Page 94 of Enticing the Devil

“We must discuss this, Beynon.”

Her voice was firm and her words instantly filled him with dread. The sensation was stark and painful after the intense pleasure he’d just experienced and everything in him rebelled.

He took a step back, lowering his hands to his sides. “It’s late. We can talk tomorrow.”

“No,” she stated sharply as she pushed away from the desk and straightened to her full, impressive height, forcing him to take a step back. “We’ll talk right now.”

Squaring his shoulders, Beynon gave her a heavy scowl as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m in no mood to hear your grievances tonight.”

Her eyes widened as she blinked hard, twice. “No mood? Grievances? Are you serious?” The incredulity in her tone was only eclipsed by the sharp wave of rising fury. “If you keep insisting on avoiding this, we’re never going to make it through the rest our lives together.”

Unable to remain so close to her, he turned and paced to a safer distance before turning back to face her. Her ethereal loveliness struck him silent for a moment. But it was the look of fire and determination in her stare that made his heart tumble heavily into his stomach.

His admiration for her in that moment knew no limits.

“What is there to say?” he asked harshly. The raw nature of his voice was impossible to disguise, but he was grateful as it made him sound more frustrated than terrified. “We both knew we were a wretched match. I thought you’d resigned yourself to it—that you knew what to expect in this marriage.”

She licked her lips and her tongue paused over the tender spot where she’d bitten into her lower lip only moments ago while in the throes of passion. Then her eyes narrowed and she took a steadying breath.

“This is what it’s to be then?” Her question was raw and abrupt. “Lust and nothing more.”

Beynon’s stomach gave a violent lurch. He forced himself to ignore the sharp pain angling through his chest in order to grumble a response. “What else could there possibly be?”

He barely finished speaking before she retorted sharply, “A great deal.”

She stalked toward him—closing the distance he’d only just created between them. When he looked into her eyes, a sudden rush of trepidation claimed him. He hardened himself against the reaction. Against her strength. Against his own damned heart.

“But you insist on denying me,” she noted in a hard tone he’d never heard from her before. It chilled him.

Her intent gaze swept over his features, then lowered to the last couple inches separating them. “So be it,” she muttered. There was an odd finality to her voice. “I spent far too many years of my life accepting the paltry courtesies my father deigned to grace me with, if he thought of me at all. It took a long time for me to believe I was worthy of more.” She lifted her chin with fierce pride. “I deserve more, Beynon.”

Her words twisted through him with wrenching effect—tearing at his heart, making his throat burn. It was exactly what he’d been saying to himself from the moment he met her. And now she’d accepted it as well. And just as he’d feared, she hated him for it.

With a sad shake of her head, she stepped around him. He was unable to stop himself from watching her graceful form as she reached the door he hadn’t even closed behind him upon entering. When she turned back to him then, she looked every inch the fairy queen he’d always suspected she was. Dressed in the palest pink, her starlight hair falling wild and untamed, her lips rosy and full, and her eyes so piercing they cut to his core like a dagger.

But then, suddenly and inexplicably, her eyes softened with the glisten of moisture.

“I would have given you everything,” she whispered.

His body tensed to stone. It was the only way he kept himself from to charging after her as she slipped into the darkness of the hall.

It was a long time before he managed to shuffle across the room to drop heavily into his desk chair. He didn’t sleep at all that night. At the first light of dawn, he went for a walk. A long walk. But the familiar hills and vales did not comfort him as they so often did.

With every footfall, his wife’s parting words and the finality in her tone echoed relentlessly through his mind.

I would have given you everything.

What could she possibly have meant by that? She’d already sacrificed so much. Her dowry. Her life in London. Her expectations for the future.

I would have given you everything.

He couldn’t possibly hope for anything more.

But even as he had that thought, his heart clenched with longing for the one thing he’d never given himself permission to want. And for just a moment, he gave in to that feeling. He allowed the hope and yearning free rein inside him and finally acknowledged the one thing he wanted more than anything else.

I would have given you everything.

With the sudden shock of understanding came a wave of gut-wrenching remorse for the damage he’d wrought in his ignorance and pride. But when he rushed home, desperate to confess the heavy truth of all he was feeling and beg for her understanding and forgiveness, Anne was gone.