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What a pathetic threat, and she knew it as soon as the words left her mouth.

The Duke looked amused for a moment, only for a shadow to pass behind his eyes. His expression turned steely, and he stepped toward her suddenly, pulling the door closed and trapping her between himself and the wood.

“You want me to touch you? Is that it?”

“I—” The words got caught in her throat. Fear. Excitement. That feeling of utter helplessness… all the same, as far as she could tell.

“You want me that bad?” he growled, bearing down on her. Their bodies were close. His teeth were bared. The look in his eyes similar to that of a lion cornering its prey.

“I never said that I did,” she whispered, her body shaking, her mind turning blank as she seemed to forget what she was protesting.

Why would she in her right mind turn down a marriage to this man? The thrill she felt trapped between him and the door like this was so great that she could not imagine a marriage now where he did not wish to touch her. Surely, those were just words.

“Let me be clear, Lady Hannah. If I wanted to touch you, I would have…” He reached up and hooked a finger under her chin. She gasped and leaned into it, pushing her lips out because oh how she wanted to tempt him. “It is I who will decide such a thing, not you. And as for my reasons…”

“Y-yes?”

“They are not your concern.” Suddenly, he dropped his hand and stepped back.

“W-what?” She half moved as if to follow him, but he was already opening the door behind her.

“Good night, Lady Hannah.” He stepped forward so quickly, his hulking mass so powerful, that she reacted on instinct, stepping through the open door and into the hallway. “I will be seeing you.”

And then, without so much as another word, he slammed the door shut in her face.

Hannah stayed where she was, staring vaguely at the closed door, her mind still adrift and fractured as she tried to make sense of everything that had just happened. She had gone in there to try and convince the Duke to take her cousin back, had failed miserably, and very nearly given in to a temptation that she suspected would never have occurred, for the Duke seemed to enjoy teasing her.

But that temptation… Her body was still hot, and her knees wobbled as she walked down the hallway to her room. Oh, she wished to feel guilty for her cousin. She wished to curse this arrangement she was now trapped in. But despite those efforts, even she was not such a fool as to believe either of those was a concern.

This marriage, whatever it became, whatever it was, would not be boring. Of that, she had no doubt.

Chapter Four

“What do you mean, he left?” Hannah exclaimed in shock when her father told her why the Duke was not joining them to break his fast the following morning.

“Exactly as I said,” Lord Ramsbury responded simply as he bit into a piece of cake, the crumbs falling down his front. “He left with the rising sun. But do not take it as a bad sign,” he assured her. “He made sure to seek me out before leaving.”

“Is that right?” she muttered bitterly, feeling her stomach sink.

“Yes, yes,” he said. “He wanted to assure me that the wedding is still on and his reasons for leaving have to do with the arrangements that need to be made.”

“Arrangements?”

“Breaking off his engagement to your cousin, of course. Not to mention the need to apply for a special license to marry you.But do not worry yourself with that.” He flicked his wrist. “He assured me that he will take care of it, and then he shall call on you when the wheels are in motion.”

“That is… that is…”

“Good to hear!” Lord Ramsbury said merrily, looking pleased with himself.

“Yes.” Hannah slumped into her chair, staring blankly ahead, not at all sure that ‘good to hear’ was how she would have described this development. Not that she could think of anything better to say.

She did not get much sleep at all the previous night. But that should not have come as a surprise. What surprised her were the reasons why.

When she returned to her room, she did what she could to feel angry, for that felt like the most reasonable response. The way the Duke had tricked her, played with her, purposefully humiliated her for no other reason than to see if he could. She hadn’t had a chance to form an opinion about the man just yet, but by the time she crawled into bed, she decided that she did not like him very much at all.

What was more, the terms of this marriage only angered her further. It wasn’t enough that she was being forced into this marriage, but it was to be a marriage with a man who wanted nothing to do with her! He did not want to kiss her. He did not want to fulfill his husbandly duties. By the sounds of things, hebarely wanted to see her once they were pronounced man and wife!

A marriage was all he wished for, the perception of one, so that he could then go about his day, caring not that he was all but ruining her life.