Page 80 of Tempting the Scoundrel
“Oh, Thorne already offered that honor to me,” Richard said brightly. “I didn’t take him up on it at the time, but I’ve been mulling it over. I do enjoy giving a good pummeling. Go ahead, Alexandra, tell Kent how you came to be married. I can’t wait for him to hear it.”
For god’s sake. She loved her brothers, but sometimes she wanted to throw them out of a window. Even James, who was usually the stoic one, seemed to have his brain dribble out his ears when it came to performative male posturing.
“I’m not saying another word until I have a promise you won’t hit Nick. Yes?” James crossed his arms and muttered something that sounded like the wordsI promise, but it might also have beenwhat piss, but she’d take it. “Just know that I didn’t tell either of you because I wished to forget the whole thing ever happened. It was . . . difficult, after what our father did.” She gave Nick some apologetic look, and he stroked her back in response. It encouraged her to keep going. “During my first season, the old earl discovered I was illegitimate. In a scheme to get revenge on our mother, he sent me to Roseburn and hired a criminal—no offense, darling—to play the role of a lord and earn my confidence. His intention was to humiliate me in the worst way: by getting me to elope with the man he hired, who would then gain control of my trust. I would find myself married to someone who lied to me for money. And . . . well, here we are. There. Now you know.”
Silence followed. Alexandra realized too late that she had done nothing to blunt the story. Nothing to assure James that while Nick couldn’t undo the hurt he had caused, he had proven worthy of a second chance. “It was four years ago,” she hastened to assure her brother, seeing his face go red. “Father is dead. Things are different now—”
“Move,” her brother told Alexandra, his expression a mask of cold, calculating fury.
Behind her, she heard her husband whisper a very, very low, “Fuck.”
“No,” Alexandra said. “You promised.”
James’s hands curled into fists. “You made me promise not to hit him,” he growled, “so I am gleefully going tomurderhim.”
Oh, lord.As her brother stepped forward, Alexandra shoved herself in front of Nick. “James.”
But her brother wasn’t listening. He tried circling around her. “Get out of the way, Alexandra.”
Even Richard stood and tried reasoning with their sibling. “Kent, this isn’t—”
“Shut up, Richard. If you had dealt with this while I was gone, I wouldn’t be here.” He made some quick move, but Alexandra darted in front of him again. “Choose your second,” he snarled.
“Shit,” Richard muttered.
“Still trying my best to be nice,” Nick told her in a low voice, “but he’s making it difficult.”
“He’s being anidiot,” she hissed back. To James: “You arenotchallenging my husband to a duel! First of all, no one duels anymore. Second of all, no one duels anymore because it’sstupid.”
James’s lips flattened. “He has fifteen fucking seconds to change my mind, or I will come back with a pistol and shoot him.”
“He doesn’t need to change your mind. You’re not—”
“I love her.”
Thatgot everyone’s attention. Alexandra felt something in her heart shift, the thorns and vines that had protected her for so long pulling back. He had told her those words before, but she had always looked back on them as one more lie. Even when he insisted they were truth, the vines and thorns around her heart would not recede. They had formed her last defense; she could not believe him without weakening the aegis she had built.
But this . . . was different. She had spent time learning the truth of him. She knew his scars. She knew why he had taken her father’s offer. And last night he had been willing to give her up if she wished it. He had been willing to let her take that steamer alone to wherever she wished—because he’d believed she deserved the life she wanted.
His words were truth.
James went still, his eyes intent. “Do you?”
She felt Nick’s hand on her again, pressed between her shoulder blades. “Common tale, a confidence artist falling in love with his mark,” he said wryly. “Yeah, I love her. Always will.”
Her brother’s expression softened. He and Richard seemed to communicate silently, in the way of overprotective siblings, before James gave a small nod. “Fine. But I need one more answer.” James regarded Alexandra with some inscrutable expression. “Doyouwant to be married?”
The hand at her back fell away. Did Nick think she had changed her mind? If anything, this morning had only clarified her intent. “Yes. I do.”
James gave a curt nod. “Good. I’ll menace him time, then.” He held out his hand to Nick, and her husband took it. “Welcome to the family, if you break her heart, I’ll break your face, etcetera, etcetera. Now I really must go home to my wife.” He embraced Alexandra. “Do come visit us before she threatens to come back to town, yes?”
They all said their goodbyes, and James and Richard left the Brimstone.
The silence in the sitting room seemed to stretch. Alexandra suddenly felt shy—an emotion she had not felt since that summer in Stratfield Saye.
Nick had said he loved her.
He had toldher brothershe loved her.
