Jackson ran a hand through his hair. Where to begin? “I meant to apologize first.”
“Instead, you went straight to seduction?”
“And failed spectacularly,” he said.
Her lips quirked, but she gave him no quarter. “I thought you would be better at that part.”
“Which part?”
“Flirting. Seduction. The first few times you tried were much better.”
Before had been a game, a delay tactic; he hadn’t truly intended to take her to bed. Hadn’t known all the ways he could have idiotically approached her without knowing all she’d been through.
“Your face!” A giggle burst between her lips. “It is perfect.”
He huffed, seeing her flushed and smiling taking the edge off. “I’m not. Perfect or good at flirting.”
“Poor Duke.” She laughed again, still angry—obviously—but seeming more than willing to take it out through merciless teasing. She’d always been easy to anger and slow to forgive. “How on earth did you sow all those ducal wild oats with such tactless lines?”
He raised a brow. “I didn’t.”
She shook her head. “Don’t expect me to fall for such blatant falsehoods. There must have been women. Barmaids? Lonely widows? I’m sure the list of willing women when it comes to a duke’s advances are legion.”
Jackson stared at her. After the time—theyears—they’d been together. Over a decade of him pining.
New heat poured through his veins, this time in anger. He took a breath. This wasn’t about exchanging old hurts or bearing the most pathetic scars of his past. He was here to make amends—real ones this time.
“Tell me...” Anna’s tone held no hope of amnesty. “Those connections you mentioned, the ones so convenient for the Home Office, do they also include getting close to your targets? No, I suppose that would be thewivesof your targets. Quite the asset, I’m sure.”
One second. Two. And Jackson’s temper snapped. “I am no good at seduction because there’s beenno oneI’ve ever wishedto flirt with except—”You. He gritted his teeth. “Do you think me so callous? So unloyal? I made a proposal of marriage to you.” She wanted the unvarnished truth? So be it. “I didn’t propose out of any sense of rushed necessity or whim, much as I know you’d accuse me of such. Your father’s death had been nothing but an excuse for me to finally express my truest feelings.”
Shut up, fool!He was saying too much. But that look of knowing—of indictment—that had been in her eyes, as if he would so easily cast his affections aside, it wasn’t to be borne.
“I have only ever wanted one woman.” He wouldn’t look away, wouldn’t let her deny the truth in his eyes by breaking contact. “There hasneverbeen another. Not for me.”
Silence followed his speech.A damn declaration of love.
Any other woman would have swooned, gasped, raced from the room, overwhelmed by his outburst.
“How dare you?!” Anna charged forward, her eyes blazing. She poked him in the chest. Hard. “You think you can spout such words of devotion and win this argument? Well, I won’t allow it. Youlied to me. Again and again.” Another poke. Another shot fired. “How long have you been working with the Home Office? Since before that day in the grove?”
“Of course not. I wouldn’t have been involved in anything so risky without telling you.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me now? Before the carriage accident? Before we all were nearly shot?”
He hadn’t an excuse for that except, “We were forced to marry. You had no choice. I couldn’t bring myself to explain my situation and put you in more danger. At least if you were unaware, you would act normally. Not draw any suspicion.”
Her mouth twisted. “Yes,youdecided that.” Her next blow was cruel. “Guess growing up with a father who controlled your every waking second must have rubbed off, eh, Duke? No need to tell your wife. She’s easier to control that way.”
Jackson’s back went rigid. “Back then, I was a marquess and miserable under my father’s thumb.”
“And now you are a duke and miserable under your father’s ghost. I do not see a reprieve in your circumstances,Your Grace, merely a weightier title.”
“A title we now share.”
“‘Share’!” Anna stepped forward, her jaw set, her eyes flashing. “You do not know the meaning of the word. I am a fixture, a divan, to be re-upholstered and stuffed at the whim of the discerning eyes of my betters.”
How could she think that?There wasn’t a woman alive more nobly minded, more willing to sacrifice everything for her family. “It’s never been the case, not for me.”
