Page 18 of Wedded to the Forbidden Duke
Certainly, he realized. Even if she didn’t show it. While the rest of thetonmay have drawn their own conclusions, nothing had happened between them in the garden, and he was certain that Lady Ce—the Duchess had never had any dalliances with any other gentleman. Meaning she was a virgin. A virgin expecting to experience a wedding night with a husband she did not know very well and, based on all appearances and behaviors, loathed.
Guilt twisted his stomach.
“You need not worry,” he said before he could stop himself.
She froze, then looked at him, surprised, as though she thought she might have imagined him speaking. “I beg your pardon, Your Grace?”
It was so easy to lose his head at the sight of her. Once again, her eyes held him where he sat, clear as the reflection of trees in a still pond.
He cleared his throat and averted his gaze so as to avoid distraction. “I said you need not worry,” he repeated, “of me bothering you tonight. I do not know how much you know of what goes on between man and woman on their wedding night.”
“I—” Twin pink spots appeared on her cheeks as she sputtered. “I—I have been told enough.”
“Good. Well, rest assured, you may pass your evening in peace.”
“Would you like me to thank you for that?” she scoffed.
“I am not seeking your thanks,” he replied sharply. “I am only seeking to assure you that this is a marriage of convenience. Nothing more.”
Her cheeks flamed redder. “I am well aware of that fact, thank you.”
“Good.”
She huffed out a breath, turning back to face the window. “Though I hardly thinkconvenientto be the right term to describe this particular union.”
He laughed. “Is there something you would like to discuss with me, Lady Cec—wife?”
Her eyes flickered back to his, though whether it was because of surprise at the address or the rage that filled those jade irises, it was difficult to tell.
“Perhaps I would,” she said. “Not discuss, but inform. Since you wish very much for me to know that this is nothing but a marriage of convenience, I think it only fair that you be well assured that, given any other circumstances, you are the last man on Earth I would marry.”
“How kind to say to your new husband.”
“You nearly ruined my reputation mere days ago. I would say you are ill-equipped to lecture me on kindness,husband.”
He tried to ignore the heat that lit in his stomach hearing that word pass through those petal-soft lips. “I assure you, it was through no intention of mine. I was not the one who all but threw myself into the other’s arms.”
“Threw myself—I fell! You know very well I fell.”
“Alone in a garden, unchaperoned.”
“I am allowed to take the night air if I see so fit. One might accuse you of throwing yourself at me, being as you are the one who followed me as I was just trying to find some peace and solace from the crowd for a moment.” She was now facing him entirely. He found himself leaning forward. “And being as you are the one who caught me when I fell.”
“Would you rather I have let you cut your face on the ground?” he snapped, heat rising in his chest and cheeks now, as well. Looking at her, she appeared to be as flushed as he felt. “Would that have been preferable?”
“Certainly moreconvenientthan this,” she cut back at him. “It is ridiculous. For such a destructive rumor to form, over something so minor.”
“Ridiculous indeed,” he said. “All we were doing was talking. And then you fell.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “And you caught me. And somehow that was construed as…” She scoffed again. “Ridiculous,” she repeated again. “As if I would ever let you kiss me.”
It was the wordkissthat did it. The suggestion of a kiss, from her tongue. For the first time since they had turned to face each other, he allowed his eyes to flicker down to her lower lip. That perfect pink, perfectly formed and plump and soft to the appearance. He wondered, not for the first time, what it wouldbe like to lean forward and capture those lips in his. What she would taste like. The sounds she would make.
They were closer than he had realized. Based on the way her eyes flickered down and then up, it appeared she had reached the same conclusion. Against his better instincts, Ian allowed himself a moment of play, dropping his voice down. “You couldn’t handle me kissing you, wife.”
Cecilia scoffed. The fire in her eyes burned brighter. “Believe me, husband,” she said, dropping her voice to match his, so perfectly that he would have almost laughed in delight if she weren’t looking at him with such disdain. “It would be a walk in the park for me.”
His brow lifted. “Once again,” he said, voice rasping, “You speak with such confidence on matters with which you are entirely unfamiliar.”
