His Unexpected Bride by Jo Ann Ferguson

set of stairs and stepped out into the upper hallway, which was filled with plants in pots of all shapes and sizes, Tess wondered if she was somehow dreaming the whole of this. Imagining she was married to a stranger made more sense than the jungle before her eyes. She could name only a few of the plants. The rest were ones she had never seen before.
    â€œThis is incredible!” she exclaimed as she tried to take it all in at once.
    Behind her, Jenette was once again whispering, “Oh, my!”
    â€œI did not know,” Tess added, quickening her pace so she could walk beside Cameron, “that you enjoyed having flowers about.”
    â€œWhy should you know that?” He did not slow his steps, but did lower his voice when a maid edged past them in the hall made narrow by the broad leaves of some flower Tess did not recognize. “What do you know of me other than I made a mistake that has upset our lives?”
    She grasped his sleeve, halting the procession. When she motioned for Jenette to go with Cameron’s valet along the hall to wherever they were bound, she did not let Cameron draw his sleeve out of her hand. “Would you please stop it?”
    â€œMe?” Genuine surprise widened his eyes. “Stop what?”
    â€œThis constant grousing.”
    â€œI know you sing oh be easy, but I cannot.”
    â€œI what?”
    â€œYou do not complain when you have every reason to. I forget that you are not familiar with Town cant.”
    She shrugged, but continued to hold on to his coat. “I do have many reasons to complain, and I would if I thought it would do any good. However, nothing can be done until you seek the advice of your solicitor. I believe that it would be easier on both of us to accept what has happened for now—”
    â€œ I cannot accept it!”
    â€œI said for now.” She released his sleeve. “You might find, Cameron, that you can endure this with more equanimity if you would stop assuming I am delighted to be your wife. You may be the son and the brother of a duke, but you apparently find that fact far more impressive than I do.”
    He halted her from walking past him by putting out his arm. “Are you always this disagreeable?”
    â€œAre you?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œThen why are you trying to be at daggers drawn with me on the few occasions when you deign to talk with me?” she asked.
    â€œBecause it is simpler.”
    â€œThan what?”
    His arm swept around her, tugging her toward him and giving her the answer she should have guessed. A hushed huskiness added fervor to his words as he murmured, “Do not think to use these airs of innocence to betwattle me.”
    â€œIt is no pretense. Simply an unthinking question.”
    â€œUnthinking?” He laughed quietly. “Too often, I find myself thinking of holding you like this and even closer, Tess.”
    Although she longed to remain in his embrace, she put her hands on his arm and pushed it away. He did not release her gaze as willingly. Knowing she should look away, she did not. Her nails bit into her palms as she fought to keep her hands from reaching up to caress his cheek, darkened with the shadow of more than a day’s growth of beard. Her fingertips tingled as she imagined letting them sweep across his rough skin.
    â€œAh, Lord Hawksmoor, I …” The butler gulped nearly as loudly as Jenette had yesterday in front of the inn. “Pardon me, my lord.”
    Tess dragged her gaze from Cameron’s to see the butler’s face fall with consternation. When she heard what most remarkably sounded like a chuckle from Cameron, she was amazed to see him smiling. She wanted to ask why, but was constrained by the butler’s announcement that the baggage was on its way upstairs.
    Cameron nodded, then walked toward the front of the house. Tess, her curiosity unsatisfied, for she suspected the butler had planned to speak to Cameron of other