His Jilted Bride (Historical Regency Romance) by Rose Gordon Page A

had more time if you hadn't spent your
time dreaming of Amelia,” Henry said with a chuckle.
    Scowling, Elijah grabbed the paper
from his brother's hands and turned it around so he could read it.
“It isn't what you think.”
    “ I'm pretty sure that it is.”
    Elijah lowered the left corner of the
paper a fraction. “Damn,” he muttered, meeting his twin's
eyes.
    “ Have you told her?”
    “ No, on both accounts.”
    “ On both accounts?” he echoed, knitting his brows. A moment
later his eyes flared wide, then returned to normal; the color in
his cheeks heightening, presumably at just being informed that not
only had Elijah not told Amelia the truth about himself but that
he'd been unsuccessful in bedding her, revealing to her the truth
about herself. “I see.”
    “ I doubt you do.” Elijah sighed and dropped the paper he held
to the table. “I can't tell her one without revealing the
other.”
    “ So then...”
    “ I just need to do my duty and bed her as soon as
possible.”
    “ Yes, well, I don't need those details, thank you.”
    Elijah straightened his silver
cufflink. “Then we're in agreement because I hadn't planned to
share them.”
    “ Have you been putting it off on purpose?”
    “ Bedding her?”
    Henry nodded. “She is our childhood
friend. I can see where it might be difficult
to...er...perform.”
    Elijah twisted his lips and crossed
his arms. Had it been anyone else—even Alex—who'd just insulted his
abilities, Elijah would have laid him out. “As it would happen,
contrary to what you're implying, I have no reservations about
consummating the marriage. She does.”
    “ Perhaps she doesn't fancy the idea of sleeping with you .”
    “ I've already guessed as much,” he muttered. “For as much as
she used to claim she loved me before we reached our majority, she
sure has no interest in me now.”
    “ Oh?”
    “ I thought you didn't want details,” Elijah reminded him,
forcing a grin.
    “ That depends. Details about you deflowering Amelia I could do
without. Details about how Amelia denies you sound most
interesting.”
    Elijah snorted. “You would be the one
interested.”
    “ Anyone would.” He flashed Elijah a grin. “Especially if they
knew the details of your past together.”
    “ Yes, well, her fascination for me is no more, I'm afraid.” He
turned his head a fraction to the side and idly scratched his
cheek. “No matter what I do, she pushes me away.”
    “ She does?”
    “ She does.” Elijah put his elbow on the table and then leaned
his cheek against his palm. “Whenever I try to kiss her, she turns
as cold as those marbles we saw in Venice. When I touch her, she
jerks and moves away. Or pushes me away,” he added, thinking at how
she'd shoved him away earlier this morning when he'd touched her.
“It's almost as if I repulse her.”
    “ Perhaps you do.”
    Elijah did his best attempt at a
snarl. “She can't possibly find me repulsive. She was about to
marry Lord Friar, for pity's sake.”
    “ That doesn't say much about you then, does it?”
    “ No. I suppose it doesn't.”
    “ Perhaps that's for the best.”
    “ For the best that my wife has more interest in winning boons
and eating cake than wanting to be intimate with me?”
    The left corner of Henry's lips tilted
up. “Is that so?”
    “ Never mind that. The fact is, I've married an Ice Queen, and
short of hell itself, nothing seems to warm her up.”
    “ Now that could certainly be a point in your favor. At least she'll
never take a lover.”
    “ Indeed,” Elijah forced himself to say. He hated the way his
agreement to such a stupid statement felt on his tongue. She might
not love him, but she'd positively devastate him if she took a
lover. He sighed and picked up the paper he'd set down a few
moments before. “Now about this...”
    “ I don't know why you deny it so,” Henry said, seeming to be
reluctant to quit their former conversation.
    Elijah's fingers tightened on the
paper he held,