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“Do not interrupt me!” he roared, and she flinched. “And do not try and justify what you have done.” Anger flared within him, fire seeming to spew from his very pores. “I told you that to seek out your aunt and beg her to desist was not an option. I told you that wedo not beg.”

“But I did not beg,” she insisted, wringing her hands, trying to meet his eyes but unable to. “I told her to stop. That she could no longer?—”

“I do not care for the words you used,” he snarled. “I do not care if youthinkyou bullied her. The fact is that you debased yourself by seeing her in the first place. You made us look weak!” His body was shaking. “And now, regardless of what happens, she will know that she… that she has this to hold over us.”

“I had no choice,” Hannah pleaded. “The rumors were only going to grow worse, and you insisted on hiding?—”

“I was not hiding!”

She winced, and the fear in her eyes had Frederick itching to comfort her.

Yes, he was angry. Furious! But he took no pleasure in shouting at his wife, and he certainly took no pleasure in making her afraid of him.

“I needed time to think,” he said in a calmer voice. His body was still shaking, his breathing was ragged and raw, but he composed himself. “To figure out what needs to be done. Anything would have been better than… that seeking out your aunt and asking her to stop.”

“I am sorry,” she said sincerely. “I… I just wanted it to stop. And now it will,” she assured him, begging him to see the positive.“She will make sure it does. I know this was not what you wanted, but surely you can see the good in it? Please, Frederick, tell me that you understand.”

He did understand. And on the face of it, this would likely turn out for the best. Those rumors, as horrible as they were, threatened to chip away at their marriage, at his name and title. Like a worm burrowing into an apple, they would rot it from the core if left unchecked. On the face of it… he could see the good in what his wife had done.

Sadly, now Frederick was forced to face another problem, one which he hadn’t considered until this very moment.

He could not trust his wife. She had lied to his face. She had gone against his word. She had undermined him fully. For how close they had become these last two weeks, he wondered if that was where he had erred, letting her think that she had full reign over him and could get away with anything she liked.

He was starting to fall in love with Hannah. Of that, he had no doubt. But was it worth it? To love someone who clearly held him in such little regard. He had been down that road once already…

“I understand well enough,” he sighed with regret, the anger gone as quickly as it had come. “And I understand why you thought you needed to do what you did.”

Hope flickered in her eyes. “You do?”

She went for him, but he took a step back, which made her hesitate.

“But you do not realize what this…” He bit his lip, unable to look at her. “I told you what must be done. I thought that would be enough. But you went against me without even… without considering why I asked such a thing. Because you did not care.”

“That is not true! Of course, I care! That is why?—”

“I trusted you,” he cut her off, his voice cracking. “And you broke that trust, Hannah. Perhaps you are right and this was needed. Perhaps one day, I will be glad that you did what you did today. But right now…” He looked right at her, pain in his eyes, enough that he could see it mirrored in her own. “I do not know if I will ever be able to trust you again. Not fully.”

It was as if he stabbed her in the heart. She stumbled back, wincing in pain. The look on her face was one of agony and disbelief, unable to fathom that he could say such a thing—that her actions could cause it.

“I am sorry,” he continued, his voice turning soft. “And perhaps I am to blame. These last two weeks have been…” He chuckled lightly and shook his head. “They have been better than I could have hoped for, and in that, perhaps we made a mistake. I made a mistake.”

“What… what do you mean?” Her voice broke.

“This marriage was always meant to be one of convenience, but I have been weak and succumbed to my base desires. I have…” A deep breath, for he could not believe he was about to say this. “I have let you think that this marriage might be more than what it should be. What it is. And for that, I am sorry.”

“What…”

Her body trembled, and oh how he wanted to go to her. But he held fast, needing to get through this because he felt that he must.

“What it is? And what is it?”

“As I said.” He swallowed past the lump in his throat. “A marriage of convenience and nothing more.”

He might as well have slapped her for her reaction. Pain at first, radiating through her body. To hurt someone you loved was its own sort of agony, and Frederick was living it right now.

But then came the anger. Breaking through the pain so that she was snarling at him. In a way, Frederick had expected it. Why, he almost smiled to see it. Hannah, never one to go down without a fight, was surely not going to take his rebuke so easily.

And seeing that light in her eyes… the urges that Frederick had been suppressing surged. The fire simmered inside her. Her skin glowed. Her breathing was heavy. Her breasts were heaving. Heranger had his skin burning and his blood pumping, pulling him forward, as all he wanted to do was take her any way he wanted…