Page 48 of Duke of the Sun

Michael wasn’t too far away then, his head tilted as he listened. There was something frustrated in his face, as if he grew irritated and tried to hide it but failed. His muscles were tense, his jaw tightened and rigid beneath his skin. She could not understand his expression.

“I could not be the daughter he expected me to be,” Cordelia said. “And so, the moment he could, my father married me off to you without a second thought. Not once was I asked for my own opinion, to be offered to meet my newly engaged suitor before daring to step foot in a chapel. None of it.”

Michael pressed his lips together.

“I do not try to burden you with my own sorrow,” Cordelia quickly added, now looking up at him. “I only want you to understand.”

“Understand what?” he muttered.

She breathed in. “How much this all means to me. To do something,” she paused, remembering Hunters words, “That I can be proud of. Something of my own accord. Something from my own mind. You might have left, but you let me do this all the same. For that, I am grateful.”

Michael watched her with a furrowed brow. Perhaps he did not understand her sentiment, perhaps he believed she wished to bring him out to the orangery to further irritate and bother him. Cordelia fidgeted beneath his persistent stare. Finally, gathering her strength, Cordelia faced him head on, keeping her face angled upwards towards him.

“There is something I cannot understand,” she whispered.

Michael searched her face. “What is it?”

“Why did you agree to marry me?”

His lips parted. Suddenly his eyes were clinging onto Cordelia’s lips as if he was caught in a trance. He swayed, dipping down to get even closer to her. She jerked backwards for a moment, surprised at his closeness. A rustic scent washed over her as he inched closer. Cordelia breathed him in, growing increasingly intoxicated by his mere aura, the shimmering light of the falling sun fading in all around them. The glow the orangery walls gave off with the impending sunlight set the entire room on fire, matching the energy that bounced between Cordelia and the beastly Duke.

“Michael -” she managed to whisper before he crashed into her.

His lips were desperate against her lips at first before softening to a gentle motion, merely fading into her. Cordelia felt her shoulders sag, the ability to keep herself afloat quickly seeping out of her. She reached for him but could barely hold on, her legs beginning to wobble and shake beneath her. Michael ducked an arm around her waist, as if he already knew, and hoisted her up, not once letting her come up for air. Chills rolled up and down her arms as his other hand snaked up her side, finding its way to cup the side of her face.

Michael’s hands were full of grooves from his scars and calluses. His skin was rough against her cheek, but Cordelia didn’t seem to mind it one bit. She leaned into him, as if she couldn’t feel him enough.

The kiss lasted till Michael abruptly pulled himself away.

Cordelia was still outstretched, still lost in the feeling of his lips against hers, when she realized he had already put a few feet of space between them. Full of shame and embarrassment, Cordelia retracted, her arms wrapping tightly around her chest as if she needed to hold herself together. She glanced in his direction and immediately noticed how he could not look at her. He kept his gaze focused above her head, or at the plants.

What have you done?She asked herself as her breathing grew sharp and ragged.

“If you must know,” Michael suddenly said, his arms once again twisted behind his back, “My father added a clause to his will months before he passed.”

“A clause?”

“Before I could access the fortune that was rightfully mine, I needed to be wed.”

Cordelia blinked as she watched him. “I-I don’t understand.” Everything still felt incredibly foggy, the phantom feeling of his lips against her making her drowsy. She inched backwards, almost falling into a chair. The feeling slowly returned to her legs, her strength steadily rising to her arms, when she finally soaked in everything he was trying to say. “Do you mean to say that you agreed to marry me for money?”

“Not at all,” Michael replied. “I agreed to marry you for everythingowed to me.”

“Is there a difference?”

He stared with an expressionless face. “Of course there is.”

Cordelia felt drunk with emotion. The desire she once felt trickled out of her like water. Soon, all that remained was a growing anger. She wondered how much she was worth, how much more money Michael was able to grasp onto once they signed the marriage license. How much did it take for her to be acceptable, for her hand in marriage to be worth all the trouble?

She shook her head. There wasn’t a simple thought in her mind. Everything felt like it was spinning, from the ceiling to the very floor beneath her. Cordelia pressed her palm to the side of her face, feeling the unavoidable heat beneath her skin, as if she had been suddenly plagued with an incurable fever.

The comfort and steadiness Cordelia found alongside Michael began to fade away. She had never experienced a betrayal before, and yet, it hit her almost instantaneously. And as the anger grew, stemming from a place she couldn’t recognize, Cordelia began to fight with herself from the inside out. It had been a marriage of convenience all along. She herself married him through convenience sake, to save her family name and be rid of the scandal that desperately clung onto her.

How was this any different?

Cordelia touched her lips, and they felt almost numb, tingling with the kiss Michael had so easily left upon her.

“Your efforts seem to have been a success,” Michael suddenly said.

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