He understood that.
“In my sister’s name, I vow to you that I shall not go back on my word,” he said.
What he’d said shocked him. He had never thought to invoke Anne’s name in promise before.
He cleared his throat. “A month with me and that is all you will be forced to endure if you do not want more. The cottage will be yours. And the funds for your sister will go into an account that will be accessible when she is ready to come out in Society.”
Marianne struggled from his embrace and backed away. Her dark green eyes speared him, holding steady, almost as if she could read him. He found himself wanting to turn away from that focused stare. To push away from it.
“This is…it is a very unexpected offer. I never would have thought such a thing would happen when I decided to come here tonight. I didn’t even think you were here when I—”
“Marianne,” he interrupted softly.
She blinked as if she hadn’t realized she’d been speaking in a stream of consciousness. “Why would you be willing to give so much to get so little?”
“I don’t know.” He hesitated because he had not meant to be so…honestin his response. Something in this woman brought that out in him, as much as she brought out the need he had suppressed for so long.
“You don’t know?” she repeated, her tone thick with incredulity. “I think you are the kind of man who always knowsexactlywhat you are doing.”
He frowned. Yes, he had always been precisely that. Until tonight, it seemed. He pressed his lips together. “Are you saying you don’t want the bargain, my lady? It is no harm to me either way.”
She blanched and said, “I-I didn’t say that.”
He shrugged. “All I know is that I want you. And since wanting anything is a rare enough occasion for me, I find I’m willing to pay a great deal for the pleasure of indulging myself. Will you take my offer or no?”
She licked her lips again and his cock throbbed as he waited for her to respond. Then, slowly, she nodded. “I would be a fool to refuse such a generous offer. Especially since there will be no generosity to come from any other party. Do you…will youhurtme?”
He stared at her, horror filling him. “No. I don’t want to hurt you.”
She let out her breath. “I suppose I have no other choice but to take that promise at its face. Y-Yes, Your Grace. I will do as you ask.”
There was a great rush of relief that flooded his throbbing body. With a groan, he stepped forward, slid his hands across her cheeks to cup her face and dropped his lips down on hers.
By the way she stiffened and gasped, he could tell she was shocked. He waited for her to pull back, to turn her face so she could no longer feel his scarred lips on her soft and pliable ones.
But to his surprise, she didn’t do that. Instead she slowly relaxed in his arms. Her hands reached up to grip his forearms, and when his tongue swept across her lips, she opened to him with a shiver of surrender and desire. He greedily took what she offered, driving his tongue against hers, memorizing the sweet flavor of her mouth that matched the scent of her skin.
Want throbbed through him, driving him to fantasies of pushing her back against the office door, lifting her skirts and taking her then and there. But he didn’t.Thatwasn’t the bargain. And if he was going to claim the prize of her innocence, he had to restrain himself from being the beast he was.
As difficult as that was, he forced himself to step away from her. She was trembling as she stared at him, her eyes glazed with shock and wanting, her hands shaking at her sides.
But she didn’t run. She didn’t turn away.
It had been a very long time since someone had stood their ground with him.
“I will fetch you tomorrow afternoon for the trip to Avondale,” he said. “That should give you enough time to make your excuses and arrangements, I would think.”
Her lips parted. “Tomorrow?”
He arched a brow. “Your month started the moment I kissed you, Lady Marianne. Are you going back on our arrangement already?”
She pressed her lips together, thinning them. “Of course not. I will do my best to make all preparations before your arrival, Your Grace.”
“See that you do,” he said, his tone sharp to cover up any emotions this arrangement, this exchange, had inspired in him. “You may go.”
Her brow wrinkled as if she were confused, then she nodded. “Yes.”
She turned and slowly approached his desk, setting his sister’s brooch on the surface before she left his office. He did not follow, as much as he wanted to see if she would now leave through his front door like a guest or his window like a beautiful thief in the night.
