Page 12 of Seven Nights with the Wicked Duke (Regency Beasts #3)

For a man that was so against marrying her off to gentlemen he suspected to be fortune hunters, it was ironic that he was comfortable marrying her to one who was hunting for titles and connections instead.

"And if he abandons me beyond all expectations?"

"Then we would find another suitor for you," her brother said too calmly, like getting a suitor was as simple as choosing a new ribbon in the market. His nonchalance about her future annoyed her so much she could not help her next outburst.

"Why is it that you want me to marry quickly but whenever I show interest in any gentleman, you ruin it?" she asked, feeling a burst of angry tears blur her vision.

She hated how anger drove her to tears when she would much rather be articulate in her words.

Her brother was not a man moved by emotion but reason and the fact she still cried when angry only fueled his beliefs that she was immature and needed a strong husband to guide her.

"That is because you are naive, dear Cecilia," he retorted. "These men are nothing better than wolves in sheep's clothing."

"I am one and twenty, dear brother. I am in no way na?ve."

"You might think so, Cee, and I am tempted to allow you fall into one of the traps these men have prepared for you so you would see reason but I would be a horrible brother if I did so and your delicate sensibilities might not survive the incident. Not to speak of your reputation."

Delicate sensibilities? she thought.

She scoffed internally.

The memory of her deal with his friend, the Duke of Emerton, struck her then and she wished she could tell him all that she had done with her delicate sensibilities. Perhaps he would know she was not a mere child to be treated as such.

Wisdom however stilled her angry thoughts.

Her outburst would end up with her locked in the countryside or in marriage to someone she despised more than Lord Finch and with the Duke of Emerton's blood on her hands as well.

So despite how she wished she could scar him as well, she bit down the words.

"Perhaps you should, Your Grace," Cecilia replied bitterly. "Perhaps my perceived naivety is a result of being coddled all my life. Perhaps I might benefit from being allowed to live my life the way I see fit."

"You want to be free?" Magnus replied, dark laughter shaking his entire frame. The sound was ugly, a desolate sound that had no iota of amusement. "Trust me, you do not know what the outside world looks like. Perhaps if you did, you would prefer to remain coddled forever."

"Perhaps I want to take that risk. It is my life after all. I decide how I want to live it," she shot back.

"You are mistaken in that assumption, darling girl," he said in a dark quiet voice. "You are my responsibility so I get to decide. I will be damned if I lose anyone close to me again."

"What do you think will happen Magnus?" she asked softly, realizing the depth the conversation was descending into, but she was unwilling to surrender.

"No one would hurt me, not when you have such murderous intent gleaming in your eyes.

And I am not so stupid as to allow myself be compromised.

What do you fear will happen to me? There are no dangers in the English ballroom. "

"You think yourself wise enough against scandal or ruination but what if he was to force you?" he asked. "These men, no matter how harmless they look, are men, and you are a slight female. It would be all too easy to overpower you."

"That is ridiculous, Magnus, no one would risk doing that and besides I am always home and you hardly let me leave the ballrooms unsupervised. When would a gentleman find the time or place to commit such an act?"

"My coddling , as you so put it, protects you from such advances but I will not always be by your side to protect you," he stated. "What if you are married and he spends all your dowry and decides he needs a richer wife? Women have been murdered by their husbands for centuries."

"That hasn't happened in ages, Magnus. Your fear is unfounded," she retorted.

Now he was just being ridiculous.

"As long as there are gamblers, Cecilia, there will always be such men."

"So this is what this is all about? You are not content to leave yourself locked in the past, but you will do the same to me as well?

I have spent the past decade living a life that was not mine, in the hope that it might help you but break free from the past but I see now that it is hopeless.

You do not want to break free, you are comfortable there. "

Cecilia was aware that her words were hurtful and unnecessarily harsh, but she was beyond caring, filled with a rage decades old that longed to be given an outlet. Magnus looked at her at her now, his eyes brimming with stubbornness. He was not going to budge.

"How are you sure that your precious Lord Finch would not hurt me?

" she asked, now trying to convince her with logic, even though she could tell it was most likely a futile attempt.

"He doesn't like me or respect me. He finds fault with everything I do.

What if he ends up treating me in the manner you fear? "

"Because I had him investigated. He has no previous records of violence."

"What if you are wrong?" she asked.

"I am never wrong about people," he replied stubbornly.

"How..."

"Enough of the questions, Cecilia," he said, springing up in anger. "You will marry soon, and you will marry who I tell you to. You are lucky I give you time to at least know your suitors before I agree to the match. That is more than most are given and you will be grateful."

"You will forgive me if I do not have any gratitude towards you," she said stubbornly, folding her arms over her chest.

She knew the discussion was over and the fact she had been defeated again set an angry feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"You do not have any say in the matter, Cecilia."

With those words, he stalked away, apparently expecting that she would obey.

What he forgot was that she was no longer the timid younger sister he knew her to be. Now she was older, more mature and aware of what she wanted, and what she wanted was a way out of the suffocating cage she lived in, even if the escape was temporary.

So she swallowed her anger, walked upstairs to continue the book she was reading, as she waited for night to come and she could tick one more item off her infamous list. She had never known that a taste of the forbidden was this addicting, but it was, especially when a certain rake had offered to guide her one step after the other, on her trip down the road of forbidden pleasures.

He encouraged her to embrace dark temptation and she was slowly coming to realize that he was the greatest temptation of them all and his lure was too strong to resist. Strong enough for her to brave the chance of being caught, as she once again crept away from her family house under the inky cover of the night, climbing into the couch that would take her back into the lair of temptation.

One that she was only too eager to offer herself to.