Page 38 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity
Leo took a step back from her, surprised by the turn in the conversation. He was the Duke of Devishire. Annie and Kitty were his nieces, and they were supposed to obey him. Margaret could read it on his face; he was not a man who was accustomed to people disobeying him.
She had learned that firsthand.
“Have you ever talked to them without them talking to you first? Have you ever told them anything other than your rules?”
“They must learn to obey,” Leo snapped. He raised a hand and pointed to the girl’s room, his voice rising. “They cannot run away and let everyone worry about their safety. Why do you not see that?”
“I’ll let you in on a secret,” Margaret said, stepping toward him and lowering her voice. “They want yourattention.The only time you ever look for them is when they are hiding.”
She looked back at him, smug about the fact that she was right.
While she had not grown up in a mansion like this, she knew what it was like to want someone to find her. Someone to see her for who she was and towantto spend time with her.
Leo looked at her with annoyance, his brow furrowed. He did not want to admit that she could be right; it was written all over his face.
“Or maybe they are hiding from me because they are scared,” he finally said.
“You are not as fearsome as you think,” she snapped.
Margaret turned on her heel and headed for her chambers. She had done everything Leo wanted tonight: she went to the opera, she followed his lead in the carriage, and she found his nieces.
It was enough for one night.
“Maybe they are hiding, just as you hid from whatever made you ill tonight,” Leo called after her.
His words were just enough to penetrate the façade she had carefully constructed. She paused.
“It is not the same,” she murmured, before turning around.
“Is it not?” He shook his head and took a step closer to her. “I am a beast that went to war and returned a hero. Do you know what heroes are made of, Margaret?”
She held her breath as he closed the distance between them. He was just an exhalation away from her, his heat seeping through her gown. Margaret swallowed hard and forced herself to look him in the eye.
There was no chance she would let him know that he could scare her, that he could intimidate her like this. She was nothing if not stubborn.
“What?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“Kills. Lots and lots of kills. Even my servants talk like that about me. Did any of you think that maybe, just maybe, I want my nieces to be comfortable? That this is why I do not force my presence on them?”
He was out of breath by the time he finished. He put a hand on the wall beside her, boxing her in so that she could not leave.It forced her to continue looking at him, to reckon with what he said. But she refused to be scared of him as he seemed so desperate for her to be.
“Even if you are a bit… intimidating, you are all they have left.”
“Intimidating?” Leo barked out a laugh. The word was harsh in his throat, as if it were hard for him to force out. “You have never been intimidated by me.”
“Yes, well, I have seenrealmonsters.”
Margaret softened a bit as she thought about Leo and the girls. She was here just for a short while. Was it enough for her to make a difference in the girls’ lives? They had to spend their childhood here while she was just passing through.
“You must promise me that when I go, you will spend more time with them,” she said softly.
Leo tilted her chin up with one finger, forcing her to look at him. His eyes were dark, and she could feel how intensely he looked at her deep in her belly. It was the same look he had given her in the carriage earlier.
“We do not speak of that,” he said, leaning in. His fingers trailed from beneath her chin up to her cheekbones, then down to her jaw.
“About what?”
“Leaving,” he said. “As long as you are here, you aremine. And that is all you should think about.”
