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She squinted up at him doubtfully. “Really?”

“Whatever you want. Let’s not talk about it anymore.”

Her expression wavered. “But you … you will stick to your word, right Clem?”

“Have I ever given you reason to doubt I would?”

“No,” she admitted.

“And I never will,” he said coolly, shocking himself more than her. “Let’s seal the bargain.”

“Very well,” she said, taking a step back and thrusting out her hand.

Christ, her handshakes … He felt weak with the realization that there could be so many things he loved about his woman. “Dora …” he groaned. “I don’t want to shake your hand. I want to be … inappropriate with you.”

Dora blinked. “What?”

“Wildly inappropriate.”

“But I’m your wife,” she pointed out. “How can it be inappropriate?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Why don’t we find out?” He held his hand out to her and she grasped it immediately and he towed her out of the room, across the landing, and into their bedroom.

They both immediately began to strip as soon as the door closed behind them.

“By the way, you need to learn some new insults,” he said, slinging his shirt over a chair back. “You started out strong, but then ran out of steam. For a minute I thought you were going to call me a blackguard or accuse me of ‘not playing the game.’”

Dora looked instantly so thoughtful that Clem felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise in warning. “I don’t know about that …” she admitted. “I called Lil’s husband a prick today.”

Clem straightened up. “You called him a what?” Did she just fucking say what he thought she did?

“You look very shocked,” she said, stepping out of her petticoat. “Is it worse than that time I mentioned pregnancy corsets in Wards?”

“Honestly? That shocked the hell out of me too.” Her face fell. “Turns out I’m a lot more narrow-minded than I realized,” he admitted with a frown. “Marriage to an actress has been rather an education.” She smiled at this but shook her head. “Did anyone else hear you?”

“Hear me swear?” she asked, taking a hold of the hem of her chemise. He gave her a tight-lipped nod. “Possibly Eddie,” she admitted, “though he was some distance away and might not have caught it.”

Clem was not happy about Eddie the doorman hearing such utterances from his wife’s lips and it must have shown in his face.

“That displeases you,” she commented, climbing into the bed.

“It does,” he said, though he could not precisely say why. In truth, Clem was not entirely sure why he felt so strongly about it. He was not usually censorious about bad language or how women employed it. Dot, Nat Jones’s business partner, and Jeb’s partner, Effie, swore in front of him all the time and he never batted an eyelid. Maybe it was because they were not his wife.

“It’s funny,” she said slowly. “I know my brother would probably suffer an apoplexy to hear me say such things, but I would not have thought that you …”

“It’s the part where you say it in front of other people that bothers me,” he admitted. His voice thickened. “In fact, I’d prefer it if you kept that sort of thing between us and for the bedroom.”

She sucked in a breath. “Ohhhh, I see!” she said looking relieved. “You do not want me to betray myself in front of others.” She seemed satisfied with this. “I was so angry, it just sort of slipped out. I’m sorry Clem. I did not mean to show you up in front of your friends or employees.”

Clem had stripped by this point and joined her in the bed. He pulled her abruptly toward him. “Why don’t you practice some of your new vocabulary on me now,” he whispered against her jaw.

“New vocabulary?”

“Tell me what other bad words you’ve learned,” Clem suggested. “I’m all ears.”

Dora stilled. “Bad words?” She seemed, at last, to have picked up that his reaction was not entirely innocent. “It was just—Albert sometimes—”

“Don’t tell me who originally said it,” he interrupted her swiftly. “I don’t want to know. I just want to hear the words on your lips.”