Page 72 of Taken By the Beastly Duke

She sighed and looked away from him. "About a month ago." She answered.

He turned away from her, squeezing his hands into fists as he tried to suppress the storm of emotions her appearance set off in him.

"Why now, Lady Sutherford?" He asked angrily. "I am happily married and no longer hiding from society. Why did you choose to haunt me now? What do you want from me?"

"I don’t want you to think I only asked you to break off the marriage because of your scars." she answered. "She told me my words had made you hate yourself so much and I felt horrible for making you feel that way."

"What did you expect me to believe? You could barely look at me." He answered honestly, unable to hide the irritation in his voice. "You flinched when I sat next to you."

"I admit it was wrong of me to act as horribly as I did but I only used that as an excuse." She sighed. "Anthony… you and I both knew it was never going to work with us. What we would have had would have been a loveless, passionless, perfunctory marriage to satisfy our families and I wanted more than that. Deep down, I know you wanted that too. Else you would have married me before going off to war."

He frowned as he realized he wasn’t exactly wrong. He could have married her if he was really wanted to before leaving as was customary, but he had not.

But he had not thought that perhaps he had been holding out for a love match. That was a notion he had thought only fools held on to. At least he had thought so until he had experienced marriage to Victoria.

Theirs had started off loveless but at least there had been mutual attraction and passion between them and with time, they had begun to see areas where they were compatible.

He had not believed it was possible to enjoy marriage but each day he awoke next to Victoria, he found new things about her that he…loved.

Had he truly gone and fallen in love with Victoria?

"I see how you are with your duchess and I know it would never have been the same with me." She smiled softly. "I am almost jealous of how much you two love each other."

"We are not a love match." He argued.

"You must be blind if you don’t see how much that girl loves or foolish to think you’re not in love with her, Anthony." She scoffed. "When have you ever danced more than one dance with a woman? And for the fun of it? Anthony, you have been smiling and laughing with her and everyone has been saying the same thing. You are utterly besotted with your wife, and she obviously is besotted with you too."

"She is my wife," he argued. "I was only performing my duty by dancing with her."

"And you are under no obligation to," she retorted shaking her head. "How many husbands have you seen dancing with their wives?"

Only a few, if he chose to be honest.

"And you have barely been able to keep your eyes or hands off her." She smiled. "This is more than lust, Anthony. That darling girl has somehow won your heart. A feat that no one else had been able to do even though they'd tried."

She was smiling so brightly at the fact that he was reminded of their conversations when they had been younger. They had not made good lovers because there had been no attraction between them but she had been one of his best friends and closest confidantes.

He realized he had been hurt by her rejection more because he had lost a good friend than a partner.

"I have missed you, Roseline." He smiled knowing how much she hated when he used her full name.

"You know I hate when you do that." She groaned. "But I have missed you dearly too, Anthony. You must introduce me to your wife."

"I will but you will excuse me." He told her, looking around and trying to spot her. "I must find her and tell her that I love her."

He leaves her in the balcony but not before seeing the wide grin spread across her face.

Now that the realization had struck him, he wondered how he could have been so foolish to deny it all this time.

He had fallen in love with her from the moment she had looked him in the eye and told him not to marry her sister and he had fallen deeper when he saw her defend him even when she had not seen him and did not know enough about him.

It had grown with every time she laughed and every time she bit her lip when nervous and every time she looked at him like he was a puzzle she wanted to solve.

It was her gentle words and her willingness to care for a man so broken and scarred despite all the judgement she would have received from society.

He had gone and fallen in love with a woman so selfless, she put the saints to shame and it did not scare him any longer.

He found himself excited at the prospect that she possibly loved him too.

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