If she had hoped for a reaction there was none apparent. His smile was the same vaguely placid one that he often wore. But there was a strange light in his eyes that had not been there when last she’d looked.

‘Very well, then. If you wish a demonstration of the depth of my feelings…’

Before she realised what he had done, he’d locked the door behind her, torn the key from the hole and pitched it into the fireplace.

She stared into the embers, and she thought she could see the metal as it heated to glowing. ‘Harry, what the devil are you doing?’

‘Making it impossible for you to leave the room before we have finished our discussion. I imagine the fire shall be almost out by the time I am finished with you, and then you will be able to retrieve the key and open the door.’ He said it in a way that made her think discussion was the last thing on his mind, and she felt another thrill go through her-one that she had been missing for over two months.

‘Now, let me describe to you how I am feeling.’

And then she felt the desire start to fade, for it seemed they were only going to have another silly argument. ‘You are going to tell me now how you feel? After five years of nothing, you have told me more than enough of your feelings in the last few days. Must I hear more of them? For I have had quite enough.’ But when she looked at him, staring into his eyes, she wondered if that was true.

‘Really?’

‘You have made it quite clear that I have lost your trust. And I am sorry, Harry. I know I’ve given you cause to doubt me. But until recently I did not think it mattered to you how I behaved. I am sorry. There-I have said it. Though we did comfortably well together, proximity has not made us into lovers. You deserve more. As do I.’

‘More comfort than I have given you?’ he sneered. ‘My pockets are deep, Elise, but they are not bottomless.’

She slapped at his shoulder. ‘I cannot make you understand, and I am tired of trying. I do not wish you to buy me a new dress, or a diamond, or even a larger residence, so that I can live in luxury without you. If you want, you can take it all back. Sell every last jewel and turn me out on the streets in my shift. I do not care a jot for any of it if I cannot have a marriage that is more than remuneration for services rendered.’

‘Am I to understand that you wish a meeting of hearts, and not just an equitable living arrangement.’ He smiled.

‘Exactly.’ She was relieved that at last he understood her. But she found it strangely disappointing that it might mean he’d let her go.

‘What utter nonsense.’

‘Harry, it is not nonsense at all. It is what I have longed for all my life.’ She reached out a hand to push his shoulder, to move him out of her way. But he caught it easily, sliding his palm over hers, wrapping his fingers around it and squeezing tightly, rubbing the ball of his thumb slowly over the pulse-point beating on her wrist.

‘But, Elise, what kind of a fool would I be to give my heart to you now, knowing that you have ignored it for so many years?’

‘Me?’

‘When I sought to court you, as smitten as any young buck in London, you all but ignored me. You struggled to hide your disappointment when you married me. Since that time, you have been everything a man could desire in a wife. I have had all I could want save one thing.’

She thought of the children that should be gracing their home, and felt a moment’s pain.

‘You have not loved me.’

She started.

‘And so I have kept my distance as well. For there is nothing more pathetic than a man so lost in love that his wife leads him like an ape on a string for the amusement of the ton. But now, after you have left me, you expect me to show you the depths of my feelings and risk ridicule or indifference?’

It was as if he was throwing her own thoughts back at her, and she found she had no way to answer for them. There must be something she could say that would make it all right between them, but for the life of her she could not think of the words.

When he realised that a response would not be forthcoming, he sighed. ‘Very well, then.’

She feared that she had lost him with her hesitation.

And then he kissed her.

The strength of her reaction came as a shock, and she wondered how she had ever become convinced that he was taking her for granted with the casual affection he displayed. He seemed to put no effort into arousing her. But he had managed it all the same. Where Nicholas Tremaine’s kisses had been skilled enough, but not particularly passionate, Harry’s lacked grace in their eagerness to bring her pleasure. In the months they had spent apart he had forgotten none of what she enjoyed, and now he was using all of his accumulated knowledge against her, until she caught fire in his arms.

He was kissing her with every last ounce of desire, his tongue sliding past her teeth and his lips devouring hers. And it no longer mattered what he had said, or not said, whether he loved her, hated her, or cared neither way. She could not help it that a small moan of pleasure escaped her lips, and then a somewhat louder moan of disappointment when he pulled away from her.

His voice was low and husky when he spoke. ‘Do you still doubt the state of my heart after all we have been to each other?’

He had brought her close to climax with the force of his kiss. So she gathered her breath and whispered, ‘The fact that you are a skilled lover does little to tell me your true feelings.’

He allowed himself a satisfied grin. ‘So I am a skilled lover, am I?’

She was near to panting with eagerness as she said, ‘I am sure there are many as talented as you, who care only for the pleasure to be gained from the act of love and not the woman they share it with.’

‘Really?’

‘Nicholas, for instance-’

And his lips came down upon hers again, stopping her in mid-sentence. This kiss was rougher, and more demanding, and his hands held her tight to his body as he rubbed his hips against hers. He was hard and ready for her. When he felt her growing soft and weak in response, near ready to give in, he pulled away from her again.

‘There will be no more talk of Tremaine, Elise. For I do not care what he thinks when alone with a woman. I can speak only for myself when I say that it is much more pleasurable when one has the love of one’s partner. And if, after tonight, I have not gained yours, then there will be no point in our continuing. If you do not love me with your whole heart, then I do not want you back.’

He would not take her back? She was struck by the shock of the idea. For she had believed for so long that he did not love her, it was a surprise to think he had feared the same.

‘You want my love?’ she asked softly.

He buried his face in her neck, inhaling the scent of her. ‘As I have wanted it from the first day we met. I still remember the first time I saw you, standing in a doorway at some party or other. I cannot remember anything else about that night but you. You wore blue satin, and it matched the colour of your eyes. I had to force my way through a crowd of suitors to gain your hand for a dance.’

‘That was a long time ago,’ she murmured, trying to ignore the feeling of his lips on her throat so that she could hear his words over the singing in her blood.

‘Barely an instant. You are no less beautiful. You were so bright-glowing like a diamond.’

She tried to remember the last time he had spoken to her thus, with anything more than polite approval. ‘I did not know you had noticed my appearance.’

He raised his head to look into her eyes. ‘Every hour of every day. Just to look at you was a pleasure, and still is. But you belonged to someone else, and I thought there was no hope. Can you blame me, then, for using Tremaine’s downfall to my advantage?’

She pulled away and looked at him in surprise. ‘And how did you do so? For we were parted before you offered.’

For a moment the old Harry was back, hesitant, guarded, evasive. ‘The anonymous note you received? Telling of his perfidy? It was from me.’

The shock of it shook her to her very core. ‘You lied to me?’

‘It was the truth. The girl involved was Rosalind. As much her fault as his. But he was not blameless, for it was his flirting that led her to disaster.’

‘Rosalind?’ And suddenly the pieces of Elise’s life began to fall together. The strange behaviour of her sister-in-law, and the even stranger behaviour of Tremaine.

‘I should have called the bastard out instead of keeping what he did a secret. But Morley wished the thing covered up, and rushed her back out of town. And then I saw my opportunity to hurt him, and to have you as well. I sent the note, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.’ He squared his jaw in defiance. ‘If you believe I won you through unfair means, then so be it. I would have done anything to part the two of you. That the man was too decent to dishonour my sister further and tell you the truth came as a great relief to me. For I realised too late that I had jeopardised her reputation further by hinting at the facts. But he was not honourable enough to marry her, and he deserved some punishment for it-not the reward of your love as well.’

‘You deliberately ruined my engagement?’ He had changed her life to suit his own desires, tricked her into his bed and pleasured her until she was helpless to resist. The thought should have enraged her. But the rush of emotion she felt was closer to lust than anger.

‘I was mad with wanting you.’ And then he added, as if it should mitigate what he had done, ‘You would not have suited. Tremaine is too shallow, and would not give you the safety and security of home that you desire. You would have discovered it yourself eventually, to your own regret, if I had not intervened.’ He frowned. ‘But if I had known that I would never be free of the man, and that you would still be pining for him five years later, perhaps I would not have bothered.’