Page 32 of The Duke and the Hellion Bride

He knew deep down that his brother’s death wasn’t purely his fault. His brother had died due to poor health, brought on by alcoholism. But Magnus hadn’t been there to stop it as he should have been – forcing the role of duke onto his brother’s shoulders was likely what had caused it in the first place. And when he had returned, he hadn’t done nearly enough to try and stop it.

None of this was Diana’s fault, of course. And her attention to his nieces, what he wished for them, wasn’t a reflection on how he should feel about her. Yes, they had entered this marriage as a convenience and nothing more, but did it have to stay that way?

Despite himself, Magnus began to smile, tinges of excitement prickling his senses because he wondered if his friend was right. More than that, he hoped he was.

“And there it is,” Theodore said with a proud nod. “He has come around.”

“And now I have to suffer through you gloating,” Magnus sighed. “I wonder if it is worth it.”

Theodore shrugged. “I am rather insightful, if you give me a chance. So, why you have me, take advantage. What should we tackle next? Your relationship with your father? Perhaps those nightmares you once told me you suffer through. Or even --”

“Enough,” Magnus said, feigning a smile, even if he was slightly annoyed. Theodore, although meaning well, often went too far. His father was one thing, but those nightmares to which he spoke... those were a dark secret that he regretted mentioning, done so in his darkest hours, not to be discussed ever. “Unless you want to see why everyone is so afraid of me.”

Theordore looked nonplussed. “And there is the other side of the coin... no, wait. There have already been two sides. The other side of the triangle?” He rubbed his chin. “What is an apt metaphor?”

“What are you talking about man?”

“You wish to be with your wife? You wish for her to want to be with you? Well, I have some bad news for you, my friend. Woman...” He clicked his tongue. “They are not like us men.”

“Thank God for that.”

“They are not one to give in to sexual desires purely for the sake of carnal delight.”

“Meaning?”

“It won’t be enough to simply tell your wife you find her attractive and want to bed her. If you wish for this to work, you need to do the one thing that you are perhaps worse at doing than any man I have ever met.”

“Which is?”

He looked flatly at Magnus. “Opening up. Talking about yourself. Giving her more to latch onto than your rugged good looks and supposed charm, of which I am yet to see proof of, for I guarantee that the moment you bed her, she is going to want more. And you, Your Grace, are as closed off as a brick wall surrounded by a high fence, girt by a moat filled with sharks.”

Magnus blew through his lips. “I am not that bad.”

“You are worse.”

He waved his friend down. “You are getting ahead of yourself, Theodore. For all we know, she will want nothing to do with me anyway, making your point moot.”

“And if she does want something to do with you?”

Magnus shifted uncomfortably because he knew his friend to be right. He also knew that when it came to talking about his past, his dark secrets and trauma, there wasn’t a force on this earth that could pry it out of him. “Then I will cross that bridge when it comes.”

“A bridge that in your estimation will be on fire and guarded by --”

“Will you stop with the metaphors!”

Theordore grinned. “Just trying to help.”

ChapterTwelve

Diana never thought that writing a simple letter would feel so dangerous. Words were all they were. And they weren’t even controversial. A simple invite written to her mother and cousin to visit her in her new home at their earliest possible convenience.

Yet her hand quite shook as she penned the letter. Her heart raced. The hairs on the back of her neck stood to attention; part anxiety, part fear, part excitement. It was so much more than just a letter, she knew, and the consequences might very well be dire.

So what if they are? I am doing nothing wrong. This is my home. And I should be allowed to invite my mother and cousin to visit me, if I so choose.

The reason that she felt as rebellious as she did was rather silly, but that just spoke to how strange all of this was. She had not bothered asking her husband permission before penning the letter, deciding that he could and would find out whenever he chose to speak to her next. If he did.

In fact, she couldn’t even say for sure if he would be upset. She expected that he would be, and she sensed that he was a man who liked to be in control. But at the same time, the contradictions in the way he behaved toward her were so vast and unexplainable that she truly could not say for sure how he might react.

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