Loving Lord Ash Read Free

only thing hurt is my pride.” She tugged again.
    “Well, that’s good.” He finally let her go, but only so he could grab her shoulders. He shook her a little. “Jess, you know you can’t keep living this way.”
    “Living what way?” She dropped her eyes to his collarbone. She’d definitely mixed too much brown into the white paint. If she—
    “You know. Married, but not married.”
    Her eyes snapped back up to scowl at him. Blast it, she knew everyone in the house worried about her, but until now everyone had been kind enough to hold his tongue. Why was Roger bringing the subject up when he knew she was so terribly out of sorts?
    “I don’t want to talk about it.” She put her hands on his chest and pushed, but his grip on her shoulders only tightened.
    “In the four years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen you really happy, Jess. Dennis and I were just discussing it last night.”
    Dennis Walker, her—no, Kit’s estate manager—and Roger’s lover.
    “I am happy. Why wouldn’t I be? I have a houseful of servants to do my bidding.” She looked him in the eye. “And I bid you drop this topic.”
    His mouth was set in an unpleasantly mulish line. “But you don’t have a husband.”
    “I do have a husband.” That was the whole problem.
    “But not in your bed.”
    A hot, odd yearning exploded in her stomach. “Damn it, Roger. Didn’t you hear me? I do not wish to talk about my marriage.”
    Roger ignored her. “Every year, when the marquis’s birthday approaches, you get quieter and quieter. This year has been the worst. Valentine’s Day is more than a month gone, and you’re still dragging around as if it were yesterday.”
    “You are mistaken.”
    Roger lifted his damn eyebrow again.
    “And even if you’re not, it will pass.”
    He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Until it comes again next year and the year after and the year after that. Your life is drifting away, Jess. Is that really what you want?”
    “No, of course not.” Damnation, her voice broke. She bit the inside of her cheek and willed herself not to cry. She was tired, that was all. She hadn’t been sleeping well lately.
    “Dennis and I think it’s time you faced your husband.”
    Dennis and he had been far too busy about her business. “No.”
    “I don’t know what he did—”
    “He didn’t do anything.” Her predicament was her own fault. She should never have let things with Percy go so far. She just hadn’t been thinking clearly. And then Kit had come in at precisely the wrong moment.
    Why had he offered for her?
    She’d wondered that for eight years. All she could surmise was the proposal had been a momentary lapse in judgment, Kit’s generous heart speaking before his considerable intellect could silence it. And once the words were said, he couldn’t unsay them and maintain his honor. She’d realized that even then.
    And selfishly, she’d leapt to accept. She definitely should not have, but she’d been young and stupid and in love. She’d known she had some beauty; she’d seen how the other men looked at her. She’d even stolen a few kisses. She’d thought she’d have no trouble getting Kit to fall in love with her.
    Youthful hubris.
    “—but he should settle things now. And if he won’t come to the manor, you need to go to him.”
    She stared at Roger. Go to Kit? Go to Greycliffe Castle and see the duke and the duchess and Ellie and Kit’s brothers and perhaps Percy?
    She was going to throw up.
    “You can do it, Jess. You have to.”
    “No, I . . .”
    But things couldn’t get any worse than they were, could they? It was just a matter of time. Kit was going to divorce her anyway. Why wait?
    She took a deep breath and nodded. “All right.”
    Roger grinned. “That’s the spirit.” He threw his arms around her, apparently forgetting he was naked, and hugged her.
    She hugged him back, since leaving her hands on his chest was uncomfortable and letting them dangle risked