Page 37 of A Bride for the Duke of Sin (Ton’s Wolves #3)

CHAPTER 37

C an I trust him?

Can I trust him to be telling the truth this time?

Her heart pounded so loudly in her chest that she feared the entire household could hear it. Her knees were knocking into each other even as she tried to maintain her serene demeanor as she looked at Ethan from the doorway.

A part of her was glad to see him stewing in regret, but men said many things and then forgot them. Could she trust him to truly mean what he was saying?

Or was he simply saying what he thought she wanted to hear?

She had to find out for herself, and she could not do that with Alice and their friends around.

“Are you sure you will be all right with him?” Scarlett asked her, shooting Ethan a quick glare.

Phoebe smiled slightly. “He cannot hurt me any more than he already has.”

She watched as her husband grimaced.

He needed to hear that. He needed to know that she had been hurt so much that it would take more than just a quick apology to fix all the damage.

She was no longer going to hide herself and her feelings just so others could feel better about themselves.

And if Ethan was determined to love her, then he had to love her entirely . He would not be able to do that if she only showed him bits and pieces of herself.

“Then we shall leave you to discuss this further,” Evie spoke as she and Alice started walking away.

Alice smiled at her younger sister as they passed her by the door. “We will be close by if you need us,” she told her.

“Do not hesitate to call for us if you want him thrown out,” Scarlett chimed in.

Phoebe gave the ladies a grateful smile. “I hope I will not need to do that.”

“You never know,” the redhead replied ominously, shooting Ethan another glare before she left with the others.

It was now only the two of them in the room. One begging for forgiveness and the other unsure if she should grant it. Husband and wife on opposing ends.

She sat down on the upholstered chair opposite him. She was not going to sit beside him yet—not until she heard everything he had to say.

Besides, she had to see his eyes clearly to make sure he was telling the truth.

The eyes never lie .

“I went to Dexford House today,” he told her softly. “I… had a discussion with the Viscount, and he clarified several things for me.”

“Oh?” Phoebe raised an eyebrow. “And what are these clarifications, pray tell?”

“He is destitute, Phoebe. He is mired in gambling debts and desperate. That is why he asked for your hand in marriage from the very start.”

Phoebe laughed harshly. “So, he did not ask for my hand because of my stunning beauty or my charming wit. Is there anything else I need to know?”

“He meant to marry you for your dowry,” Ethan continued, looking deep into her eyes. “Just as he intended for Miss Delaney to marry me to gain access to the Sinclair wealth.”

She sucked in a harsh breath. “You mean?—”

He nodded. “The child that Miss Delaney carries is Dexford’s. He is the father.”

Phoebe felt the tension leave her body. So, she had not misheard, after all. Ethan truly was not the father of the child, and she had not been mistaken in trying to stop their wedding.

She smiled sarcastically at him. “You must be very relieved, Your Grace. After all, you had no intention of marrying Miss Delaney, just as you had no intention of marrying me .”

He smiled at her. “But that is where you are wrong, my beloved Phoebe, for I have already wanted you long before my wedding to Miss Delaney.”

Phoebe frowned at him. “You are lying.”

But Ethan simply laughed and shook his head. “No, wife. I have wanted you from the very moment I met you, when you asked me if I truly was a Wolf.”

He was doing it again—charming her. Saying things her heart desperately craved to hear.

“You had not made your bow yet, so it was unfathomable,” he continued. “But from that moment on, it was as if I was bewitched. I was no longer attracted to women the way I was before. I had not slept with anyone up until the party, where I woke up to find Miss Delaney beside me, and even then…” He paused and smiled achingly at her. “Even then, I did not touch her. She only made it seem that we… had relations so that I would believe that the child she was carrying was mine.”

It was all so unbelievably bizarre. The Duke of Sin, the most charming of the Wolves, unable to sleep with any woman after just one meeting with her ?

It was the stuff of fairytales, of unrealistic romance novels, that Phoebe was finding it very difficult to believe. Even she, as a writer, could not bring herself to pen such an incredible tale.

“It was why I was quite certain the child was not mine,” he confessed. “Because even before that party, I had not been able to sleep with other women. From the very moment I saw you, you have been all I ever wanted, Phoebe, but I was too stupid to see that, and I am so, so sorry for it.”

“So, you wanted me but you did not love me,” she said flatly.

That, she could at least believe.

“I suppose you could put it that way.” He laughed softly. “All I knew was that I wanted you. Love was not something I had ever felt before, so I did not know what it was like.”

She regarded him with skepticism. “And now you do?”

“I have you to thank for that.” Ethan smiled at her. “You told me to spend time with you, and initially, I just wanted to humor you. I thought that perhaps if I charmed you enough, you would let me into your bed. But Phoebe, the more time I spent with you, the more attracted I grew to not only your body but everything else about you.”

He gazed deeply into her eyes and finally, finally said the words she had been waiting to hear from him.

“I love you, Phoebe Barkley Audley—wholly and irrevocably—and I would love no one but you until the last breath has left my lungs and I am returned to dust.”

Until death do us part .

Tears, hot and unbidden, spilled from her lashes, running down her cheeks as she pressed her hand to her mouth.

Alarmed, Ethan rushed over to her and enveloped her in his arms, surrounding her with his strength and the familiar scent that was undeniably his .

“Oh God, please do not cry,” he implored her. “I cannot bear it when you cry.”

“Say it again,” she told him, her voice muffled by his chest. “Say that you love me.”

“I love you, Phoebe,” he murmured hoarsely into her hair. “I love you. I love you. I love you. ”

With every word that left his lips, she felt her heart soar higher and higher. Never before had she felt such happiness. Her heart, her entire being, seemed to fill with so much joy that it seemed as if she was floating.

“Ethan?”

She felt him press a tender kiss to the crown of her head. “Yes, my Duchess?”

“I lied to you, too.”

She felt him stiffen.

“You did?”

She nodded in his arms. “I told you I did not love you yet . That I could be content with the pleasure we shared—I lied about that.”

He had been honest with her. It was now her turn to come clean.

“I already fell in love with you during the time we spent together,” she admitted. “Only, I was afraid that you would never feel the same way about me. I was afraid that if I loved you and you did not, I would only grow bitter and resentful, and I did not want that. So, I lied—to you and myself.”

He laughed softly. “What a pair of liars we both are!”

“I was so foolish back then,” she sighed. “I never thought a Wolf would tame me.”

“More like you tamed this Wolf,” he murmured huskily.

So this is how it feels to love and be loved .

There was no feeling quite like it in the entire world. She felt as if she was grounded and floating at the same time. Like she would burst from all the joy she was feeling. And yet, Ethan still kept her together.

And beyond all that, there was that persistent ache that made her want to just bury herself in him.

“Are you… still going to eat me for breakfast?” she asked him meekly.

She felt his fingers digging into her flesh slightly. Heard him stifling the groan that rumbled in his chest.

Felt the hardness that was now pressed against her belly as his arms tightened around her.

“Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and teatime,” he growled in her ear. “I am so hungry for you that if I spoke to you about it, I would frighten you with my appetite.”

“Then that is just as well, for I want you, too,” she told him softly.

She raised her head to meet his gaze, only for his lips to devour hers, making the intensity of his desire for her very, very clear.

Phoebe moaned as she clung to him, pressing herself to him as his tongue swept past her lips to toy with hers.

She had missed this, missed how his kisses left her weak in the knees and made her bold and wanton at the same time.

When they broke apart for breath, she pulled away from him, her eyes searching his face.

“You want something.” Ethan smiled at her. “Name it and it shall be yours, even if I have to pull the damned moon and stars from the sky.”

“I seem to recall asking you not to call me by the nickname you use for all the other women,” she told him. “Have you decided on it?”

He took his hand in hers and pressed a long, lingering kiss to her inner wrist.

Phoebe had to focus really, really hard to hear what he had to say.

“You brought light into my life when I was living in an endless night,” he murmured huskily. “From the moment you came into my life, I knew that it could only get brighter and brighter with you by my side…”

Her breath hitched in her throat. She was mesmerized by the sheer poetry he was speaking to her soul.

“For all of this, Phoebe, you are my dawn, and I desire nothing more than to bask in your endless radiance for the rest of my days.”