“I can’t believe I was going to ask you to be my mistress,” he spat out in disgust.
Maybe it was his tone. Maybe it was his words.
Either way, Athena flinched, her chin coming up in the dim light as she stepped back. He saw her nostrils flex as if she were trying to calm herself, and his palms itched to reach for her, to pull her into his arms, toapologize, although he didn’t know for what.
Finally, she sucked in a breath and haughtily turned away, holding herself regally as she strode toward the marble steps in that hideously wonderful orange gown.
But when she reached the top, she stopped, silhouetted in the lights coming from the large windows behind her. Her hand was on the banister as she turned to look over her shoulder, but he could only make out her profile in the light from the ballroom.
“I would have agreed, Cash.”
She would’ve become his mistress.
Which is why she couldn’t be his wife.
And then she was gone.
Damnation.
CHAPTER 8
Iwould have agreed, Cash.
It hadn’t been an empty boast, but Athena couldn’t stop thinking of her words to the man who’d broken her heart.
And aye, she knew having one’s heart broken required one to be in love, and she was smart enough to admit that’s exactly how she’d felt about Cash.
Excuse me, His Grace the Duke of Cashard.
Cursing her own stupidity—and stubbornness—Athena kicked at a stone in the muddy path, sending it skittering along the edge of the otherwise finely manicured garden walk. Her great-grandfather had been the one to build Newfincy Castle, and while she could understand how her oldest brother Lyon preferred the wildness of Auld Oliphant Castle, there was plenty to be said for how beautiful this place was maintained.
It had rained that morning and the air still held a feeling of heavy, damp potential. Overhead, the gray clouds swept across the sky, blown by a wind higher up than she could feel. Still, Athena tamped down a shiver she didn’t quite feel and wrapped her arms around her waist as she walked.
Walked? Nay. She was sulking, and was bright enough to recognize it. At least Callan wasn’t there to see that, sometimes, adults threw tantrums as well.
Her son had thrown a tantrum on Saturday, the morning after that disastrous ball. She’d gone up to the nursery to find Annie preparing him to leave with her for their daily outing to the river, and Athena had to sit her son down and explain they wouldn’t be swimming under the oak that day, or any other day.
He’d looked so confused, her heart had broken. Gathering him in her arms, she’d promised him, “We can swim in the river some other place, sweetheart. Just the two of us.”
That’s when the poor lad had begun to wail, demanding Matthew. Knowing how close the two lads had become over the last weeks, her own tears had flowed. She was denying her son the first true friend he’d had, simply because she had quarreled with Matthew’s father.
Nay, it was more than a quarrel. They’d realized, despite the act they’d been putting on all summer, there was no future for the two of them.
Love sought is good, but given unsought better.
Aye, she hadn’t intended on falling in love with Cash, but somewhere along the way, it had happened. To her, he wasn’t a cold imperious duke. He was a reserved man, aye, who had required some coaxing to emerge from hisshell, but one who took the time to trulybewith his son, who cared aboutherson in a way which surprised Athena, and who was gentle and loving and damned arousing.
But he was also a duke.
She sighed and tilted her head back to glare up at the clouds, refusing to allow the tears to form.
He was aduke.
Had he been just a simple landowner, or perhaps a baron, she would’ve felt free to engage in the physical relationship they’d started on Friday at The Sword and Sheath. She would’ve feltfree.
I was going to ask you to be my mistress.
The word “mistress” implied being a kept woman, being beholden to one man, in exchange for gifts and securities. Athena still wasn’t certain if she would’ve gone that far, despite what she’d boldly claimed to Cash. But the point was the relationship would’ve been onherterms, because she knew she was his equal.
