as much as I horrify you. I couldn’t take you if I had to. You’re not a woman, you’re a spoiled, cruel child.»

Jessica moved too slowly to suit Wolfe. He bent over and hauled her to her feet.

«Agree to an annulment,» he demanded in a low voice. «Damn you, let me go!»

She swallowed dryly and shook her head.

Wolfe looked at Jessica for a long moment before he spoke in a soft, cold voice that was more punishing than a blow.

«You will rue the day you forced me into marriage. There are worse things than being caressed by a savage. You shall learn each one of them.»

7

With an apprehension Jessica didn’t reveal, she watched from the corner of her eye as Wolfe took a sip of the coffee she had prepared. When he did little more than grimace at the taste, she let out a soundless sigh of relief and passed him a dish of stewed fruit and a platter of ham and biscuits.

Covertly, Jessica watched while Wolfe forked ham onto his plate, ignored the biscuits, and spooned stewed fruit into his bowl. She hoped he would be less fierce after he had eaten. Perhaps then he would listen to her explanations. Perhaps then he would look at her with less contempt.

Silently, Wolfe ate, sensing Jessica’s watchfulness. He said nothing to her. Nor did he look at her. It was safer that way. The rage in him was still very close to the surface. Awakening in a state of arousal that had increased at the mere sight of Jessica had done nothing to sweeten Wolfe’s temper.

«More ham?» she asked in a soft voice.

«No, thank you.»

Jessica took little comfort in Wolfe’s politeness, for she knew it was as automatic to him as breathing and meant far less. In England his manners were as impeccable as a duke’s. More so, for Wolfe had no tradition of wealth and power to mitigate any social gaffe he might make. When among the English, he never forgot for one instant that he was an outsider. He had made of their customs both an armor and a subtle insult. The viscount’s savage always proved better at elegant nuance than those who had been to the manor born, making them seem savages by comparison.

«Wolfe,» Jessica said, «last night I was tired and frightened and —»

He interrupted curtly. «You made yourself clear last night, your ladyship. My touch horrifies you.»

«No, that’s not what I meant.»

«The hell it isn’t. It’s what you said.»

«Please, listen to me,» she said urgently.

«I’ve heard all I —»

«I’ve never been naked with a man,» she interrupted, her voice rising. «I’ve never touched a naked man or been touched by one and I saw how much you wanted me and I forgot you wouldn’t hurt me and I —» Jessica’s voice broke. «I was frightened. I felt cornered and I just…just panicked. Please don’t be so angry with me. I — Wolfe, I liked touching you and being touched. That’s why I was afraid.»

«Christ,» Wolfe muttered in disgust, shoving back from the breakfast table. «You liked it so you panicked? Come, your ladyship. You’ve had hours of pacing in which to concoct pretty excuses and that’s the best you can do? I heard the truth from you last night and we both know it.»

«No,» she said urgently, «that’s not —»

«Enough!»

Jessica opened her mouth to argue, but a look at Wolfe’s icy indigo eyes made the words die in her throat. There was no indulgence in Wolfe now. Nor was there the least sign of the desire that had burned so clearly in him last night. He was looking at her like she was a stranger newly come to his home — a very unwelcome stranger.

She lowered her eyes, not wanting him to see the unhappiness and fear in her. It would take time and much work to win him back to even the uncertain companionship they had shared during the long trip to his home. It would take a miracle to regain the friendship they had known before marriage.

«After you clean the dishes,» Wolfe said curtly, «let the fire go out. We’re leaving.»

«We’re going back to England?» Jessica asked.

«No, your ladyship. If I never see England again, I’ll die a happy man.»

«I didn’t realize you hated it so.»

«There’s a lot about me you don’t know.»

«I will learn.»

«A woman never truly knows a man until they are lovers.»

«Then I shall have to speak to your duchess,» Jessica retorted before she could think better of it. «No doubt she’ll be a font of wisdom.»

Wolfe’s smile made his face look harder than ever. «You have missed the point, your ladyship.»

«Which is?»

«While the basics of the sexual act remain much the same no matter who performs it, the variations are still infinite. No man is the same with every woman. No woman responds equally to every man. In those differences is found much that illuminates the human experience, as well as the true measure of love.»

«That’s rather a lot to expect from rutting.»

«Spoken like a true nun, Sister Jessica.»

«I’m not a nun.»

«You’re more nun than wife.»

«There’s more to being husband and wife than the marriage bed,» Jessica said with subdued desperation.

«Not for a man.»

Jessica pushed back from the table without having eaten more than a bite. «I’m sorry our marriage is such a disappointment to you.»

«You’re not as sorry as I am, and I’m not as sorry as you’re going to be.» Wolfe threw his napkin on the table. «There are two leather valises beneath my bed. Use them for your clothes. We leave in two hours.»

«It would help me to pack if I knew where we were going, and for how long.»

«We’re going over the Great Divide.»

Jessica’s eyes showed her surprise and relief. «Truly? Are we going hunting?»

«No,» Wolfe said impatiently.

«Then why are we going?»

«To check on the horses I left with Caleb and Willow, especially thesteeldust mare. And to eat real biscuits. Willow makes the best biscuits this side of Heaven.»

Jessica tried to conceal her dismay at the thought of being close to the woman Wolfe loved, the paragon who could do no wrong.

And Jessica could do no right.

«For how long?» she asked tightly.

«Until you learn to make good biscuits or agree to an annulment. On the whole, my money is on the annulment.»

The back door banged as Wolfe strode out to the stable. Jessica waited until he disappeared before she turned and eyed the dishes with distaste.

Half an hour later, Jessica heaved the dirty dish-water off the back step, heard metal hit a rock, and saw a spoon lying on the ground. Sighing, she walked beyond the house and retrieved the spoon that she had somehow overlooked in the bottom of the dishpan.

As Jessica straightened from picking up the spoon, she heard the trill of a hidden bird and noticed that the willows around the spring held a green promise of summer’s leaves at the tips of their branches. Sunlight poured in rich, slanting fans between fluffy clouds that were so white it made her eyes water to look at them. The yellow warmth of the light was a balm and a benediction.