“You know, most people would have responded to my help with a simple ‘thank you’. I do not expect much, but that would have been sufficient.”
His gaze sharpened. “I will not bethanking you,Miss Dufort, for flouting my rules.”
Aurelia tossed her napkin to her place and stood, angry now. “Is that so? And if I hadn’t cared for you? If you thought I was the kind of lady to let others suffer, then I’m afraid you are in for a disappointment.”
His eyes flashed, but he didn’t rise. Perhaps he was still ill. His skin still looked a little pale, though irritatingly enough, it did nothing to detract from his attractiveness. Given how he was behaving, she would have preferred if ithad.
“I had hoped you would know better than to test the mettle of a duke.”
“Is a duke of stronger will than the average man?” Unable to hold back, she approached him, her head held high, her heart hammering in her chest. She recalled the way Lord Redwood had touched her without her permission, thinking she was thesort of passive girl to allow such things. She had been dismissed because of it, but the duke hadmarriedher. He could not dismiss her now. And she would not allow him to tread all over her.
He tilted his chin up to look at her as she approached, challenge in his eyes. “I think you have underestimated me,” he muttered calmly.
“And I think you have underestimatedme.” Placing her hands on the table, she leaned forward. “What reason do you have for telling me not to enter your wing? Why am I to be kept away?”
“That is none of your concern.” To her irritation, he looked at her with a curled lip, not seeming in the least surprised or intimidated by her temper or the fact that she dared stand up to him. Internally, she was quivering, hardly able to believe she was defying adukeof all people!
But she had sacrificed her sleep to sit by his bed and ensure he was all right.Yes, she had broken some silly, incorporeal ‘rule’, but how could she have known he would treat her like this?
“Itismy concern,” she insisted. “I am your wife now—”
“In name only,” he interrupted.
“If that was the case, why marry me at all? We both know I hardly match you in station.”
Impatience flickered deep in his eyes. “That had nothing to do with my decision to offer you my hand in marriage.”
“It seems the next time I hear you crying out in pain, I should leave you to your fate then.” She bit the words out. “Admittedly, perhaps it was forward of me to assume you would thank me for sitting by your bedside for hours, sacrificing my own sleep and comfort, but I suppose I have always been prone to optimism. I will take dinner in my room. Good day, Your Grace.”
She whirled, intending to storm out of the room, but as she did, she caught her thigh against the table. Stumbling, caught off balance, she lost her poise and pitched forward.
A thick arm swooped around her waist instantly.
CHAPTER SIX
Sebastian’s breath left his body as the full weight of Aurelia’s derrière, and therest of her, came crashing down on his lap. On instinct, he had brought his arms up around her to protect her from falling.
Now, she was panting breathlessly by his ear, stunned. This hadn’t been a ploy or a seduction. It was far too abrupt. Tooclumsy. The crack of her thigh against the table’s edge had made him wince.
His temper still simmered from her earlier outburst, but it became harder to maintain with her soft, curvaceous body pressed flush against his thighs. After his last marriage, he had not sought the arms of another woman to soothe his pain, and this was a rather pleasant surprise.
She tasted fragrant, likelavender, perhaps, and her body was deliciously soft.
Up close, she was prettier still than he had seen from a distance in candlelight.
As though finally processing what had happened, she froze, turning rigid against him. Unfortunately, that act only served to press her more firmly against his groin.
If he wasn’t careful, he would find himself scandalizing her rather sooner than he intended.
“Hmm,” he hummed into her ear teasingly, holding her close. “Is this your latest argument technique,wife?”
She squirmed against him. “Let me go!”
He chuckled under his breath. Moments ago, she had attempted to appear gruellingly menacing, a rebellious vixen at that. Only for the façade to fall apart rather squarely on his lap. The squirming was doing nothing to help matters either, but he found himself enjoying it rather more than he had thought he ever would. Of course Arnold had found him a pretty wife.
The man never missed a chance to meddle.
Then again, if she were pretty, everyone would pity her all the more.Poor, delicate thing, sent to the duke like a lamb for the slaughter.
