Free In the Garden of Temptation by Cynthia Wicklund

shook his head as if resigned. “Don’t mind me, love.
I’m feeling possessive and I have no right.”
    “ I don’t mind.”
    Adam smiled at her, a sad smile. “Do you have
any idea just how beautiful you are? I fear you are the
opiate.”
    She ran fingers along the bridge of his
cheek. “You’re rather lovely yourself, my lord,” she teased.
    Laying his forehead against hers, he
chuckled. “Sprite. If I did not know better, I would say I’ve been
enchanted.” He kissed her, lips lingering on her mouth before he
rose back on his elbows. “I wish I could spend the remainder of the
day resting on top of you in this oh-so-pleasant manner.”
    “ I would like that, also,”
she said wistfully.
    “ I suppose we should return
to the castle.” His voice was filled with regret.
    He rolled off Catherine and helped her to her
feet. They spent the next several minutes erasing all evidence of
their slip from respectability. Packing the picnic basket, the earl
tied it to his horse. He then stood with his back to her as though
uncertain, his hands resting on the basket, the silence stretching
between them until she began to feel uncomfortable. When he finally
turned to her, his features were a mask of regret.
    “ I hope you can forgive me.
I should never have allowed myself to give into temptation,” he
said. “It was wrong of me.”
    Catherine experienced a stab of
disappointment so profound her stomach did a sickening flip. “I
want no apology,” she said over a throat gone tight with hurt.
    “ I took advantage of you. I
know better and there is no excuse for my behavior,” he
insisted.
    “ I knew what I was doing.
The responsibility is not only yours,” she stated. She softened her
expression and held out a hand to him. “Please, lie to me—say
anything you must, but don’t say you’re sorry, for I feel no
regret.”
    Adam grasped her arms and pulled her to him.
“Do you understand what you’re saying?”
    “ Yes,” she said woodenly, “I
know exactly what I am saying.” She released herself from his hold
and looked at him defiantly. “I’m saying I don’t care.” She drew in
a deep breath and, though she tried valiantly for control, her chin
trembled with emotion. “Just once I wished to see what I have been
denied—what I’ll always be denied. Is that so much to ask? I risked
all today to know the answer to my question.”
    “ Was it worth it?” he asked
in a gentle voice.
    Catherine felt a teardrop escape from beneath
her lashes. “It might have been better had I never known,” she
acknowledged with sudden insight.
    She turned away from him then and mounted her
horse unassisted, spurring the animal from the clearing without
looking back.
    The earl was left to follow in her wake.
     
    *****
     
    “ The deed is done, my
lord.”
    “ Are you absolutely certain,
Willy?”
    “ Aye, my lord. I watched to
the very end. It was hard to tell exactly what went on, though,
‘cause they never got undressed.” He sounded
disappointed.
    “ That will be enough,
Willy!” the baron roared. “I don’t wish to know all the sordid
details. It causes me much pain to know my wife has been unfaithful
to me.”
    “ But I thought that’s what
you wanted.”
    “ What I want is not
necessarily what I like.” Lord Bourgeault rose from his desk and
walked to the window to stare unseeingly into the stable yard
below. “I knew it would take only the right bait to bring her
around.” He spoke mainly to himself but Willy answered him
anyway.
    “ You’ve brought any number
of gents here what would have been able to do what you had in mind,
my lord. What makes him so special, personally I don’t see
it.”
    “ You don’t have to see it,”
the baron said contemptuously. “Aside from being young and
handsome, and it would appear virile, he has the added advantage of
being a gentleman.” When Willy looked as though he might interrupt,
the baron snapped, “I’m not talking about his birth, you