Page 78 of Bound to the Heartless Duke
He had told himself that she was a business arrangement. That their upcoming wedding, which was just a few days away now, was a matter of closure, restitution, and benefit.
But when she stood like a lovely rose, when he remembered how she had defended him in front of Cecilia, how she still looked at her brother with sorrow and not hatred, like she already knew the pain of betrayal far too well, it did something to him.
And that thing? He couldn’t name it.
He had tried to.
Tried to convince himself it was an obligation. Gratitude, perhaps. Because the longer he sat with his thoughts, the longer he sat withherthoughts, it got more twisted.
Which was why now that he was seated across from Theo, his glass of brandy untouched, the same thoughts of Lily were the only thing on his mind.
“I want to do something for her,” he said quietly, as if saying it out loud might dilute it somehow.
Theo didn’t look up from the newspaper he had been reading. “You mean besides marrying her?”
Magnus’s jaw flexed. “Something kind. Something… meaningful.”
“Hmm.” Theo folded the paper and set it aside with a flick of his wrist. “Because that’s very much in character for you.”
Magnus gave him a dry look. “I’m capable of kindness.”
“Of course you are,” Theo said agreeably. “Just not without reason.”
Magnus leaned forward, wanting to make sure his words would sink in. “She defended me in front of my sister.She didn’t have to,” Magnus said, as though trying to make sense of it.
“No,” Theo agreed. “She could’ve left you to be shredded by her brother’s petty pride and Cecilia’s disappointment. But she didn’t.”
“Exactly,” Magnus said, seizing that like a lifeline. “So I thought perhaps?—”
“You could repay her?” Theo interrupted, his voice light with amusement, but his eyes sharp. “Some grand gesture of gratitude to ease your conscience before the wedding?”
Magnus hesitated, his grip tightening on the crystal glass.
Theo tilted his head. “Or is that simply what you’re telling yourself?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means,” Theo said, sitting forward with a wry smile, “that you’re going about this in your usual backward fashion. Convincing yourself it’s debt when it’s clearly desire. Calling it duty when it’s clearly affection. You want to do something kind for her, Magnus, because you want to. Because she matters to you.”
“She doesn’t.” Magnus shook his head.
“She does,” Theo said flatly. “And it terrifies you.”
Magnus looked away immediately. The denial felt heavy on his tongue. He stared at the fireplace, watched the faintest glow of ash in the grate while listening to the tick of the clock on the wall.
“She’s not like them,” he said finally, the words sounding strange and fragile once spoken. “Not like the women I’ve met before. She’s… stubborn. Smart. Infuriating as hell. And she looks at me like she sees things I don’t want anyone to see.”
Theo huffed a chuckle. “And yet you can’t help but let her look.”
Magnus rubbed the back of his neck, restless. “If I give her too much… if I let her believe there’s more…”
“She’ll expect more,” Theo finished.
“Exactly.”
“But you’re the one who keeps offering more.”
Silence stretched between them once again, and for a moment, Magnus hated how Theo could read him so easily.
