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Vale looked from the tray of food to her "How did you know?"

She’d found out easily enough froht snack when he returned in the evenings She shrugged and glided to him "I do not mean to disturb your schedule"

He blinked "That’s, ah"

He seeht, possibly because she’d started unbuttoning his waistcoat She concentrated on the brass buttons and the slitted holes, aware that her breathing had quickened with the temptation of his proxih the layers of his clothes An awful thought intruded: howhi his turquoise blue eyes "Yes?"

He cleared his throat "Uh, kind of you"

"Is it?" She raised her brows and returned her gaze to the buttons Had he been with another woht? He was a man of known appetites, and she was unable to fulfill theh to h the hole and glanced up "Please"

He raised his araraze as she untied his neck cloth His breath stirred her hair, and she could ss Presu, and perhaps wenching Her fingers fuht, and she finally identified the e her brain: jealousy She was completely unprepared for it She’d known before they’d married who he hat he was She had believed she would be content hatever small part of himself he could share with her The other wonore

But now she fodthut now und she couldn’t She wanted him All of him

She laid aside his neck cloth and started unbuttoning his shirt The warh the thin cloth and surrounded her fingers The scent of his skin was hot and h her nose, discreetly sniffing He smelled of sandalwood and lemon soap

Above her, his voice rumbled "You don’t have to--"

"I know"

With the last button unfastened, he bowed and she pulled the shirt over his shoulders and head He straightened and for a ot how to breathe He was a tall ht, her head came only to his chin--and his chest and shoulders were in proportion to his height Broad and alht think him skinny With it off, it was i, lean muscle corded his arms and shoulders She knew he rode almost every day, and she must approve of the exercise, if this was the result He had a light sprinkling of body hair on his upper chest that broke over his abdoain low on his belly That thin line of hair leading fro she’d ever seen She had a desperate urge to touch it, to trail her fingers down that line until it disappeared into his breeches

She pulled her gaze away and glanced up He atching her, his cheeks lined and hollowed So often his face seehter His lips had a cruel edge

She inhaled and gestured to the chair behind him "Please Sit"

His eyebrows shot up, and he looked from the pitcher of hot water to her as he sat "Do you mean to play barber as well?"

She soaked a cloth in the hot water "Do you trust me?"

He eyed her, and she had to ainst his jaw She’d found out fros It was perhaps too soon to help hi she could do When her father had been bedridden in his final illness, she was the only one he’d let near with the razor Odd, since he’d never been particularly affectionate with her

She went to the chest of drahere Pynch had laid out the shaving ie with her thumb "You seemed quite entertained by my aunt’s stories about me this afternoon"

She watched him as she strolled back to his chair, the razor held casually in her fingers His eyes glinted with amusement over the white cloth

He peeled the cloth from his face and tossed it to the table "I particularly enjoyed the story of how you cut off all your hair at the age of four"

"Did you?" She set the razor on the table and picked up a san rubbing it on his face, working up a lather The scent of lemons and sandalwood filled the room

"Mreat cat being stroked "And the one about the ink"

<">She’d drawn pictures on her arms with ink and had looked tattooed for a lad to have provided a source of aht blue eye opened warily

She sainst his neck She raised her eyes to s"

He opened his lips "I--"

She touched his lips with her finger, feeling his breath against her skin "Ah Ah You don’t want me to cut you, do you?"

He closed his mouth, his eyes narrowed