Austin chuckled, and Deena’s brows snapped together. “What’s so funny?”
“Dee, not a single bone in my body sees you as a sister.” His voice dropped. “And you know it.”
Color rushed into her cheeks, and he admired her for a second before he moved to the far side of the library and poured himself a drink.
“That’s not?—”
“Isn’t it?” He took a sip and felt the burn of the brandy. He needed to restrain himself in her presence. “I want to protect you, yes. But you felt exactly how un-brotherly my feelings. You tasted it. You moaned my name while my fingers were inside you. Don’t pretend you didn’t.”
Deena’s breath hitched. “I’m not pretending?—”
“You want equal?” He lifted his glass to her. “Then stop hiding behind ‘little sister’ and ‘protecting me’ and admit what you really want.”
She trembled a little, and he watched the frame of her body beneath the gown. “I want us to go back to how we started. When we were allies or friends. Not… this tangle of guilt and secrets and—” She gestured helplessly between them. “—endless fights!”
Austin let out a bark of laughter. “Those last days at Greystone weren’t just fights, Deena.”
“I know what they were,” she snapped back. “That’s why we should forget them.”
“Forget them?” He moved closer to her, and she backed up until the back of her legs hit against his oak table. He braced one arm next to her and placed his brandy on the other side. He did not touch her, but he stayed close enough that she would feel the heat of him. “You want me to forget the way you arched intomy hand? The way you whispered my name like a prayer. The way you came apart for me so sweetly, I nearly lost my mind. You want me to forget all of that now? When you’re living in my manor as my wife?”
Her breathing had gone shallow. “Austin, stop.”
He let out a low, throaty laugh. “Why should I when you clearly don’t want me to?” His free hand lifted, and he traced the line of her throat with his fingertips. Deena let out a soft moan. “Are you afraid you’ll want more, Deena?”
She swallowed. “I’m afraid of what this will turn into. I want to go back to the way we were before… any of this began. Please.” She looked up at him helplessly, and his heart lurched.
“And how were we before?” he asked with a raised brow.
“We were friends,” she said simply.
Austin did not hate the idea of them being allies even in marriage, but he did not like it either. He backed away from her reluctantly. He had to remind himself that his main concern was to protect her from her blackmailer. He could be anyone, and he could be anywhere. Austin gritted his teeth and pushed aside every distracting thought.
“I’m not going to pretend I don’t want you, Dee. I’m not going to pretend I haven’t spent every night imagining you in my bed. Under me. On top of me. Against the wall. In every room of thishouse. But if friendship is what you desire, if that’s what you need. I’ll be your ally. Your…friend. And your husband in name only. If that’s what you truly want.”
Deena stared up at him, eyes glistening. “You’d do that?”
“For you?” He looked at her intensely. “Yes.”
Silence stretched between them.
Then Deena whispered, “I don’t know what I want.”
Austin exhaled, picked up his drink, and downed it. “We’ll figure out, Dee.”
She searched his face for a long moment. “Together?”
He grinned at her then. “Of course, you’re my wife now. We’ll do everything together.”
Deena rolled her eyes, smoothing her skirts with shaking hands. “I should… go to bed.”
“I’ll walk you up,” Austin said without hesitation.
They moved through the quiet house together, past the darkened drawing-room, up the wide staircase, and down the corridor lined with ancestral portraits that watched them pass in silence. At her door Deena hesitated.
“Austin?”
He stopped beside her and wondered briefly if she’d invite him in. “Yes?”
