“This is delicious,” he said after a few bites. “I didn’t realize you knew how to cook.”
She shook her head in embarrassment. “Tonight was the first night I’ve ever even entered a kitchen. Jocelyn’s cook made this. But I did keep it warm and put it on plates.”
The moment she said it, she realized how ridiculous it sounded. In the world he lived in, women could kill the cow, butcher it, cook it, and oh, yes, put it on a plate.
Though she knew her confession had taken him aback, he didn’t let it show. Instead of saying something about her lack of domestic skills, he just smiled. “Well, thank you for arranging this.”
She smiled in return, grateful he wasn’t pointing out the obvious. “You’re welcome.”
As they ate quietly, she thought how nice this was and how it afforded them an intimacy they’d never have had if servants were standing behind them at their beck and call. She’d never had a meal like this, not with her parents, not with her brothers, and not even at Jocelyn’s. The stiffness and formality of her life seemed rather silly.
“I know you think this is a big house, and I realize that it is, compared to how most people live. But it’s actually very modest considering the homes I’ve lived in before.” She took a deep breath, hoping nothing she was about to say sounded spoiled or offensive. “If we lived here, I believe we could get by with just a handful of servants, perhaps half a dozen. I would like to live a simpler life with you, Quinn. I don’t need the sort of excess I’ve had in the past.”
He laughed ruefully. “The fact that you think a simpler life is paring down to just half a dozen servants shows how very different our worlds are. But I also don’t intend to make a woman who’s never even been in a kitchen before today learn how to do all the things I expected a wife of mine to know.”
“Am I such a disappointment to you then?” She hated the vulnerability in her voice but didn’t know how to stop it. She’d never felt more the spoiled princess he’d always thought her.
To her surprise, he shook his head and closed the space between them, pressing his lips sweetly to hers before drawing back. “Quite the contrary. In fact, I’m still stunned that you want to be with someone like me, someone who could never in a thousand years have given you this home.”
She poured them both a glass of wine, her hand shaking with emotion. “You give me things that no one else ever has. You make me feel like I matter. You give me hope.”
“Oh, Allison...” He pushed their food aside and reached for her, kissing her hungrily as he eased her down on the blanket, covering her body with his. She wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight as she kissed him back, knowing that this was what she’d wanted.
This was the reason she’d invited him and gone to so much trouble to make things perfect. She wanted to make love to him. She wanted to join with him in every way possible and convince herself that this thing between them was so beautiful and bright that there was no way it could ever turn ugly and dark.
They kissed wildly, hands roving and bodies moving together, until at last, he broke free, gasping. “I’m sorry. You probably want to finish eating.”
She only shook her head. “No, Quinn. I want you to take me upstairs. I want you to make love to me.”