The Unmasking of Lady Loveless Read Online Free PDF

Loveless to be. Yet he could not believe Melicent had been unfaithful to him. Although she had met with equal passion every one of the sensual demands that he had made on her, there had been no artifice or calculation in her. The sweet honesty of her response to him had touched him profoundly. She had been as open and generous in her lovemaking as he suspected she was in every other aspect of her life. She was simply a very candid and giving person.
    Alex felt a sudden pang that he had never taken the trouble to get to know his wife properly before. He had thought himself the injured party when his father had blackmailed him into marriage. But Melicent, too, had deserved better. Now, though, he could make up for the neglect and the hurt of the past. He would court her, cherish her and show her how important she was to him. He felt supremely satisfied at the thought. He was even prepared—most magnanimously—to overlook her ventures into literature. Her work as Lady Loveless had been rather unorthodox, of course, but she had been doing it for the right reasons. Mrs. Durham was greedy and extravagant. It was easy to see from whom Aloysius had inherited his profligate ways.
    Alex turned his head and saw that Melicent was awake. She had pulled the sheet up to her chin and was watching him with a mixture of shyness and wariness in her eyes. His heart turned over to see it. He pressed a kiss against the silken softness of her hair.
    “Good morning, my love.”
    “Alex,” Melicent said. Her eyes grew even bigger as she looked at the rangy length of him taking up most of the space in her chaste single bed. “Did I dream it,” she began hesitantly, “or did we…”
    “We did,” Alex said, smiling, and saw the color deepen in her cheeks.
    “Oh!” She scrambled away from him as though she had been scalded and climbed out of the far side of the bed, taking most of the bedclothes with her. The room was icy cold. Alex’s erection, which had been swelling most enjoyably as a result of his memories of the previous night and the effect of having Melicent’s yielding body pressed against him, dwindled rapidly in the chill.
    “Melicent,” he said, “please come back to bed.” But she shook her head. She was backing away from him with something that looked like horror in her expression. Alex suddenly felt chilled by more than the cold room.
    “I don’t know how I could have done that,” she said in a rapid undertone. “I must have been mad, when you care nothing for me and never have done! To have humiliated myself and behaved like such a wanton—”
    Alex grabbed her wrist to stop her rushing from the room. The bedclothes fell to the floor, leaving her naked. She gave a little wail and tried to cover herself, but he was too quick for her, scooping her up and pulling her back to the bed.
    “Melicent,” he said. He was not sure if he was more concerned by her words or by the look of blank misery on her face. “I don’t understand. You did not humiliate yourself last night. It was wonderful, perfect—” He tried to find the words but stopped in dismay as he saw a tear squeeze out of the corner of her eye and run down her cheek into her hair. She lay quite still, making no attempt to cover her nakedness now. She looked distractingly lovely, all lush curves and creamy skin—and tormented misery. Alex gathered her close in his arms, wanting only to comfort her.
    “Tell me what is wrong,” he said, his lips pressed against her hair.
    He felt a sob shake her, but she repressed it. “I am so angry with myself for making love with you,” she said. “I did not want to want you, but it had been so long and I…I am not sure quite what happened to me.”
    She sounded so lost and miserable that he hastened to reassure her. “Sweetheart,” he said, “there is no shame in it. It was wonderful. And we are wed—”
    She pulled herself abruptly from his arms and her eyes flashed with fury. “Yes, we are wed, Alex, but for