“After all you did to avoid it?” he asked casually.
“I wanted to avoid it because I thought you were someone else,” she repeated. “Something else. And…and before last night,” she added, her blush now rising to the very roots of her hair.
“So we marry. This will help us how?”
“You know why—you just want me to say it,” she said, putting her hands on her hips and drawing his attention there.
He smiled. “I want to know your thoughts, yes.”
She ticked off one finger. “If you marry me, your brother will see you as settled. He’ll release your inheritance to you.”
“Potentially,” Duncan said slowly.
She shook her head. “He will, for you and I could make a powerful show out of looking the part for him.”
Duncan wrinkled his brow. Looking the part. Why did that turn of phrase bother him so much?
“And,” she said, ticking off another finger, “if I marry you, then I will no longer be under my father’s thumb.”
Duncan pressed his lips together. “I can see why you would not want that. He raised a hand to you. Does that happen often?”
She bent her head. “No. Not very often. It is more that I don’t trust him. Even if you walk away and he knows that I am no longer a virgin, he might still sell me for some other purpose. He’s driven. Yet if I’m yours, at least in name, he will hold no power over me.”
Duncan nodded slowly. “Those are very good reasons.”
She folded her arms. “Is your inheritance very vast?”
He stared at her. She didn’t seem the materialistic type. “I suppose one would consider it that, certainly.”
“Good, then you will not miss my dowry. When we marry, I want to keep it. I want full control of it—I do not want to have to ask you for access or for permission for what I do with it.”
He couldn’t help but smile. She was a shrewd negotiator, that was certain. “I see.”
She stepped toward him. “Do you? Because I do not want to move into another controlling situation. I want autonomy. And in return I will not ask for much. I will not moon after you. I will not require that you love me or pretend to love me. And if you wanted a—a lover…I would only ask you not humiliate me.”
He saw the color exit her cheeks at that. Saw her gaze flit over him. Then she blushed and looked at the floor.
“I see. So you would not mind if I pursued other distractions?”
She caught her breath and worried her hands in front of her. “No,” she squeaked.
He stepped closer, erasing the distance between them. Slowly he extended a hand and tucked his fingers beneath her chin. He lifted her face, making her look at him. He saw her hesitation at the idea. He liked it.
“And what if I wish to be distracted by you?” he whispered. “What if I want passion with you?”
She blinked up at him. “Why?” she asked.
Her uncertain tone broke his heart. He swallowed back the empathy that rose up in him. She had declared they would not love. He certainly had never wished for that in a marriage. He knew how it complicated things. How it could destroy. Love wasneverequal, not truly. That was why he chose mistresses the way he did. Women like Vanessa, who didn’t have expectations. Women who would walk away as easily as he did.
Hannah was different, though. Marriage was different. And yet…
“Because last night was powerful,” he admitted. “And I want more.”
Her lips parted and she stared him. Then she swallowed. “You are speaking of passion without love.”
He hesitated a moment, hearing her fear in her voice. Fear of the love, not the passion. Slowly, he nodded.
“And you’ll…teach me?” she asked. “Teach me how to be what you thought I was last night? Teach me pleasure? Because I have not stopped thinking of you and that.”
