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He ran his hands down her sides, finding a great deal of pleasure in the slight shudder that ran through her at his touch.

“Thank me with a kiss,” he murmured.

The shocked look in her eyes made him want to take back his words and curse himself. However, before he could do anything else, Evie had braced her delicate hands on his shoulders, stood on her tiptoes, and pressed her lips to his. She might have meant to kiss him so innocently, but there was nothing innocent about Daniel.

Not at all.

With a groan, he crushed her to him, his lips angling over hers as he devoured everything she was willing to offer him and more. He kissed her hungrily, his tongue plunging boldly into her mouth as she welcomed him with a soft moan.

Bloody hell, what is she doing to me?

With a mere kiss, she had him painfully hard with want, his desire a thick haze that clouded all logic.

She was like a flame that taunted him, dancing and flickering before him. How could he resist when it was she who now pressed herself so closely to him?

Where was his vaunted self-control when he needed it the most?

When he finally drew back from her, Evie let out a little growl of protest, and it took everything in him to keep from pressing her against the wall and hiking her skirts up to her waist.

Does she not recognize the danger she is in?Does she not realize that she should stay away from men who look at her a certain way?

Even if that man was him.

“Evie,” he groaned. “We need to see to our guests.”

The hurt look she gave him almost made him capitulate.

She gave a childish pout. “Do we have to?”

He sighed. “You know that we have to.”

If she had burst into tears, he might have thrown out the lot of them and indulged in his husbandly privileges. Fortunately, Evie had the good sense to not try because heaven only knew he did not have the fortitude to resist her.

“Fine.” She sniffed. She wriggled out of his arms and smoothed out her hair and dress.

She was about to walk back to where their guests were happily chatting and helping themselves to the feast spread out before them when she stopped and glanced at him over her shoulder.

“Shall I be expecting you in my chambers tonight?” she asked him, with a coquettish look in her eyes.

“No,” he said tightly.

“No?” Her eyebrows snapped together, and he knew that he better think about his next words.

“No,” he said with utter finality, his voice gravelly. “I cannot make the same mistake over and over again, because the next time I do, I will not stop until I finish inside you, and I cannot do that.”

A stubborn tilt of her chin. “Why not?”

“Because then, you might get pregnant, and I cannot allow that.”

The admission left him drained, but she had barely scraped off the first layer of the darkness that shrouded him. If she learned more, would she still look at him the same way?

Or would the affection in her eyes harden into cold derision?

“You know, I do not understand you at all.” She glared at him. “You claim that you married me to save me, but then you are merely condemning me to a life devoid of love and passion, after showing me just how much pleasure we could have.” She pressed her lips into a grim line. “Your Grace, I have known you to be cold, but I never thought you could be this cruel.”

He clenched his hands into fists at his sides before he could be tempted to reach out for her.

“And therein lies our problem, Evelyn,” he told her. “Pleasure might not be the only thing I show you.”