My Wife, My Rules – 21. chapter

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„“Port?” Aiden asked casually into the room as he moved toward the cabinet at once. Elias stepped away from the piano toward the table. Tess watched her husband.

His walk was steady, relaxed, almost sovereign. He embodied exactly what stirred her desire, though today it also commanded her respect, if not fear. The uncompromising calm of a man utterly certain of what would follow. She did not move even when he passed her on his way to the table. He poured the burgundy-colored wine into crystal glasses.

“Will you have one with us, my dear?” Isadora asked Tess from her chair. “It might help you tonight.”

If only you knew.

Tess forced a smile and nodded. The Montellans each took a glass. Aiden took two and was already approaching Tess with them when Isadora called again from behind him.

“Won’t you sit with us?”

With his back to his friends, Aiden allowed himself a faint, mischievous smile meant only for his wife.

“She will,” he announced aloud. As he handed Tess the glass, he added quietly, “Your backside should still be sensitive enough to help you remember this evening properly.”

She looked at him, shame, desire, and something sinful and yielding mingling in her eyes. For a fleeting second her mind filled with the image of him lying over her, fingers digging in as she begged. Just as he had promised. She took the glass instead and accepted his arm as he escorted her gallantly to the chair opposite the couple.

She laid her hand on the armrest. Her fingers tightened briefly as she braced herself for the painful descent. When she finally lowered herself down, she pressed her lips together almost imperceptibly. He noticed. And he noticed the tension in her neck, the way her thighs drew together for a second. He showed no satisfaction and took his own seat.

There was no need to search for a topic. Isadora began chattering at once. Tess slowly absorbed the dull ache and forced herself to listen.

“You know, my dear, when Aiden returned from that long journey among his plants and told us he had married, we thought he was joking,” Isadora burst out, her words as if trying to catch up with her thoughts. “Especially when he said he would not introduce us because you don’t attend society! I mean, really, who on earth does not attend society?”

They all gave her a second to realize what she had said.

“That is not what I meant. It sounded terrible. We simply did not believe him!”

I have no idea what Aiden was like before me.

“What was Aiden like before me?” Tess asked quietly.

Isadora searched for words, but Elias spoke first.

“I would call him something of a sommelier,” he said calmly. “For years he chose women like wine. He tasted, but he did not keep.”

Isadora laughed. Aiden merely lifted a brow and raised his glass.

“Don’t take it badly, sweetheart,” Isadora rushed on. “It was not something terrible. He is handsome, wealthy, women always clung to him. No wonder he took his time. Only… well, for years we thought he was searching for far too long.”

“You pestered me endlessly over it,” Aiden said at last, curtly. He remained alert, watching Tess’s reactions, occasionally letting his mind stray to what he could still do to his kitty tonight. But those thoughts had to be driven away. Men’s dress trousers were not sturdy enough to hide an erection.

“But when he kept talking about you,” Elias continued, “we realized he could not have invented this. That he truly had you somewhere in the house.”

“It always sounded a little unbelievable,” Isadora added, “but suddenly one could see in him that there was a woman in the world who held his heart.”

Aiden dipped his chin almost imperceptibly, as if caught at something he did not wish to discuss. His gaze brushed Tess for a heartbeat. Too brief for the guests to notice. Long enough for her throat to tighten.

“Anyway, when he invited us today, saying he would try to introduce you if it worked…” the couple took turns telling the story.

“I was dressed before Elias out of sheer impatience!” Isadora exclaimed.

If it worked? He allowed for the possibility of sparing me?

“And do you know what is most beautiful?” Isadora leaned forward, elbows on her knees, her sincerity impossible to ignore. “I cannot imagine anyone else beside him. He is mad about you. I can see it.”

Tess smiled. A little grateful. A little shy.

“And we know your life is not easy. But together you will manage. I see that too.”

“Isadora always believes the best of people,” Elias said with amusement. She slapped his knee.

“But this time I am right. Aiden is…” She paused, searching for the right shape of words. “Aiden is, and always has been, a gentleman in every inch of body and soul.”

Well. You have clearly never slept with him, if you can think that.

Tess confirmed it to herself and drove away thoughts of what still awaited her tonight.

Time froze in the room.

Elias’s hand stopped halfway between table and mouth. Isadora fared worse. She was just about to swallow a sip of the drink already in her mouth when her face froze in stunned surprise, like someone walking into an invisible wall. The air thickened. Tess did not understand why. She looked between them, frowned slightly, then turned to Aiden.

He was already watching her as if witnessing the finest moment of a stage play. First startled, then his eyes lit up and the corners of his mouth twitched upward despite his effort. He held his breath, rubbed his jaw, and let it out slowly. Tess knew he was fighting laughter.

“I did not say that out loud, did I?” she asked him quietly.

He leaned forward a fraction, as if this were their shared secret, and nodded with a glint in his eyes.

“Every. Single. Word.”

Panic flared. Her mouth opened in silent horror. Then the tension broke.

Isadora snatched a napkin just in time to catch the port she spat out before bursting into open laughter. Elias laughed outright, struggling to stop. Aiden tried to look out the window, but the corners of his mouth betrayed him. It took a moment for them to calm down at least somewhat.

“No, my dear, I have not slept with him,” Isadora said at last. “Even if we usually don’t put it quite like that in society. But thank you for the spicy information.”

Elias could not resist.

“Aiden? Care to share a detail?”

Aiden smothered his smile, struggling a little to return to the role of detached observer.

“No,” he said mildly, shaking his head slightly. “But you may ask my wife. She seems to be in a sharing mood tonight.”

Tess skewered him with a look. He continued anyway.

“Would you like to tell our friends, perhaps why today…”

“Please,” Tess interrupted in a desperate whisper. “Enough. Please.”

He reacted at once, acknowledging he had gone too far.

“I apologize. Forgive me.”

Isadora was just sitting back down, still smiling faintly. Elias leaned as if to add something, then merely smiled at Tess and let the silence settle.

“Perhaps it is his mystery that makes Aiden so attractive,” Isadora mused once she managed to sip her port without choking.

Tess looked at her questioningly.

As in, even now?

“Well, Aiden is known to be married. But since no one knows you, you see… At larger gatherings some ladies try to catch his attention. He is very attractive, after all. A very fine match.”

Tess had never considered this. Aiden always returned to her unchanged. She had never thought about what happened when she was not there. Until that moment with Isadora. Since then, the thought had lingered. The idea of women offering themselves to him pricked somewhere inside her. She stayed silent.

Isadora turned to her again, resting a hand on the chair back as if to soothe her.

“They don’t know they have no chance.”

Tess could not force a smile. She felt Aiden watching her, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

“Well, we should let you rest,” Elias said gently, his voice kind and unhurried.

Aiden nodded and rang for a servant.

“We truly did not expect you to sit with us, my dear,” Isadora said. “It means more to us than you know.”

Tess nodded.

When the servant entered, he went straight to Aiden, who leaned close.

“My wife wishes to see the guests out in front of the house,” Aiden said.

“Very well, my lord. At once.”

Isadora blinked in confusion and glanced at Elias, who looked just as puzzled.

Tess noticed, and since Aiden said nothing, she explained it herself, though embarrassed.

“It means the servants will all keep out of that part of the house so I don’t meet anyone.”

They were briefly surprised, then understanding dawned.

“Aiden is fortunate,” Elias said to Tess with a smile as they parted in the courtyard. “Though I am certain he knows that better than we do.”

Isadora smiled beside him.

“My dear, we feared we would never meet you. You are a beautiful creature.”

Aiden stood tense beside Tess. Elias watched his lively wife as well. Tess hardly noticed. She smiled faintly, unsure what to say.

“Oh, I would love to hug you!” Isadora exclaimed and nearly bounced forward.

Both men reacted instantly.

Aiden caught Tess’s hand, pulled her behind him, and stepped in front of her. Elias blocked his wife sharply with his walking stick. Isadora froze, startled but fully aware of why.

“Pardon,” she murmured. She linked her arm through Elias’s and allowed herself to be led away.

Aiden and Tess, still half a step behind him, watched the carriage arrive and the Montellans board.

Another emotion joined the chaos within Tess. She remembered how Aiden had once, back in the beginning, promised her that only he would touch her. Others only with her explicit consent. Even angry, he had reacted exactly as he promised and protected her. Guilt pressed down on her again.

“I apologize,” she said quietly.

He did not move, watching the carriage.

“For what, now?”

There was much.

“For suspecting you of infidelity.”

“That would not have been that much of a problem,” he said, calmly severe, almost instructive. “Your jealousy might even flatter me in its way. The problem is how you did it. You gave me no chance. You did not ask. I could not respond, answer, defend myself. From one day to the next, you began to torment me.”

Tess clenched her teeth. She wanted to say something, but she had nothing.

“A punishment makes no sense if you don’t know what it is for,” Aiden continued, his voice steady and firm. “Then it is nothing but pure torment. And that is exactly what you did to me. You know I tried to endure it. Each day. But you had no intention of stopping. If I had not gotten tougher, if I had waited patiently, you would still be tormenting me now. And to top it all off, for something I never even did.”

Tess felt terrible. He was right. In every single sentence. And she was no longer afraid. She did not know what he would do to her. But she knew she deserved all of it.