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“Just as I told you…” She looked him over, lingering on his lips. Her body shook and she could feel her nipples stiffen under her chemise. “I will not go to bed with you. Nothing you say or do will change that.”

“We are not talking of that.”

“Are we not?” she shot back, pushing out her chest as she did, stepping in closer as if she was standing up to him, when really she just wanted him tofeelher body pressed into his. “What happens next? If I remove my chemise?” A raised eyebrow. “We laugh together and call it a night? Somehow, I doubt it.”

Anthony’s body was visibly vibrating. Standing this close, she could feel him tremble. And his eyes, the way they looked her over, not to mention his hand half extended for her, she could see just how much he struggled to control his urges. It was enough that Caroline considered pushing him further, forcing him to break…I am a wicked sort. The most detestable type of person. Yet right now, I do not care.

“And as I have repeated time and time again, I am not simply trying to bed you. I wish for an heir.”

“Which will amount to the same thing.”

“And if it does? What does that matter—?” He caught his tongue, his anger rising. A deep breath and he forced himself to calm. But not by much. “I know what you fear, Caroline. I know you worry that once you give me an heir, I will forget about you. That I want such a thing.”

“Do you?”

“Do you?” he shot back. “I have been nothing but courteous since you arrived here. I have done everything I can to prove otherwise. Yet you are the one who continues to distrust me. Such that I cannot help but think that regardless of what happens between us, the result will be the same. You want to be alone.”

Caroline leaned back as if struck. “I… I do not.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I…” Caroline did not know what to say.

Anthony’s words struck her harder than she had expected, because there was truth to them. All this time, she was so concerned with what Anthony might do with her that she hadn’t stopped to consider that she might be the cause of what she feared the most. By remaining distant, by refusing to trust her husband, what was left for her, other than abandonment and loneliness?

“I do not want to be alone,” she said, her voice dropping as if from shame. She looked away with embarrassment.

“What then?” Slowly, Anthony reached for her. He took her hand and it sent a pulse through her body. A warmth taking her. A tingling that rolled down her chest and to her thighs. Her heart began to pound in her chest.

“I don’t want to be used,” she said, her voice still soft. “I don’t want to be used once and then forgotten.”

“You won’t be.”

“How can I know that for sure?” she said, snapping her head up and meeting his eyes. “You say the right things. But your actions…” She gestured to what she was wearing, where they were, what they were doing. “Is all this just a ploy to lure me to your bed.”

“Not at all.”

“But how can I know for sure?”

Anthony considered the question. Still holding her hand, he bit into his lip, his brow furrowing as he considered what to do.

For a moment, Caroline thought she had pushed too far. That in a bid to prove to her that he was not what she thought, that he might agree that the night was over and leave her be.My big mouth. Despite her reservations, there was still that part of Caroline that wanted her husband. She wanted him so badly, while terrified of what that might mean at the same time.

How to reckon with that? How to find a middle ground?

As it turned out, Anthony had the perfect answer.

“I will not take you to bed,” Anthony said gently as he reached up, cupping a hand under her chin. “But if you think I possess the self-control to let you leave here looking like that…” His eyes flashed hunger. “Even I am only so strong.”

Her heart caught in her throat. “What… what does that mean?”

He answered her with a kiss. Not their first kiss as man and wife but easily their most passion filled. Dressed only in her chemise, Caroline felt her entire body catch fire as he held her by the face with one hand, and squeezed her other hand with the other. Then he dropped her hand and took her waist, pulling her in close. She gasped and caught her breath as his tongue slipped inside of her mouth and explored her.

“You…” He moaned as he pulled away, eyes shut, breathing her in. “You don’t know what you do to me.”

“I have an idea,” she said, following his lips with her own.

They kissed further. Harder. With more fire. Caroline felt her body erupt. She felt her will to resist him breaking. She felt a spike of fear, worried that he might try and take it too far and there was nothing she would be able to do to stop him. She felt… his hand reach for her chemise.