‘What the hell did you see in that creep?’
‘I was eighteen, Seb. He singled me out from day one, encouraged me, took a real interest. A man had never done that before and I was flattered,’ she admitted. ‘And then one day I could see something was wrong. I waited after my tutorial and asked...’ She lifted a hand to her head and groaned. ‘I asked what I could do to help. It was then he admitted that he’d fallen for me. He’d been fighting it because he was my tutor and so much older. I was totally sucked in, and all the creeping around and secrecy seemed romantic.
‘It turned out that everyone else but me knew that at the start of an academic year he had an affair with a new student. It was a big standing joke—I was the joke.’ The look she flashed him was rueful.
‘You mean he groomed them.’ At his sides Seb’s hands clenched into fists. If the guy had been there at that moment he would have... He took a deep breath. He wasn’t here but Mari was.
He’d taken a virgin bride. What have you done, Seb?
‘We were all consenting adults, there was nothing illegal and I was pretty stupid.’
‘He used his position of authority and trust,’ Seb condemned. ‘It is appalling that the college authorities allowed it to happen.’
‘Well, I don’t expect they knew,’ she observed fairly. ‘And they don’t allow it, not now. There was a massive scandal the next year as the girl he singled out for special attention after me attempted suicide. Luckily she didn’t succeed, but he resigned shortly after that and I think his wife divorced him. Don’t stop...’ she pleaded, lifting herself up on her elbows as he swore his contempt bilingually.
His eyes followed the flow of her hair as it settled over her shoulders, but he couldn’t push back the hard knot of ice-cold anger that her matter-of-fact retelling of the story had created.
‘I’m sorry about the things I said that night. I had just come from a run-in with my mother, who was...well, being herself, and she never brings out the best in me.’
‘It was a long time ago,’ she said, looking at him curiously. ‘And I had my revenge, so maybe we’re even?’
‘It left scars, and I was partly responsible for that.’
She held out her arms. ‘You healed them, too, but there is this little one that I don’t think you quite reached.’
A slow carnal smile curved his lips as he pulled her foot, tucking it over his shoulder. ‘Now, where would that be?’
‘Not sure,’ she admitted thickly.
Seb found it, and he took his time about it; he had taken her to the edge twice before taking her over with him.
She flipped over on her stomach to look at him. ‘I should go back to my room and get dressed.’ She yawned without much enthusiasm. ‘I don’t know what your grandmother will think.’
‘We are married, remember.’
A flicker of a frown disturbed her smooth brow as Mari looked at the ring on her finger, a plain gold band. ‘But that’s not real, is it? Though I suppose she won’t know that.’
‘My grandmother is no longer here. That is why she—’ his lips quirked at the corners ‘—stopped by, to say goodbye. She is staying with her sister for a few days. Apparently my great-aunt has had a fall.’
‘Is she all right, your aunt?’
‘Apparently she was more concerned about the horse.’
‘Your aunt was riding?’
‘In this instance, falling.’ He threw back the quilt that had moments before warmed both their bodies and casually vaulted from the bed, completely at ease with his naked state. Mari was less so, but her glance welded hungrily on his long, lean, muscle-toned frame, and she felt her insides heat.
Their glances connected and she lowered her gaze, clearing her throat. The microsecond of contact sent her nervous system into chaos... My God, I’ve become insatiable.
‘You don’t sound very worried,’ she observed, visualising a scene in her head that involved him crossing the room and slipping back into bed...into her. ‘Should she even be on a horse at her age?’
The reproach in her tone drew a laugh, and a look over his shoulder as he moved in the opposite direction to her imagination to the window, which he pushed wider, letting in the smell of jasmine with a soft breeze.
‘Marguerite fully intends to die on one, as she will tell anyone who dares suggest she should slow down, but not yet, I think, though reading between the lines it sounds as though she was shaken.’
She glimpsed the concern behind the languid humour and touched the smooth skin of his back as he sat down on the bed to slide his jeans on before standing to zip them up.