She smiled a little sadly. "I believe you."
Why was wanting her not enough? He remembered her words the fateful day they made love for the first time. She had asked if he loved her. Did she want him to? Did she love him?
More importantly, was he capable of love? He didn't know. But for the first time, he desperately wanted to be.
Her generous apology deserved an answering one. "I'm sorry I left you alone on our wedding day."
"You should never just walk away from an argument," she said, sounding quite serious and full of authority. "You must always try to work things out. It is the only way to have a strong marriage."
He did not agree. There were times his anger might cause more hurt, and when those times came, she was much better off if he left. "Our marriage will be strong because we will make it so, not because we will always do the right thing. Sometimes we will hurt each other, Thea, but I will never walk away from our marriage."
"I won't either."
He hadn't realized how much he needed the assurance until she said the words.
"Where did you go today?" she asked.
He told her and then related what he had witnessed at the warehouse.
"That's wonderful." She hugged him. "We're bound to catch the embezzler any day now. I don't know how I would have done this without you."
The admiration in her voice filled him with bone-deep satisfaction. "You aren't still thinking that Emerson is innocent, are you?"
The man was either guilty or inexcusably ignorant of his own business affairs. There was no other explanation for the discrepancies in the company's ledgers.
She squirmed closer, wrapping one of her legs over his. "I know it looks bleak for him, but he's so much like his uncle, and Ashby Merewether is an honorable man, almost as honorable as yourself."
He smiled in the dark at her compliment until he remembered one of the points they had not discussed from their argument. "Do you truly feel trapped in marriage to me?"
She rubbed her check over his shoulder. "No. It would be easier to think that I was forced to marry you, but I made the decision and I can't even pretend that the thought of carrying your child was the deciding factor."
He wondered what that factor had been, but felt like he'd pushed his luck far enough for one day. He focused instead on her first statement.
Already thinking he knew the answer, he nevertheless felt compelled to ask, "Why would it be easier?"
She played with the hair on his chest. "I don't know. The feeling of not being responsible for a decision I had convinced myself I would never make, I guess."
He let out a relieved breath. She might feel as if she had broken her promise to her mother, but she wasn't saying so, and he would take what he could get.
He leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "You aren't going to regret marrying me."
It was an ironclad promise he intended to keep.
She kissed his chest, above his right nipple. "And you aren't going to regret marrying me." She yawned. "Even if I'm not a patterncard of socially correct behavior."
Unbelievably, he felt himself stir.
He slipped his hand down her thigh, thinking that a perfect paragon would bore him to tears now that he'd met Thea. "Sweetheart?"
"Mmm?" she asked drowsily.
"You may not be pregnant now, but I think I can safely promise that you soon will be."
He drowned her surprised laughter with his lips.
The next morning, Thea was taking a mental inventory of the changes she wanted to make to her new home when her aunt was announced. Drake had gone to check on the warehouse holding the stolen goods, and had insisted that Thea remain at home. She had protested until he reminded her that Lady Upworth intended to call that morning.
Thea gave the butler permission to show her caller into the drawing room. She planned to start her decor changes in this room. Drake obviously preferred stark simplicity, but she wanted to make the large town house a home. She could not fault the drawing room's furnishings. Well-made sofas and chairs clustered around sturdy tables, but it was missing the curios and pictures that made a room cozy.