Page 49

“Is that what you think? All I have done this week is be kind to you! To treat you with respect! Which I had thought you might appreciate.”

“What I would appreciate is a husband who is honest with me!”

“We tried that!” he snapped.

“No, we did not,” she responded, half with venom, half with a sense of earnestness that came out naturally. “You want to avoid me and hate me and pretend that I do not exist? Fine! But do not dare to treat me like a fool or an idiot. All I ask is that you be real with me. At least then I will know where I stand.”

She was standing less than five feet away from him. Facing him. Hands curled into fists by her side as she berated the man as if her life depended on it – a full week’s worth of insults, laid bare in ways that she could see were cutting him.

And Duncan did all he could to control himself. Body shaking. Refusing to look at her. Face and neck turning red as his breathing rose so quickly that she thought he might start breathing steam soon.

“You do not know what you are asking.”

“I know exactly what I am asking.”

“No...” He shook his head. “What you think you want, trust me when I tell you that you are not ready for it. You would not enjoy it.”

“That is for me to decide.”

“I am doing this for you.”

“And I am telling you no.”

He winced. “Isabella... please.”

Isabella had never felt so excited before. It was hard to fathom what was happening to her body; the way it quivered, the warmth that spread, the fire that grew inside of her that was like a hunger desperately searching for something to consume. And Duncan... he was so close, she knew it.

“I was right then,” she scoffed as if in disgust. “I married a coward. What a shame.”

And that was the final straw.

Duncan’s head snapped up and he growled at her; the beast released from the cage. She could see it in his eyes, she couldfeelit radiating from his body. The entire room seemed to shake as he bore down on her, his presence growing where he stood to seem as if he was eight or even nine feet tall.

“You want the beast?” he snarled. “You want the monster?”

“I need it,” she said.

“Fine. But remember, you asked for this.”

And with that, Duncan let the beast out of the cage, strode across the room, and took her for the first time.

Chapter Seventeen

Duncan’s kiss was wild and attacking. It caught Isabella by surprise, as if she worried he might tear at her lips with his teeth. But he did no such thing. Lips found lips and tongues worked their way into mouths and soon the two were engaged in a kiss filled with passion and lust that had spent the last two weeks building.

Isabella melted and allowed herself to give in to the kiss. She was through pretending that she did not want it, or that the thought of kissing her husband disgusted her. As his tongue explored the inside of her mouth, and as his hands gripped her waist tightly, she relaxed in a way she wouldn’t have thought possible.

This isn’t so scary.The opposite!Truly, I do not know what Duncan was so worried about --

Suddenly, Duncan’s hand snatched the back of Isabella’s head, taking a handful of hair and prying her lips away from his face.

She tried desperately to follow his escaping mouth. “Wh --”

“You have spent the last week antagonizing me,” Duncan growled, refusing to let her go. One hand holding her hair, the other now around her waist. “Admit it.”

Her first inclination was to agree. To surrender and admit fault because she knew that Duncan hated being argued with. But a voice inside of her whispered a soft reminder, a suggestion that she did not understand but knew to be the right course.

Heart beating. That sense of fear mounting. Her body trembled as she licked her lips and spoke. “I admit nothing. You have been the one antagonizing me.”