She wasn’t a countess anymore.

The fire cracked and popped just as it always did, as if nothing significant had happened, and yet Charlotte felt as if the world had tipped upside down. It was as if life had suddenly become a series of disjointed events, related, but not connected with one another, familiar and yet strange. She was still Charlotte, but she was no longer who she thought she was. She was a wife, but in name only. She had been the daughter of an earl, the sister of an earl, the wife of an earl, but now her brother told her that she was simply Mrs. McGregor, an impoverished gentleman’s spouse, and one she knew was not even particularly wanted or needed.

She wasn’t a countess anymore.

What was Dare going to do? What was she going to do? How was she to settle into her life now that everything she had wanted and needed and planned for had been stripped from her? First the security of wealth, then her position in Society, and lastly the prestige of Dare’s title…all she had left was Dare himself. And although she knew he loved her, it was a grudging love, a love he felt much against his will. He hadn’t wanted to marry her at all.

Suddenly it was all too much for her. “How am I supposed to face this?” she sobbed.

“At my side,” a warm voice answered her. Dare stood in the doorway to his room, his dressing gown tied loosely around his waist. “With that obstinate chin of yours held high and a smile on your luscious lips. Together we’ll face the future, Charlotte. Together we can do anything.”

She shook her head, defeat battling with the hope his words stirred within her. “You’re not an earl anymore. I’m not a countess.”

“No, but you’re still my wife.” He came into the room and knelt at her feet, bending his head over her hands to press kisses along the back of them. The brush of his hair against her skin started a familiar fire deep within her. His eyes when he looked up at her seemed to burn with the same fire. “You still have me. I am the same person I was. I flatter myself to think that it was me you wanted, not an empty title. Am I wrong?”

Charlotte looked deep into eyes darkened to indigo, and thought about what he asked, really thought about it. Had she married him just for the title? There were other titled men she knew she could have cozened into marrying her, but none so handsome as Dare…but no, that was appearance, and she knew now what he had meant about looking beyond the surface. The truth was that there were no other men who made her feel as Dare did, none who interested and challenged her, none whose touch left her breathless and excited and wanting more. She pulled one of her hands from his and placed her palm against his cheek. Tiny golden whiskers tickled her fingers as she drew them along the line of his jaw. “No, I didn’t marry you for the title. I wanted you.”