Devil in Spring (The Ravenels, #3)

by Lisa Kleypas

“She can’t hurt us,” she said softly. “She can glare until her eyeballs fall out, and it won’t bother me in the least.” “This won’t happen again, by God. I’ll go to her tomorrow, and tell her—” “No, you mustn’t. I’m sure Mrs. Black would love nothing better than for you to visit her. But I forbid it.” There was a dangerous cold flicker in Gabriel’s eyes. “You forbid?” It was quite possible no one had ever said such a thing to him before. He certainly didn’t seem to like it. Pandora touched his face with her gloved hand, gently stroking his cheek. She knew that demonstrations of affection in public, even between husband and wife, were highly inappropriate, but at the moment, all that mattered was comforting him. “Yes. Because you’re mine now.” She smiled faintly, holding his gaze. “All mine, and I won’t share you. She’s not allowed to have even five minutes of your time.” To her relief, Gabriel took a slow breath and seemed to relax. “You’re my wife,” he said quietly, catching her hand as she began to lower it. “No other woman has claim on me.” He held it in midair and deliberately unfastened the three pearl buttons at the wrist of her elbow-length kid glove. Pandora gave him a questioning glance. Staring steadily into her eyes, Gabriel tugged at the fingertips of the glove, one by one. Her breath caught as she felt the glove loosen.