No. The deceit would lie between them for their whole life. She would never be able to make love to him without thinking of it.

“I have to speak to you,” she said, pushing his dark head away from her.

“So serious,” Quill said, wicked lights dancing in his eyes. “Wouldn’t you rather—” And he smiled his devil’s smile.

“Yes—no!” Gabby scooted backward on the bed. “We made love last night,” she said bluntly.

He gaped at her, dumbfounded. “No.” But his tone was not certain.

“We did.”

“But,” Quill said slowly, “I don’t have a headache. I thought—it wasn’t a dream?”

“No.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

Gabby’s heart ached as she watched his brows knit together. She loved that scowl and his certainty that every puzzle had a logical explanation. She saw the moment that the truth dawned on him, the way his face grew rigid as he realized his wife’s betrayal.

She pulled farther back on the bed, just a fraction of an inch. Then she steadied herself. She had been right. Not right in her methods, but right in the outcome. They made love over and over during the night, and he was pain-free.

Quill’s eyes had turned the color of an icy ocean wave. “You drugged me,” he said flatly. With a sudden lunge he leaned forward and pulled the sheet from her hands and flung it away. As Gabby gasped in protest, he pushed her roughly on her side. There on her hip was a bluish bruise, the shadow of Quill’s passionate hold from the night before.

He pulled back without a word. Had she thought his eyes were green? They were black. Gabby’s heart was bursting in her chest. This must be what it feels like to be dying, she thought numbly.

“Sudhakar’s medicine is potent,” Quill remarked. He had himself firmly under control now, she could see that.

Gabby nodded.

“What are the ingredients?”

“I didn’t—I don’t know.”

“You don’t know.” There was a chilly pause.

“Sudhakar gave it to a young man who injured himself falling from a tree,” Gabby whispered. “Whenever the man bent over, he suffered from a headache. The medicine cured him.”

“When did you give that medicine to me?”

“After dinner, in your port.”

Quill stood up. He realized for the first time that he was naked as well. “That was quite a performance you put on last night.”

Gabby willed herself not to cry. He had the right to be angry. “You had to engage in the movement that causes migraines.” Her voice came out in a wisp.

Quill’s eyes narrowed again. “That seems very odd. Why?”

“I believe that the medicine soothes the injured part of the brain,” Gabby said awkwardly. That sounded better than Sudhakar’s talk of putting one’s brain to sleep.