Page 20 of An Accidental Bride for the Duke
She was starting to sweat. Her will was starting to break. Her eyes flicked from his hand to his lips and she remembered how they felt last night, how they tasted, and how her body had exploded when he’d taken her. She had no control. No power. Nothing. And she had loved it…
“No.” She snatched her hand away. “You promised me a month to prepare myself, and you will give me that month.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I am.” She fixed a glare on him, needing him to see that and not how flushed red her skin had turned.
For the first time, Philip looked angry. That Iris would deny him. That she was the one who had managed to take back some of the control, and he couldn’t have been more put out.
“Fine,” he said, fixing her with a glare. “If that is how it must be…” He pushed his chair back and stood, and she breathed a sigh of relief, certain he was going to leave. “I’ll leave you to your breakfast. I would hate to make you uncomfortable.”
Her heart was still racing but she looked ahead, not trusting herself to meet his eyes because if she did, he might see the truth of it in them. That her saying no just now was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do.
He stepped around her and was about to leave, only to pause. Her eyes widened, her breathing still heavy as she looked ahead. But she felt him come in behind her and her skin prickled when he leaned in close so that his lips grazed her ear.
“This won’t be forgotten…” He breathed and she shuddered to feel it creep up her neck. “And just know that the next time, I’ll be sure to punish you for it.”
She said nothing. Body rigid. Stare fixed ahead. It was all she could do to not react to his words. But oh, how she wanted to.
The duke pulled away and she listened to his footsteps storming from the breakfast room. And only once she was alone did she breathe a sigh of relief.
That was too close. Much, much too close.
She had done it. She had turned him down, proving that she was capable of such a thing. But could she do it twice? Was she so strong as that? Iris wasn’t so sure.
That did not go nearly as well as I had hoped…
Philip stumbled from the breakfast room, determined to put as much distance between himself and Iris as was humanly possible. He needed to get away from her so he could think. And most importantly, so he could calm himself down and reassess everything he thought he knew about his so-called ‘self-control.’
The idea had been a noble one, and it shouldn’t have been nearly so difficult. To sit and eat with Iris and do nothing more than engage in pleasant conversation. Doing so would have proven without doubt that Philip was in complete control here and that he knew what he wanted. Or so he had told himself.
It started when she’d snapped at him. An innocent question asked and she roared like a lioness in his face, setting his hair on end while inducing extreme arousal in his very being.
In that moment, Philip had wanted nothing more than to put her in her place once and for all. To do as he nearly did the previous night and assert himself over her, if for no other reason than to remind her of her place. But he had contained that impulse, desperate to keep things civil.
To prove to myself that I can be.
It became clear to Philip quite quickly that something had changed in Iris overnight. She seemed determined to distance herself from him once and for all, not giving him a chance to create some sense of civility between them. And as Philip had already told her he was of the same mind, he was trapped, unable and unwilling to change course.
By then he was intrigued. Aroused. His self-control slipping as his need to prove that Iris wasn’t nearly so controlled bubbled to the fore. That was why he’d suggested that they speed up the timeline and be done with it today. If for no other reason than to make her want it, so that he could turn her down.
But she denied me! Dammit, she laughed in my face as she did.
Philip stumbled into his office and slammed the door closed. It was early but he strode to his drinking cabinet, uncorked a bottle of whiskey, and took a long swig. The mere act of being turned down like that was like fire in his blood and all he wanted to do was unleash it like never before.
Where last night, Philip had been determined to prove to himself that he could control his urges around his wife, now he wasn’tsure if he even wanted to. That she could turn him down, that she thought she was that strong, he needed to prove otherwise. Consequences be damned.
I don’t know what to do. To be glad that she is capable of turning me away, forcing me to control myself. Or to prove otherwise, reminding her that she isn’t nearly so strong as she thinks.
It was confusing. It was unheard of. It had Philip questioning himself in ways he didn’t know were possible. All his life, Philip had spurned the idea of marriage, not trusting it, not trusting that he was deserving of such a thing. Happiness? Love? These were alien concepts to him. And now, in one fell swoop, the walls he had spent a life time erecting were starting to crack.
The smart thing to do would be to do as he promised and avoid his wife from this point onwards. But the not so smart thing…
Another swig of whiskey and Philip was no closer to deciding what he was going to do. What he wanted to do. And most importantly, where his wife was concerned—with what she did to him—he wasn’t so sure that he had any choice in the matter.
Chapter Eight
Despite how her breakfast had ended, Iris was feeling rather proud of herself. The way she had stood up to the duke. The way she had asserted herself and controlled those pesky desires. It was, in her opinion, a step forward, and one she needed to be proud of.
