“What do you expect me to say?” he burst out, suddenly as angry as she. Angry at Athena for not telling him the whole truth, and angry at himself for not asking. For letting himself believe it didn’t matter. “You are alady.”
“Nay, Iwasa lady!” She snapped back, her hands falling to her hips. “Now I am a doxy!”
The silence after her proud—bold—impossible—declaration fell hard, slamming around the inside of his head, echoing mockingly.
With a sigh, he reached up to rub at his temples, the irritation pounding behind them. “Your father is an earl.”
“Aye, and my brother’s a viscount. I have all the best education, all the best breeding, and I amstillruined. Why? Because I had the audacity to?—”
“Love your son,” he finished quietly.
The reminder caused her to gape at him.
“Why are you so angry, Athena?”
“Ye are aduke, YerGrease,” she spat out. “Ye didnae think to mention that to me?”
He vowed not to be distracted by her attempt at insulting him.
“Well,you’rea lady,” he barked in return. “And you never mentioned it to me. I thought you—” He hesitated. “I thought titles didn’t matter to you.”
She threw an arm out scornfully, gesturing at him. “They seem to matter an awful lot toye,DisGrace.”
He struggled to find his calm. “Are you trying to rile me?”
“Is it working?” she snapped. Then she threw up her hands and turned back to the statue. “Of course titles matter to ye— Ye are here searching for a wife, aye?”
So she remembered what he’d told her that afternoon, when they’d been basking in the aftermath of their ecstasy? “So what if I am?”
A small voice suddenly whispered in his mind:An earl’s daughter would be a suitable duchess.
But not one who’d been so thoroughly ruined. Who’d allowedhimto ruin her!
She scoffed as if she could hear his thoughts.
“Oh, ye will get nae arguments from me! A minor country baron might be able to enjoy life, but adukeneeds heirs, aye?” She turned just enough to glare over her shoulder at him, her hazel eyes spitting golden fire, and he couldn’t recall ever wanting to kiss her more.
“I told you that,” he barked in agreement. “But I thought you didn’t care about titles.” He thought she’d cared about—abouthim. As a man.
“Ye are the one who seems obsessed with titles,Duke! What does it matter who my father is?”
Because I can’t make an earl’s daughter my mistress, no matter how ruined she is!
And because shewasruined, he couldn’t make her his wife.
Dukes didnotmarry their doxies.
“Because…” He swallowed, trying to make sense of this sense of loss. “Because what we’ve been doing is entirely inappropriate?—”
“For an earl’s daughter, but it was fine for a woman just looking to enjoy life?”
Which was what he thought her. Of course, that’s what she thought of him as well.
With a growl, he threw up his hands. “I spent so much timeplanning.” He stepped closer and lowered his voice. “I was going to seduce you with sweets and desserts and laughter and all the things I knew you liked.”
“You didnaehave to,” she shot back, icily, as she slowly turned to face him once more. But he saw the pain etched in her expression.
And that pain, the knowledge he’d somehow hurt her, although he didn’t know how, caused his heart to thump in anger. Anger at himself.
