Tried for Love (TSATD)

Chapter 32

Gabriel

  The morning sun seemed to had made its way into the previous night's clouds and through the blinds of my room, since it hit stubbornly against my eyelids, demanding my awakening. I groaned, refusing it.

  But either way, my consciousness stirred. No, that wasn't correct. The blinds weren't even drawn last night. Not after I had informed all the house staff that Mrs. Valentine and I weren't to be disturbed.

  The memories raced through me. A familiar face flashed in my mind. One I had been dreaming of for what seemed like eternity. Wide jade eyes I had had dazed with pleasure, just that very night, and daring lips I had kissed crimson.

  Good Lord. I had woken up stiff to the thought of Leah in my bed for so long, I nearly trusted it merely a foolish wish once again. But the thought of her the previous night, welcoming me home in that bathtub, slick in foam and bubbles.. Hell, it made me refuse to believe I was about to wake to reality.

   I turned around instead, throwing my arm over to the other side of the bed, searching for the warm female figure I had examined every inch of that very night. But my arm landed on the hard mattress; my hand over the cold linen sheets. With a twitch of realization, I opened my eyes.

  The left side of the bed was empty. Sheets crumbled, obviously disarranged by the number of activities we had preformed.. And then fallen asleep. She had been in my arms, that much I could recall. It had been damned soothing to fall asleep with her in my arms. Why the hell wasn't she there when I woke up?

  Sitting up from that tangle of sheets, I grabbed my watch from the nightstand, just to see it click a few minutes past seven. Frustration raced through me with the realization. Leah never woke up before ten. It was barely seven in the damned morning and she wasn't in bed. Damn it to hell. She had left during the night.

  I stood up, striding over to the closet and pulling on a pair of briefs. Was it to be expected, such a rash move from Leah? Was I to come to peace with the fact that I had brought her into my rooms, into my bed, where no woman had ever been, and yet she had left in the middle of the damned night, like some courtesan I had paid for the night?

  Anger boiled in my veins with a renewed force, and yet I laughed at myself. Such a move should had been expected from Leah St. Clair, no matter that she was my wife now. No matter that I had made her mine just hours ago.

  She had seduced and tempted until she got what she wanted. Until we both did. One night, the words echoed in my head.. The picture of her in that bathtub flashing in my mind.

  One night only.

  The hell with it.

  Marching over through the door of the connecting bathroom, I found the entrance to her bedroom wide opened.. The scent of honey-suckle was filling the marble space and the mirrors were damped. She had been in here, taking a shower perhaps mere minutes before I had entered..

   But I walked right past and towards her bedroom. What the reason behind such a torrid fury was, I wasn't exactly certain.  All I knew was that there had been many, many women I had bedded, not one brought to my house, to my bed. 

  Yet, I had waited far too long to have Leah. How foolish of her to think I'd let her go after I'd made her mine.

  "Leah," Her name was sharp on my tongue as I stepped inside her room.

  However, the first thing coming to my view was her bed. Empty, but perfectly made. The way it had been the previous night. And glancing over, I found her leaning close to the large mirror on the side.