Page 129 of The Betrothal

Warm flesh pressed against my body, curling into me and waking me from sleep.

Teddy’s breath ghosted over my neck, the smell of liquor and cigars wafting from him.

“I missed you tonight,” he mumbled drunkenly.

I muttered incoherently in response, selling that I was still deeply sleepy when in reality I was anything but.

“I’m sorry to have left you.” His hands began to roam and I thanked my stars for my mother’s choice of nightwear, conscious we were in agreement on something since I had returned home.

In the few times I’d seen her since returning home, the only thing we seemed to agree on was that it was improper for Teddy to be in my room. But the decision was clearly above her paygrade because her comments and gripes had gone unnoticed, and Teddy was amassing more and more items in my bedroom, evidently not leaving.

“But I had to go to the club, it was expected.” I was rolled onto my back underneath him. “Although I made myself scarce, and they all understood. Assuming I was coming home to get lost in you. The rejection of pre-marital relations is all but dismissed since you were stolen from me,” he mumbled, believing his own lie.

My heart thundered before he grumbled at himself, then tugged me into him.

Cautiously I lifted my hand to cup his waist, giving him the contact he clearly craved and he sighed at the slight concession.

“Come back to me, Izzy,” he murmured, his lips finding my neck and laying gentle kisses along my skin.

I swallowed heavily. “I’m here, Teddy.”

He mumbled something against my skin as I began to stroke my fingers across his back, his body relaxing and his breathing slowing until he stilled, his body settling firmly over mine as he fell asleep.

Any wriggling was futile; his body was too big and his weight too much. The few times I pulled away he clawed me back to him and we remained like that for hours, long after the sun crept around the blinds, and after my bladder began demanding a morning toilet break.

Reprieve came from a knock at the door, one of the maids opening it gently.

“I’m so sorry to disturb, Miss, Mr Fairchild,” she corrected herself.

Teddy startled awake, his shock turning into relief when he found me lying beneath him.

“The teams are here, for Miss Isabelle, to get ready.” She’d entered the room, dithering by the blinds.

“Yes, Tilly, it’s okay,” Teddy cooed at her and I swallowed back the nausea at his tone.

The curtains were drawn and I looked between them, her endless blushes and his boyish charm. It was nauseating, the duplicity of him.

She bobbed her head and retreated from the room, returning with a trolley covered in foods before Teddy winked and excused her.

He gazed at me and caressed my jaw. The demands I made for my body to relax only went so far. I stared at him absently and he frowned, rising to collect the dreaded pills.

Thinking carefully as he shook them from each bottle. He paused, putting several down and breaking one in half, then passing them to me.

“One and a half,” he threatened at the question in my eyes.

Two had me dizzy and drowsy, one had me feeling lucid but less… me.

His assessment of today’s compliance. One and a half.

I took them without argument. Teddy’s smile was less than kind.

“I’m too soft with you,” he spoke to himself. Then he steeled with a decision. “No fucking about today, Izzy. You will find me a lot less kind when all eyes are on us. Do. Not. Fuck. About.” He took my face in a cruel grip. “I haven’t forgotten, no matter how much I want to. I know what you are, Isabelle. You’re a conniving manipulator in a beautiful body. But you are bested by me.”

I gulped, accepting the pills and taking them as he watched.

“Right now, I’m deciding how firm I will be with you going forward. I strongly recommend that you act accordingly. Next time, there will be no coming back from my disfavour.”

He lowered his face to mine, the challenge evident.