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H arrington blinked at his wife, certain he had misheard.

“Is… that all?” he repeated, waiting for her to correct him.

Instead, she rubbed her brow. “I’m sorry.

Clearly, you regard this as a distressing revelation.

But Harrington!” She made a frustrated gesture.

“You tried to leave me! Multiple times ! You intentionally tried to push me away.” She was shouting—shocking for the woman who never raised her voice because she could command a room with a raised eyebrow and an icy glare.

But now, she was raving. “What if I had taken you at your word? We could have very easily spent the rest of our lives without one another! Were I not the most stubborn woman in all of Christendom, we probably would have!”

He shook his head, hoping to clear it. The words she was saying made sense… and yet, they made no sense at all. “But… I knew you wouldn’t want me once you found out. Really, I was just doing the decent thing. Saving you the trouble of having to throw me over.”

Diana’s eyes blazed. She crossed to the sofa in three strides and placed one knee on the cushions, looming inches from his face.

“Well, I do want you! I don’t give a fig if you like being spanked.” She jabbed him in the chest with a finger. “Don’t you dare try to push me away again! I will not tolerate it!”

He tried to answer her, but the only sound he seemed capable of forming was a sad sort of blubber. That was around the same time she, and the rest of the room, went blurry around the edges.

Wait. Were those… tears? Was he crying ? Surely not. He was a Rifleman. Soldiers didn’t cry !

“Harrington.” Her voice still held a note of frustration, but the fight had gone out of her. She climbed onto his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. He immediately hugged her to him and buried his face in her hair.

When he recovered the ability to speak, he murmured, “I can’t believe it.”

She sat back enough to look him in the eyes. “Perhaps you should. I was raised by Aunt Griselda, and…”

Harrington had no idea what this had to do with Aunt Griselda. Was it possible that she, too, liked being spanked? And Diana somehow knew about it?

He gave her a moment. When she did not elaborate, he gave her a gentle squeeze. “And?”

Her eyes were guarded. “I mentioned it once before. She had a friend. Miss Amelia Marsden. I never met her, as she died before I was born. But I can tell by the way Aunt Griselda speaks of her that they weren’t merely friends .

She felt about Miss Marsden the same way I feel about you.

But society would not permit them to be together in that way, openly, before the world. ”

Harrington said nothing but rubbed her back. After a moment, Diana continued, “I know many people would say it was a sin. But I can’t see anything wrong with it. Who was hurt by their love? No one.” She straightened her spine, eyes blazing. “And no one is harmed by what you like, either.”

He couldn’t assail her logic. Yet… it didn’t feel right. Not the bit about Aunt Griselda. He didn’t give a damn what she had felt for, or what she had done with, this Miss Marsden. Aunt Griselda was one of the good ones, and he couldn’t imagine much that would convince him otherwise.

But him? He was a degenerate. A wretch! He wasn’t loveable.

Was he?

Diana was studying him with a sharp gaze. “What are you thinking?”

“N-nothing,” he sputtered.

She narrowed her eyes. “I’ll warrant I know exactly what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that it’s fine for Aunt Griselda to like what she likes. But it’s somehow different for you.”

He slumped against the couch cushions. “Sometimes I wish you were less astute.”

“Too bad.” She said it cheerfully, but then, her expression turned somber. “Although, you’re probably giving me more credit than I deserve. There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. A confession, of sorts.”

She looked guilty, and Harrington had to suppress a snort. Whatever she had to say, it couldn’t possibly hold a candle to his sins. “Oh? What’s that?”

Her cheeks had turned rosy. “When I first told you that I had perused a book of risqué prints, you assumed it was a book belonging to my brother.” She swallowed and closed her eyes.

“It wasn’t my brother’s book. It was yours.

Izzie found it hidden beneath your mattress, and she took it to show Lucy and me. ”

It was a bit embarrassing, but Harrington couldn’t say he was surprised. That certainly sounded like something Izzie would do. “Oh?”

Diana opened her eyes a slit, cringing. “There was a certain page that you had… er, marked. By folding down the corner.”

His heart rate kicked up a beat because he knew exactly which page that would be—the one he had just described. Which meant that Diana knew.

Of course… he’d already known that she knew. They’d been discussing it for the last ten minutes. To be more precise, this meant that she’d always known.

There was a roaring in his ears. The room went blurry around the edges.

She’d… always known.

About him. And what he liked.

And she’d married him anyway .

From her perch in his lap, words tumbled from Diana’s lips.

“I’m sorry. I should have told you from the start.

It’s just that I was embarrassed, and… In retrospect, perhaps I shouldn’t have looked at it at all.

But after my father died, I suddenly found myself on the Marriage Mart, facing the prospect of an imminent wedding, and I had so little information!

I merely wanted to learn about the acts I might soon be expected to perform.

And I thought it was just a book. I didn’t realize it would be personally revealing in any way.

” Her eyes were beseeching. “Truly, Harrington. I’m sorry. ”

“It’s all right.” He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. “It’s natural that you were curious. I can’t say I’m pleased about my little sisters knowing that I, er…” He cleared his throat. “But it occurred to me… you saw that page. The one where I’d turned down the corner. So… you already knew.”

“About your proclivities?” At his nod, she continued, “I certainly suspected.”

He could hear the disbelief in his own voice. “And you still wanted to marry me.”

“I did,” she said fiercely. “I meant it when I said I don’t care about that.”

“I’m so glad, I just…” He ran a hand across his face. “I suppose, if I’m being honest, I’m having a hard time believing it.”

Diana studied him with that all-knowing gaze of hers. “I can see that. I think there’s only one thing to do.” She rose from his lap and walked toward the front door.

“What’s that?” Harrington asked.

She was rummaging around in the umbrella stand. “I’m going to prove it to you.”

“Prove it to me? How are you going to…”

The words died on his lips as Diana turned, the object she’d been searching for in her hand.

It was a riding crop .

“Well?” she said, offering him a wicked smile.

With each passing second, Diana felt more ridiculous. Harrington was gaping at her. His mouth was hanging open, and if he didn’t shut it soon, she was fairly certain the drop of saliva forming in the corner of his mouth was going to fall.

She thought that, perhaps, it was an interested kind of gaping. Although it was difficult to be sure.

Something occurred to her, and she dropped her gaze to the falls of his trousers and?—

Ahem . There was no perhaps about it.

It was definitely an interested kind of gaping.

Her confidence buoyed, she took a seductive step toward him. “Well? How about it?” When she reached the sofa, she reached out with the crop, stroking the side of his neck.

“Diana,” he said in a choked voice, “let me make sure I understand. Are you offering to… to spank me?”

She gave him what she hoped was a seductive smile. “That’s precisely what I’m offering.”

His breath was coming fast. “You… you don’t have to do that.”

She tucked the crop beneath her arm and swung a leg over him to kneel straddling his lap. She reached straight for the bulge tenting his trousers, stroking him through the woolen fabric, and his head fell back with a groan. “It seems that you would like it if I did.”

He was gasping for air. “I’ve only been dreaming about you standing over me with a crop for the last three years.”

“Hmm.” She leaned in, kissing his ear. “What else have you been dreaming about?”

He drew back, his eyes unfocused with pleasure. “You’re sure about this?”

She gave his cock another stroke. “Yes.”

She relished his gasp. “Absolutely sure?”

“Absolutely sure. Only…” She swallowed. “I’m not sure how to go about it. Do I just swat you a few times with the crop, or…?”

He shook his head. “There’s a lot more to it than that. But if you’re truly willing?—”

“I am,” she said fiercely.

He studied her for a moment, then nodded. “All right. The first thing you’re going to do is catch me misbehaving…”