Page 48 of The Duke and the Accidental Bride

He scoffed. “I do not know what you think you saw, but I can assure you that I was not flirting.”

“So you say.”

“So I do,” he said sternly. “Whatever it is that you think of me, I would never do such a thing as that. We are married, Isabella. And that means something.”

“Then she was flirting with you!” Isabella attempted, desperate to put herself back in control of this argument. “I know a woman trying to seduce a man when I see one.”

“That was not what was happening.”

“And I know a man accepting those advances when I see it,” she continued to fire. “I am sorry that I was there tonight. If I had not been, I am certain you would have had more fun.”

Jaw clenched, she saw his eyes flash fire and brimstone. His body began to tremble. The anger that he had worked so hard to suppress all week slowly boiling to the surface.

That’s right. Just like that...

“That isnotwhat happened.” He spoke through his teeth. “And I will thank you not to speak of that which you do not know – to not accuse me of such slander.”

“Who was she then?” Isabella demanded, her excitement building, while she maintained her angered temperament. “Hhmm?”

“Nobody.”

“That was not how it --”

“I do not care how it looked!” Duncan roared suddenly. “She is an old friend and that is all – which is more than you deserve to be told! I will not stand here and defend myself because you have suddenly decided to pretend to care.”

His words washed over her like flames. Hot and heated and fiery, she took a step back as if he had slapped her. Heart rate spiking, a tremor of fear crept up inside of her because the demented look of rage on his face was beyond what she had imagined.

But still, Isabella stayed strong. Stubborn. Determined. And, most of all, excited beyond anything that she had felt all week.In my entire life, for that matter.

“I am not pretending to care,” she shot back. “I do care. As is my right.”

As she spoke the words, she expected them to come out as a lie. Only there was a truth behind them, one which she realized as soon as they were spoken that Duncan could see.

“Really?” he frowned, sounding cautious now. “You expect me to believe that.”

“It’s the truth!”

“And I am supposed to believe that? That suddenly you care about this marriage when all week, I have watched you itch and fidget at the mere idea of being congenial. Most women would count themselves lucky if they had a week as ours just was. You...” He scoffed again. “You treat it like torture.”

“That is not true!” Isabella cried. “And I have every right to be upset.”

“Upset, yes,” he agreed. “But not hysterical.”

Her eyes flashed anger. If she was being entirely truthful, those words alone might have cut her so deep that she would have bledout all over the carpet. But he assumed that she was lying, which she realized she could use.

“Fine then,” she said with a shrug. “If that is the case, perhaps I will take a leaf out of your book.”

“What do you mean?”

“You wish to sleep with other women?”

“I do not wish to sleep –”

“Then what would you say to letting me sleep with other men?” she spoke over him; his eyes widened and she could see how angry that suggestion made him. “An open marriage, I believe is the term. Surely, you will not be so against that?”

“Isabella…” He groaned and massaged his temples as if to calm down. “I will pretend I did not hear that.”

“Why? What is the point? As this week has proven, you and I…” She shook her head. “We cannot work.”

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