Page 45 of Duke of Storme
After the baronet had departed with Mr. Calder, their voices fading as they disappeared around the castle’s stone walls, Diana turned to face Finn with eyes that sparked with sudden fire. He could see the rapid rise and fall of her breath beneath the wool of her cloak.
“What exactly was that all about?”
Finn’s hands clenched to fists at his sides, the knuckles white beneath the skin. “I don’t know what ye mean.”
“Don’t you?” She stepped closer, close enough that he could catch the faint scent of rose water that always seemed to clingto her, mingling now with the crisp Highland air and the distant smell of woodsmoke from the castle’s chimneys. “You were practically snarling at him!”
“I was not. I was bein’ perfectly polite to a guest.” The words came out strained because his jaw was tight with the effort of maintaining control.
“You were marking your territory like some sort of jealous Highland wolf in mating season!” Diana’s eyes flashed with a fire he’d never seen before. Her cheeks flushed pink from the autumn chill and her own rising temper.
“Well, maybe it’s because I am one.” The words tumbled out of him with a raw honesty that surprised them both.
Diana stared at him for a long moment. Her lips slightly parted as though see was seeing a new side of him, seeing him clearly for the first time. The wind caught a few loose strands of her hair, sending them dancing around her face in a way that made his fingers itch to reach out and smooth them back. Her breath came in small puffs of vapor in the cooling air, and he found himself oddly hypnotized by the rapid rise and fall of her chest beneath the wool of her cloak.
“Are you truly jealous?” The question came out softer than her previous words, but no less challenging. Her brown eyes searched his face with an intensity that made him feel utterly exposed, as though she could see straight through to the turmoil churning in his chest.
“Jealous? Of what?” But even as he spoke the denial, Finn could feel heat rising in his face, and his heart hammered against his ribs like a caged beast desperate for freedom.
“Of the fact that another man made me laugh. Of the fact that someone actually seems to enjoy my company.” Her voice gained traction with each word; the quiet steel he’d glimpsed during previous conversations now fully unsheathed. “Of the fact that Sir James looks at me like I’m worth listening to instead of being some sort of obligation to be endured?”
“Diana–”
“No.” She held up a hand. The gesture was so commanding that he actually stopped speaking despite himself. “You wanted me to be able to command a room? To stop apologizing for taking up space? Well, congratulations, Your Grace. Your lessons are working.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I am finally, perhaps for the very first time in my life, learning my worth. And I am beginning to think I deserve better than a husband who treats me like an inconvenience.”
The words hit him like a backhand to the cheek. Each syllable landed with the force of a Highland battle axe to his chest. “Is that what ye think? That I see ye as an inconvenience?”
“Don’t you? When was the last time you sought out my company because you simply wanted it, not because duty demanded it? When have you ever looked at me the way Sir James did – like I was someone worth knowing?”
Finn stared at her, his chest tighter than ever with some emotion he couldn’t quite name. When had she become this fierce creature who could strip him bare with nothing but words? When had his gentle Duchess learned to fight back with such devastating precision?”
“Ye don’t know what ye’re talkin’ about.”
“Don’t I?” Diana moved closer, close enough that he could see the rapid pulse beating at the base of her throat and feel the warmth radiating from her skin despite the Highland chill. “Then tell me, Finn, honestly. When you look at me, what do you see?”
The use of his given name affected him more than ever, hitting him like lightning, raw and electric and completely unwanted.
“I see…” He stopped because the words stuck in his throat like broken glass.
“You see what?”
I see the woman who could destroy every wall I’ve built around my heart. I see the future I’m too afraid to reach for.
“I see my Duchess,” he said instead, the words falling flat and unnecessarily formal between them, like stones thrown into still water.
Something flickered across Diana’s face – disappointment, perhaps, or resignation. The fire in her eyes dimmed slightly, and Finn felt an unexpected urge to take back the words, to say something that would bring back that fierce light to their brown depths.
“Of course you do.”
She turned to go, her wool cloak swirling around her ankles, but Finn caught her arm, his fingers wrapping around her elbow with gentle firmness.
“Diana, wait.”
“What?” She didn’t turn around, but she didn’t pull away either.
