Page 26 of The Duchess and the Beast
He shook from raw emotion now. His skin flushed with a heady mix of rage and desire, his breaths short and heavy. As he looked down at her, his lips parted slightly, his teeth baring in a silent, primal challenge.
“And if I don’t?” His voice was a husky growl, charged with a dangerous allure as he leaned closer, surrendering to the animalistic urges that cried within as he sensed her calling for them.
Eyes meeting. Lips licking in anticipation. Sparks flew between the two, setting the room alight. He might have been a monster, but in this moment, Virtue played the tamer to his wildness, and she had him in her thrall. He realized then that any fear she feltwas tinged with excitement, a thrill she was eager to explore, a craving for the edge of danger that he embodied in her eyes...
Without conscious thought, driven by a force he could no longer control, Sebastian surged forward, his lips finding hers in a fierce, crushing kiss that had her backpedaling a few steps. He half-expected her to recoil, but instead, her hand flew up, clutching his collar, drawing him closer still. Their lips crashed together with a passion only hindered by the mask, yet he ignored the obstruction, overwhelmed by the taste of her, the urge to deepen the kiss consuming him...
But then, in the midst of their intense embrace, Virtue’s hand drifted up to his face again, and again, her slender fingers sought the edge of his mask. It was subtle in the moment, and expected, yet it ignited a surge of panic in Sebastian. The terrifying possibility that she might recoil in horror at his true appearance was more than he could bear.
“No!” he snarled, and in a reflex born of fear, pushed her back without thinking.
The shove was harder than he expected, sending her stumbling and crashing into the side of the bed. She yelped with surprise and Sebastian, horrified by what he had done, made a move to go to her, only to catch the look in her eyes and freeze.
Fear.Realfear this time. Eyes wide, mouth agape, he could sense the terror in her as she finally came to understand who it was she had married.Whatit was she had married.
Sebastian stood frozen, one hand out to help her, but unable to do just that. For a moment, the two simply stared at one another, neither knowing how to act or what to say. But that look in her eyes… it was enough to jolt Sebastian back to the grim reality they faced.
Overwhelmed, he fell back, stumbling toward the door. Only upon reaching it did he compel himself to face her once more, but the sight of Virtue, still pressed against the bed, eyes still wide with apprehension as if worried he might suddenly attack her, twisted his gut with self-loathing.
“So—sorry,” he whispered, his voice low and laden with remorse. “For everything.” And then he was gone.
He had been so close. For a brief moment, Sebastian had dared to imagine that Virtue was able to handle the side of him that he’d kept hidden from the world for so long. The side that the mask covered. The side that he had little control over, no matter how hard he tried.
But the reality was it could never be the case.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“If you recall, I did express my reservations about this marriage,” Simon drawled as he puffed on the end of his cigar, building the smoke in his lungs before releasing it in one large billow. “But alas, you never listen.”
Sebastian parted his lips to respond, to rebuke the point, for it felt irrelevant now. A problem of the past that no longer mattered, and harkening on the past now wouldn’t provide the solution he needed. Yet before he could have the chance to speak, he was cut off.
“Are you genuinely astonished,” Ralph Merchant, another friend of Sebastian’s, spoke up as he too lit the end of his cigar. “When has Greystone ever heeded our good advice? You’re as likely to convince a dog and cat to breed.”
“An apt point.”
“It does beg the question, however,” Ralph mused, releasing another dense plume into the dimly lit smoking room of the club, “whether the marriage was ever a judicious arrangement. Wellington here could have simply settled your debts, old chap.”
“Indeed I could, and I would have been honored to,” Simon affirmed with a slight tilt of his head. “But he refused.”
“And further to that point,” Ralph added with a cough. “Where was my invitation to the ceremony? I presume it slipped the two of you's minds to dispatch it, aye?”
Again, Sebastian opened his mouth to respond, and again he was cut off.
“In his defense, the affair was quite intimate,” Simon quipped with a mischievous grin. “Reserved only for close acquaintances.”
“And what, pray tell, am I?!”
“Too handsome for your own good, old boy,” Simon chided. “The very last thing Greystone needed was you overshadowing him on his wedding day. Heaven knows his bride might have been having second thoughts as it was.”
“Ah, naturally,” Ralph chuckled, casually brushing back his golden locks from his forehead, his exaggerated smile revealing a flawless set of teeth. “That explains your presence then, aye, Wellington?”
“One devilishly good-looking confidant sufficed,” Simon shot back playfully. “Two would be an outright affront to her sensibilities.”
“Oh, come now.” Ralph blew through his lips. “You are hardly the epitome of allure. Were it not for our friend’s unfortunate scars, you would likely find yourself the third most handsome man present today at Adderly’s.”
“Lucky for the scarring then, isn’t it,” Simon retorted with a wry edge.
“A shame about the personality, though,” Ralph countered and chuckled to himself. “At least Greystone has the option of concealing his visage behind a mask. While you, Wellington, can do nothing for the bland drivel that pours from your mouth whenever you choose to open it.”