Imperious?
“...Although,” she frowned, “why possession of a vulnerable female preoccupies men already influential enough to have every whim indulged, falls to you to answer.Icannot.”
Astonishment wholly silenced any response.
In a few moments, he would relive her words, hearing the pain she had disguised, but, at present, certain phrases grabbed his attention, rousing in him a very different emotion than anything akin to understanding.
Seduce and then abandon.Every whim indulged.She’d painted the image of a leering lordship, a libertine with neither dignity, nor respect for his fellow beings. He’d been prepared to beg her to walk through life by his side when this—this—is how she saw him?
A swift stab of indignation pierced his chest, sending needles of heat outwards in every direction. His gaze sharpened. His lips turned down.
“As for you,duke”—the word held only disgust—“I grant that I might have given you the wrong impression when suffering from a severe shock. And” —she blushed—“when responding without thought earlier today, but that does not absolve you of demanding—Well!” She stopped abruptly, her gaze fixing on his curled fist. “I see I’ve hit the mark.”
He snorted. “Well, you’ve certainly achieved a hit.”
“I daresay you’ll recover. I trust we understand one another?”
“A moment, please,” he managed.
If she’d known him better, perhaps she would have shrunk from his deceptively quiet, extraordinarily polite tone. As it was, she appeared relieved. Or, at least spent. She sunk down onto the settee, careful to keep an arm’s length between them.
“Are you suggesting...” He forced open his hands and spread his fingers out on his thighs. “...that your successful management of Ash’s children has bewitched me?”
“Bewitched? Gracious, no. I’m not so arrogant as to believeI’many threat toyou...”
She’d absolutely no idea how tormented he’d been, did she?
No idea how she’d besieged him with a single look, and then advanced on him, until every aspect of her singular character had left him utterly conquered.
“...I’m merely pointing out that youthinkyou want me because I’m already subservient to you.”
“Oh!” He replied as if she were making sense. “So, your subservience and your feminine artscombinedhave rendered me so demented, not only am I helplessly driven by lust, but I also no longerknow my own mind.”
“Hurtheven,” she placated, “you must see I am at your mercy in every way.”
“Ashbey is your employer,” he snapped. “Not myself.”
“That doesn’t exactly bring parity to our positions. And I don’t see why you should be so clearly infuriated with me when you know exactly what you invited me here todiscuss. I’m well acquainted with your kind.”
His kind.
If she’d looked closely, she would have noticed a certain tension in the tendons of his neck and been chastened. As it was, she’d turned her face toward the fire, her back righteously rigid.
“You’ve complimented me on my own high competence in managing Ash’s children,” he observed. “May I therefore assume you are also struggling against the overpowering allure ofmycharms?”
“Now you’re being absurd!”
“Absurd,of course, to think you might hold me inanyesteem.”
“Oh, do stop using that wretched tone. I cannot possibly have causedyouoffense!”
“As I am entirely devoid of sensibility?”
She made a dismissive sound. “You don’t seeme, at all,duke. I am simply an object. Something that must be possessed to satisfy your whim. Your desire for me is little different, for instance, than Lord Chandon’s desire to cage and transport that unfortunate lion.”
He stood up with so much violence, her candle’s flame danced. But the furious set down he intended to deliver died as he met her terrified expression.
Terrified. Ofhim.
