“He did not coerce me,” Callie denied. “At least, not in the way you think.”
“Perhaps we should sit down,” said her husband coolly. “Ring for tea.”
“Not unless you want it pitched in your face,” Benny threatened.
“Only if you would care for a broken nose in return,” Sin bit out.
Callie lost her patience. “Stop it, both of you! Benny, I am the author ofConfessions of a Sinful Earl. Sin discovered I was behind the serials, and that I was responsible for the complete ruin of his reputation and his betrothed crying off.”
“Callie.” Her brother shook his head. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was wrong.” She made the admission with utmost conviction now. “I was blinded by the pain of losing our brother and I was consumed with grief. I…I was not thinking clearly. So you see? I married Lord Sinclair to keep my secret safe, and to atone for the wrongs I visited upon him.”
Some of the fight seemed to seep from her brother. “To keep your secret safe? Did you threaten her, Sinclair?”
Sin held her brother’s gaze. “I did. Desperate times, desperate measures, etcetera.”
“By God, I am going to trounce you, you despicable bounder!” Benny hollered, surging forward once more.
Sin was certainly not aiding their cause. She could not help but to wonder why. While she knew he was correct in being honest with her brother and sister-in-law, there were far more tactful ways of going about it. Part of her wondered if hewantedBenny to attack him.
“Benny, it is not what you think,” she attempted to reassure him. “I chose to marry Lord Sinclair.”
“He just said he threatened you so that you would marry him.” Her brother was incredulous.
Well, that much was true. But how could she explain to her brother the incipient happiness she had found with her husband without revealing too much and embarrassing herself?
“I did,” Sin said amiably.
She frowned at her husband. “You are making this worse.”
He flashed her a rakish half grin. “Ah, but how can this little tragedy of ours be made to seem better than what it is? We are being honest with your brother and sister-in-law. We were both forced into marrying each other, if you must know.” He turned to Benny. “Your sister left me without options. I left her without any in turn.”
“You are a callous son of a bitch,” Benny accused.
“Are you happy, Callie?” Isabella asked then, her worried tone stealing Callie’s attention. “That is what matters the most. Your brother and I want to be assured you are content and being treated well.”
“I am,” she confessed.
For shewashappy with Sin. Too happy, almost. What had just passed between them—the revelations of his distrust and his disastrous marriage to his first wife—lent a troubling undercurrent to that knowledge. She wondered if he would ever trust her, especially after the manner in which their union had first begun.
What cruel irony.
Her brother shook his head again. “I do not believe this, any of it. You could have waited until I returned from my honeymoon. Instead, you rushed into a marriage in secret without waiting for my blessing. You have been reckless in the past, Callie, but this, marrying a man you scarcely know—being blackmailed into marrying him—and now claiming you are happy…”
“Sin was doing his best to protect his mother,” Callie said softly. “She is ill and in need of a caretaker. He is a good man, Benny. I was wrong about him, and I know that now.”
“I would not say I am good, sweet,” Sin said, giving her a look packed with so much intensity, it stole her breath.
But hewasgood. He was so much more than the sum of his reputation. So much more than she ever could have comprehended. And he was her husband, and she wasn’t just falling in love with him.
Shewasin love with him.
Heaven help her.
The realization left her feeling giddy and lightheaded all at once, as if she would faint. How could she have fallen in love with him so quickly? So effortlessly?
And more importantly, what would she do about it now? Sin was hardly ready to accept her love or to trust her. The scars of his past had not yet healed, and she did not know if they ever would. What if he would never love her in return? What if their marriage was doomed to be one of convenience, and after he had his heir and spare, he would carry on with his life of excess and wickedness, without her in it?
