Page 74 of The Phantom Duke

“I will not live on the edge of a knife, Duke of Winterleigh. And I certainly will not allow Gilbert to have any more uncertainty in his young life. So, I will know now!” Maria all but stamped her foot.

Damien rounded on her. He wanted to tell her that it was over, be rid of her now that the ghouls seemed to have been dissuaded. His mouth opened and he pointed at her. And his finger trembled. He lowered it, staring at her. He saw her standing before him proudly, controlling her fear, defying it and him. He was so accustomed to being looked at with fear.

I am cursed. Everyone is afraid of me. Everyone has always been afraid of me.

But the fear which Maria sought to master was different. She was not afraid of the Phantom. Not afraid of the mask or the curse. Damien was afraid of it, afraid of what it could do. Maria looked at him with open eyes and an open heart, holding back nothing. She was afraid of being rejected. Of being unable to protect her charge, her adoptive son.

She is not afraid of me at all. How is she not afraid of me?

“I do not know what to do with you,” he said. “You knew I was a monster when you married me, and you expect?—”

“You are not a monster,” she said. “And I expect you to be better than most men. I know that youcanbe. I know that youare.”

Damien laughed in disbelief. “What ever would give you that ridiculous notion?”

Something in her face softened. “I was speaking with Evelina about—about you.”

His jaw clenched. “Were you?”

She stepped closer. “Yes. And I want to thank you,” Maria said slowly. “For… what you gave me.”

He stiffened, uncertain of what she might say next. “I gave you nothing.”

“That is not true. You gave me something that I know not every woman receives. Even those who are married. Even those that are happily married, if such women exist.”

“It is said, but I do not believe it.”

“Nor I. But I experienced something that my friends have never spoken of. If they had experienced the pleasure that you have showed me, I think it would be all they spoke of!”

He knew what she was referring to. It set a glowing warmth within him. He knew that men cared little for it, concerning themselves only with their own pleasure or the need to procreate.

“I was thinking of my own pleasure, I assure you,” he said, clenching his own emotions tight, attempting to throttle the life from them. “To indulge in such intimacy is a thing of great allure.”

“Well, I am glad that you are capable of such generosity even in your most selfish moments,” Maria said, wryly.

“Say the words. Set me free or keep me chained to you, and you will find I am the happiest prisoner you have ever known,” Maria said with a smile.

Damien chuckled, and Maria’s smile widened.

“A prisoner? What a tempting offer,” Damien said.

The very suggestion awakened something fierce within him, as he imagined Maria bound to his bed, not with chains but with lengths of silk about her delicate wrists and ankles.

“Isn’t it, though?” Maria said.

The tension between them eased with the laughter.

“Will I be the only one, though?” she asked, her expression coy.

That sent a jolt through Damien. He stepped back, snatching his hand away from her, half turning, looking back with suspicious eyes. Had she learned about the prisoners he kept in his dungeon?

“What do you mean?” he demanded.

Maria looked confused, and Damien began to suspect that he had misunderstood her intentions. He withheld a sigh of relief.

“It was another joke. It does not mean anything. I did not wish to cause offence.”

“It does not cause offence, it causes suspicion.”