Her words pricked his interest. He leaned against the doorjamb, once again his cocky self. “You underestimate yourself, Miss Taylor. There are many things I find attractive about you.”
That comment, and the way he let his gaze skim lightly over her breasts, let her knowexactly what he meant. She crossed her arms against her chest, an action that made him laugh softly as if she greatly amused him.
Well, this was not a game. Her future was at stake. “I understand you have an obligation to your title to provide an heir. Will Dora be enough for you? Can you accept not having a male child?”
He studied her a moment. She wished she could read his thoughts, and then he said, “She must be.”
Clarissa frowned. It could be that easy?
“Don’t look so suspicious,” he told her. “You said yourself I have little leeway in all this.”
He was right. She brought herself back to the business at hand—security. “I will also expect you to deposit a handsome sum of money in an account under my name.”
“I promised I would take care of you.”
“I understand. However, if something happens to you, your heirs might decide not to part with your money. I want to know that Dora and I have the resources to live comfortably. After all, you are marrying me to keep Dora safe.”
“Quite right. When we are in London, I shall see an amount is set up in your name.”
“Thank you.”
“I will be quite generous,” he promised.
“I have no doubt you will be. I’ve heard stories about what you have given your mistresses. I shall expect just as much. Is it true you purchased a coach and pair for each one when you parted?”
He straightened. “Does Maidenshop have anything else to do with its time except talk about me?”
“Absolutely nothing,” she assured him. She enjoyed seeing him cranky. It humanized him.
He frowned as if he saw nothing amusing in the idea and then barked, “Anything else?”
“No, that is the whole of it,” she said. “No intimacy because I will not be forced to offer what is not real and true security for Dora and myself.”
Lord Marsden nodded as if confirming their agreement, and then he said, “Since we are bargaining, I have a few terms of my own.”
Of course, he would. The man was predictably nettlesome. “And what terms would those be?”
“Well, the first is that although we aren’t planning to consummate our marriage—I did understand that correctly, didn’t I?”
She nodded, wary.
“Then I wish your assurance that, for Dora’s sake, we never give the impression that wearen’tintimate. People would find it strange if we weren’t behaving as married couples do.”
“Strange? That I can resist you?” She scoffed at the idea. She was made of sterner stuff. She’d learned her lessons the hard way.
“No, that I would resist you, Clarissa.”
His statement startled her. There it was again, the suggestion that he foundherattractive?
Clarissa didn’t know if she quite trusted anything he said, even as she felt her heart kick up a beat. And the way he looked at her—hisexpression intent and without any hint of humor in his eyes. Could he possibly be sincere?
She must not let her guard down. After all, she’d once believed Mr. Thurlowe had been happy to marry her. She’d nursed that fantasy for close to two years and had thought herself quite special until the brutal truth was borne home.
“Of course, we will give the impression that we are married,” she replied stiffly.
“Happilymarried,” he corrected. “Dora deserves happily married parents.”
“I will be her stepmother,” Clarissa had to point out. “No one will believe she is mine with her dark hair.”
