Tabitha turned her attention to the stage, but still, she felt his eyes watching her and trying to discern what he had done wrong. Unfortunately, Tabitha had sworn not to share anything that Lady Miriam had told her, and Tabitha liked to think she was, if nothing else, a lady who always kept her word.
Chapter 14
After they returned from the theatre, Matthew invited Tabitha into his bedchamber, so she joined him. From there, Matthew thought he might try to finally consummate their marriage. He even managed to mostly rationalize wanting to finish things with Rosemary.
Even if there was a small clue as to Rosemary’s location, he did not know when Jonathan would manage to find her. It might be years, decades, and surely, he ought to be a doting husband to Tabitha until she reappeared. She deserved that and clearly wanted it.
Or he thought that she had. Before he could even attempt to continue what he had started at the theatre, Tabitha rolled onto her side and fell fast asleep. At least, he had thought she was asleep. When Tabitha joined him in bed for the next two nights and promptly fell asleep, with nary a word passing between them, Matthew strongly suspected that his wife was purposefully avoiding any romantic advances.
At that moment, he stared at her across the dinner table, trying to determine how best to approach the topic. “You are vexed with me,” he finally said.
Tabitha tipped her chin up. “Indeed.”
“For no reason.”
She let out an incredulous laugh. “For no reason? You said that we ought to live separate lives, did you not? I am living my separate life like you wanted. That is better than the alternative.”
“Living with me,” he said flatly.
She shook her head. “Living with a man who cannot decide if he loves me or is indifferent to me. It is maddening.”
“I am not indifferent to you.”
As he gazed at her, his eyes sweeping over her elegant neck down to her full breasts, accentuated by the bodice of her gown, he felt his pulse quicken. She was so young and lovely, and Tabitha responded so eagerly to his touch. There was no one here to see them save for the staff.
He could order them to leave, and they would. Then, he could cross the room and kiss Tabitha with all the fervour in him; he could convince her undeniably that he was not indifferent to her many charms.
“I am glad to hear that you are not,” she said, “but it is easy for a man to speak charming words. It is more difficult for him to act on them. I know that better than most women.”
“I see.”
She slowly stood from the table without asking to be excused. “I think I shall retire early tonight.”
Again! For the fourth night in a row!
Matthew stood, too. “Perhaps I should also retire early.”
“There is no need to do so on my account.”
He strode around the table, and Tabitha squared her shoulders. She gazed at him with heated defiance but did not tell him to move away or insist that he not approach her. Tabitha’s breath quickened, and a slow flush spread across her face. Matthew stopped scarcely a foot away from her, and still, she did not move. Instead, the young woman merely stared at him, like a general preparing to face down a fearsome enemy.
He was unsure if they were enemies, but Matthew felt their plan of being friends was not quite working either. They were some strange mingling of a half-dozen things, and he could find no definition that seemed to suit them both.
“You have been avoiding me,” he said.
“I do not see how that can be when we are speaking right now.”
“No,” he said. “You have not put any physical distance between us, but you are still avoiding me in a sense. Ever since the theatre, you have been distant. It is not like you.”
“You do not know what I am like.”
He placed a hand on either side of her, and Tabitha’s rear pressed against the dining room table. Matthew leaned close, and the flush deepened across her face. She kept her fingers curled around the edge of the table, watching him with her cold grey eyes. Despite the composed expression, however, her body was becoming hotter and more flustered by the second.
“You—” she began.
He could bear it no longer. Matthew pressed his lips against hers in a hot, hard kiss. Tabitha moaned into his mouth. She kissed him back and curled a hand in his hair, and he pressed hard against her. He let his hands roam over her delicate body, tracing the lines of her delicate curves through the thin silk gown.
Once he reached her thighs, he took great handfuls of the material and hitched it up. Never once did he break the kiss. Heat coiled inside him. He felt himself grow hard and knew that Tabitha must feel the evidence of his arousal against her stomach.
