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He shuddered when he felt her gentle hand on his shoulder.

“You arenotyour father.”

He shook his head vehemently. “But I alreadyam!” he cried out. “Can you not see? I know what you are doing at all times of the day! If I do not know, I feel as if I might go insane!”

The way Phoebe looked at him in shock confirmed his suspicions. No sane man would do the kind of things he was doing.

“Did you not think that the servants would not report to me about how you spend your days? Well, sweetheart, they do,” he continued harshly. “Because Iorderedthem to. I cannot do anything if I do not know whether you are safe. And then I cannot do anything because I cannot stop thinking about you!”

“Well, you certainly did not know that I was publishing my own book,” she remarked wryly, but Ethan merely shot her a look.

“Do not make light of all of this, I beg you. You are an innocent, and I would much rather have you remain ignorant of all the monstrous things a man is capable of.”

But his dear, foolish wife merely waved her hand at his concerns.

“Not so innocent after everything you have done, I would think,” she muttered, her cheeks flushing ever so slightly. She sighed and straightened up as she approached him once more. “You know, husband, you did not need to go about this subterfuge, asking the servants what I have been up to all day. You could have simply just asked me, and I would have told you if you had simply been around to hear of it!”

He laughed brokenly and pulled her close, breathing in the sweet fragrance that was uniquely hers. “Trust me, Duchess,” he whispered hoarsely. “You donotwant me around at all times of the day.”

There was a pause, and he looked at her in mild surprise, noting the tinge of pink that bloomed on her cheeks, on her chest…

“Unless you do,” he concluded, his voice dropping to a whisper. “You want me on my knees, my mouth on your sweet flesh again, do you not, Duchess?”

He saw her eyes darken with desire, her nostrils flaring slightly and her lips parting as if in anticipation of all that he would do to her again.

“As much as I want you, husband, I will not lie with you until I am in love,” she told him firmly. “And I cannot fall in love with a ghost.”

He sighed. “What will you have me do then?”

She smiled softly up at him. “You can spend time with me here. An hour should be enough.” She coyly trailed a finger down his chest and sighed. “It gets rather lonely here. If you keep this up, it would not be long before I take a lover myself.”

Since when did his sweet, innocent wife become so devious?

He immediately gripped that seductive hand of hers. “You will not speak of other men in my presence,” he told her.

“Well, whose fault is it that I feel so desperate for human company?” she pointed out.

Ethan could not help but wonder if he had been led into a trap. A beautiful, smiling trap, he realized, with eyes the color of emeralds flecked with gold.

“Only one hour, husband, out of each day. Starting tomorrow.” She stood up on her tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. “I shall be expecting your company.”

And then, sheleft.

She left him standing there in his study with her taste still lingering on his tongue and his erection still aching for her.

Ethan let out a soft huff of laughter.

Had his little Duchess decided to become a Wolf herself as she had written in her book?

In that case, he had no problem being her prey.

CHAPTER 17

That horrible, wicked man!

Phoebe sucked in a harsh breath as she splashed her face with water and proceeded to scrub her face clean as if it would cleanse her mind of the scandalous things she had been dreaming of the entire night.

For the first time in her entire life, she cursed her highly imaginative mind, the same mind that enabled her to bring stories to life on the pages.