Page 27 of A Night of Passion with the Duke

Their marriage had been founded on lies that just kept piling up. Was this to be her future?

Not only would she have a loveless marriage but one based on lies and deception.

“Edward…”

She held her peace until the bath had been filled.

“That will be all,” he told the maids. “Thank you.”

Hot tears pricked her eyes.

“Why did you marry me?”

ChapterNine

“Why did you marry me?”

Her words hung in the air between them, bitter and thick with pain Edward knew she had every right to feel, especially after how he’d behaved the entire day.

How was he to confess that his silence had nothing to do with her?

“Arabella…”

“I won’t stand for any more lies between us, Edward,” she snapped. Her eyes were wet with tears, and even he couldn’t deny the sight discomfited him. He’d made her cry. “I would have been happier if you’d left me to deal with the repercussions of my foolishness that night rather than trapped me in this farce of a marriage. Am I that far beneath your station that it would have shamed you to inform your family? Is that it?”

“It has nothing to do with your station, Ara,” he answered, looking away from her. “Believe me. You have nothing to worry about from my family. I assure you of that.”

“I find that hard to believe, considering how everything you’ve told me up till now has been a lie.” Her words stung with truth, but he’d be damned if he let her insult his honor. “Am I to believe this is how it will be between us, going forward?”

“I understand you are hurt, but I won’t have you insult my honor.” He glared at her. “I might have kept some truths from you, but I have never lied to you, and I don’t intend to.”

“But you were more than willing to lie to my family and, by extension, yours. That’s a lot of lies, Your Grace.”

“I told you to call me Edward,” he reminded her. “We are married now. It wouldn’t do to call me by my title.”

She turned away from him, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

“You’re making me feel like I’ve forced my way into your carefully planned life and upset everything,” she whispered, her voice so low that he wouldn’t have heard it if he hadn’t been admiring the way her wedding gown hugged her figure. “I feel I’ve pushed you into something you’d spend the rest of your life regretting.”

He sighed, stepping close to her—so close that he could smell the lavender essence she’d no doubt bathed in. He didn’t trust himself to touch her and stop. Not when his lust had been burning inside him since the moment he’d seen her walk into the church. Especially not when her lush breasts had pressed against his arm while she’d slept in the carriage.

“It was I who called you to that chamber, Ara,” he muttered, hoping his words did something to chase away the guilt she shouldered heavily. “I should never have put you in such a position in the first place.”

It was he who was to blame for their predicament. He was a rake by all rights, but he should have known better than to dally with an innocent, especially not in her home, where she’d no doubt be under the watchful eyes of her family.

“Forgive me if I’ve made you feel I blame you for our predicament. As much as it might not seem so, I don’t regret being married to you. I wouldn’t want to be married to anyone else,” he admitted. “I will inform my family come morning that you are my wife. I promise you that they will treat you with nothing but love and acceptance.”

Arabella sighed as if she’d resigned herself to her fate rather than trust his words.

“You should bathe while the water’s still warm,” he told her, stepping out of the room to give her privacy. “I’ll have them send up a plate to you.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You must eat.”

“I—”

“You’ve barely had anything to eat all day, so you will eat what they bring up, am I understood?”

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