Page 107 of Unseen

“Honour is all I have left!” Azriel jabbed his fingers against his bare chest. “What do you think they all see when they look at me? Hmm? What do you think my father said about me? What he made them all believe about me? What do you think they would all say if Azriel Caine, the gambler, the philanderer, the man who married his own stepmother, what do you think they would say about me if I refused to stand for my honour in the face of such accusations?”

“Do you think this will prove anything to them?” I scoffed, shaking my head. “Do you think that if you hold up a pistol under the rising sun that they will suddenly believe that you are an honourable, worthy man?”

“It is not that simple,” he muttered, and poured himself another brandy.

“De la Croix, he said something to you. Something I could not hear.” I took a few steps closer to Azriel, who refused to look at me. “What did he say to you? What hold does he have over you that made you agree to this duel?”

“Nothing.” He took another sip. “Nothing at all.”

“I don’t believe you.”

He threw the glass across the room, sending it shattering against the fireplace. “Then do not believe me, Evie, but I do not know what else you wish for me to say!”

“The truth, damn you!”

“Then here it is!” Azriel snatched me close, pressing his body against me. “De la Croix stank of whiskey, and he’s enraged, and consumed by emotion. He is a bad shot at the best of times, but under those circumstances, he will be pathetic. He dies at dawn. I make his wife a widow in a few short hours, and she shall be wealthy and shall raise that bastard in all happiness, with no doubt a new man to take her on in time. So stop worrying your little head about it all.”

I shoved my hands against his chest. “Don’t you dare belittle me like this. Don’t you dare make light of all of this, of what it could mean for me. Not now, not when you have made me fall-” My eyes snapped up to his, and I writhed out of his grasp.

“What were you going to say, Evie?”

I pushed the hair from my face. “Nothing at all.”

“You’re lying.” He grabbed my arm, forcing me to turn back to him. “What were you going to say?”

I glared at him. “Do not make me say it now. I shall say it if you come back to me tomorrow.”

Azriel lifted an eyebrow. “An enticement for my survival.”

“I should damned well hope so.” I swallowed hard, holding his gaze. “But if you do not, then what becomes ofme? I have not forgotten what should occur in the case of your death, I hope you haven’t either.”

Azriel’s eyes dropped from mine, and he reached into the pocket of his trousers. “The letter?” He raised up an envelope, and my heart leapt into my throat as I saw my handwriting on it. “This letter?”

“You have had it this whole time?”

He shook his head. “No. I only recently retrieved it.”

“You fool, it could have fallen from your pocket and anyone could have seen it,” I snapped, cursing my voice for wavering.

Azriel smiled weakly, crossing the room to the fire, and tossing the envelope into the flames. “Well, now no one shall see it ever again, shall they?”

I watched as my death warrant turned to ash, smouldering away slowly. “No, I suppose they shall not.”

Azriel braced a hand against the mantlepiece, brow furrowed as he stared at the flames. “You are free now, Evie. You may do precisely as you like. In the event of my death, everything goes to you.” He gazed over his shoulder at me. “Perhaps all your dreams may yet come true.”

I flew at him, scratching and clawing at his face. “Stop that! Don’t you dare… Don’t you dare…”

He took my face in his hands and kissed me, and instantly my arms were around his neck. A sob broke from me, mingling between our heated lips, and suddenly the worst thing in the world was the thought that I would lose him.

I loved him. I knew it. I loved him so much, my soul felt it would shatter and crumble without him.

“I should have killed him,” Azriel murmured against my lips, and I knew he wasn’t talking about de la Croix. “I should have killed him, the moment he brought you home.” He tore open the buttons of my nightgown, sending it falling to the floor.

“Yes,” I breathed, fumbling with his trousers, desperate to feel his skin against mine. “I wish I’d woken one night, when you were in my room.” My head fell back as his mouth explored my neck. “I wish you’d taken me then.”

“I should have.” Azriel shuffled off his clothes, and I wrapped my naked body around his. “I should have fucked you, every single night, whether you wanted me or not.”

I moaned at his words, and he lifted me up, carrying me to the wall. I gasped as my skin connected with the cold wood, a gasp that was quickly snatched away from me as Azriel’s length sank into me.

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