Page 134 of The Good Duke
He motioned for her to go first.
“Given how well you and Lady Isabelle have gotten on,” she murmured, “I believe it is time for you and I to…”
Simon stared intently at her.
“Part ways.” Persephone found the words she’d been looking for. “As you’ve pointed out, today went stunningly between you and the lady. You are compatible. She is clever…and a Diamond.” She added that last part as a quiet afterthought.
The unexpectedness of Persephone’s words sent him rocking back on his heels. He found his way through the shock.
Of course! She’d assume Simon felt some sense of obligation now that they’d made love.
Persephone took a deep breath, which pulled him from his thoughts. “We can both agree that…” She waved a hand between them and then gestured over to the desk. “Thisis unfair to Lady Isabelle, and it is wrong for me to be here—”
“Persephone,” he interrupted, “do youtrulybelieve I—”
“Won’t do right by me?” she cut him off, her voice remarkably equanimous. “No, I believe you would. You mustn’t worry. I don’t expect you to marry me, Simon.”
But did shewanthim to marry her was the question.
“That isn’t what I’d been about to say, Seph,” he murmured. Simon gave her a gentle look and tried again. “Persephone,” he began in even gentler tones, “I have always cared about you, and if you’ll allow me, I’ll marry you because—”
Persephone blanched. “Simon, I am not a virgin,” she said flatly. “I’ve told you before. I’ve had a lover.”
A lover.There’d been only one, then. One nameless man who Simon had a sudden urge to hunt, maim, and then kill. For a single lover hinted at love, whereas multiple lovers would have suggested a normal, healthy urge to assuage her body’s longings.
Small and hypocritical though Simon knew it to be, he couldn’t suppress the frisson of fury and jealousy that threatened to consume him.
“I’ll not have you make more out of what we did here, Simon,” she said with a note of finality. “At this time, I would also ask for references.”
“References?” he asked dumbly.
Persephone nodded. “So that I might find employment elsewhere.”
She told him not to make more out of what they’d done? What they’d done here had been earth-shattering. She’d ruined him thoroughly and completely for all women, and then following that massive blow to his pride and self-confidence, she’d dare ask Simon forreferencesso she might hightail it off to some other nob’s residence?
He sharpened his eyes on her.
“References,” he repeated mockingly.
This time, Persephone hesitated and then gave one of those little bobs of her head.
“And what exactly should this reference say, Miss Forsyth? What a skilled matchmaker you are?” Simon curled his lips up in a sneer. “How good a fuck you are? Or both?”
She winced.
And Simon didn’t care that he was crude and cruel. Goddamn her for making love with him one moment and planning to leave the next.
“Don’t do this, Simon,” she murmured.
“Do what?” he laughed. “Ask a very reasonable question?”
“You are hurt,” she murmured. “You know I possess none of the qualities you seek in your duchess. If you married me, eventually, you would come to regret it.”
A bitter-sounding laugh exploded from his lips. “It seems you have my mind made up for me.”
Persephone didn’t take the bait.
She headed for the door.
