“But ladies do not like to be coaxed,” Isabella said, that half smile hovering. “They like to be admired and respected.”
Like hell. They wanted to be adored, wanted men panting in anticipation at the merest crook of a finger. A smile from the lady would cost even more.
“Very well,” Mac said in a tight voice. “What is your view about gifts?”
“Ladies do like gifts. Tokens of affection. But appropriate gifts, nothing wildly extravagant.”
“But he’s bloody rich, this friend. He likes to be extravagant.”
“That doesn’t necessarily impress a lady.”
Like hell, again. Women cooed over strands of diamonds, glittering blue sapphires, emeralds as green as their eyes. Mac had once bought Isabella a strand of emeralds to drape softly across her br**sts. The first night she’d worn them they’d been alone, her very lovely br**sts bared for him. He still remembered the taste of the emeralds against her skin.
“Then I will teach him the difference between appropriate and extravagant,” Mac said, his voice thick. “Anything else?”
“Yes. Time. The lady will need time to think and not be rushed. To decide whether the gentleman will be appropriate for her.”
Time. There’d been too damn much of that. Wasted weeks and months and years, when Mac could have been curled against her in bed, tasting her and smelling her, feeling her warmth against the length of his body.
“You mean time for the fellow to prove his devotion?” Mac couldn’t keep the impatient edge out of his voice. “Or time for the lady to drive him completely mad?”
“Time for the lady to decide whether his devotion is true or all his imagination.”
“The lady decides that, does she?”
“She does. Always.”
Mac growled. “Bloody hard luck on the gentleman isn’t it, when a lady knows his mind better than he does?”
“That is how things are in courtship,” Isabella said coolly. “You did ask for the advice.”
“What if the damned fellow is in love and he knows it?”
“In that case, he would never have hurt the lady in the past.”
The sudden flare of pain in her eyes cut him, and Mac had to look away. Yes, he’d hurt her. Mac had hurt her and kept hurting her, and he knew it. She’d hurt him back, the two of them thrusting and parrying and trying desperately to keep their footing. What a bloody stupid way to conduct a marriage.
He drew an uneven breath. “What I propose is for you to teach me what my friend should do. Give me the lessons in courting. I will then teach what I learn to my friend.”
Mac waited while she pursed her lips. She always did that while she thought, and he’d always loved leaning closer, closer, until he brushed his mouth across that gentle pucker. Then she’d laugh and say something like, Darling Mac, you are so silly.
“I suppose I could be persuaded,” Isabella said now with her soft, red mouth. “Though this is not what’s meant by courting, you know.”
Mac pulled back a hairsbreadth. “What isn’t?”
She wet her lips, making his longing spike. “You have started badly, I am afraid. You do not ask a lady to dance by tearing her away from the partner she’s just accepted, and when she’s overheated, you walk her to a chair and fetch her an ice. You don’t whisk her out to the terrace and into the shadows.”
“Why not?”
“That is seduction, not courting. You could ruin the lady.”
“Ah.” Mac returned his hand to the wall beside her, noticing that it was shaking. “Then you consider that I’ve failed that lesson.”
“Almost.” She smiled, and his heart turned over. “You are very flattering, which is always a point in a gentleman’s favor.”
“I can be more flattering than that. I can tell you that your hair is a trail of fire, your lips sweeter than the finest wines, that your voice flows inside me and stirs all my desires.”
A swallow moved down her throat. “A proper lady might be taken aback by such comparisons.”
“I remember a proper lady who didn’t mind me talking about the pillows of her br**sts and the glory that lay between her legs.”
“Then she couldn’t have been a proper lady,” Isabella said softly.
Mac leaned to her. “Would the proper young lady be shocked to learn I’m in danger of taking her right here, uncaring of who might wander to our end of the terrace?”
Her lashes swept down. “I don’t think such a thing would be practical in this gown.”
“Don’t tease, Isabella. I’m perfectly serious.”
“I’ve never been able to resist teasing you.” She gave him her coy little smile, and his limbs hurt. “But I have been thinking about this rather a lot, Mac. We have both closed in on ourselves, barely able to speak to one another, which has caused great strain. Perhaps if we grow more used to seeing each other, stop avoiding events where we both might attend—like tonight—perhaps we would become comfortable with each other.”
Mac’s bubble of hope dissipated. “Comfortable? What the devil does that mean? As though we were in our dotage, nodding to each other in our Bath chairs?”
“No, no. I meant that if we become used to each other’s company, perhaps your wanting would decrease. We would be more civil to each other. As it is we are nervous. About everything. ”
Mac wanted to burst into laughter, and then again, he wanted to rage. “Bloody hell, Isabella, do you think that the strain between us is all to do with me wanting you? Oh, my darling girl.”
“Of course I do not believe it is so simple. But perhaps, if we agree to become more, well, easy with each other, perhaps we could catch sight of each other without simmering.”
“I very much doubt that.” Mac slanted her a hot smile. “I’ve been simmering for you since the night we met. I’ve never stopped, and I never will, no matter how many times I have the pleasure of taking you to bed.”
Isabella’s lips parted in surprise. Had she thought the solution to their unhappiness so simple? That if they grew bored with each other’s company, Mac would cease wanting her and let her be? Some men—utter fools—did lose interest in a woman once they’d bedded her, but Mac couldn’t imagine ever, ever losing interest in Isabella.
He let his smile grow predatory. “My dear Isabella, I will take your suggestion and show you what happens when you play with fire. I will make certain we see each other quite, quite often. And there will be no growing jaded with each other. Because you see, my dear, when I at last take you home again, it will be forever. No regrets, no games, no being ‘comfortable.’ We will be man and wife, in all ways, and it will be final.”