Page 98 of The Duke's Second Bride
“I love you, too,” he replied, kissing her mouth and then the top of her head. He stared into her eyes, feeling so much love he thought he might burst from it. “And I promise never, ever to let you forget it.”
Christian and Ava barely let each other out of bed for the next few days.
However, once the initial fervor of coupling had been somewhat sated and lessened, he knew he had something he needed to do.
He knocked on the unfortunately now-familiar door of the Dunfair townhouse.
When the butler answered the door, Christian didn’t even give him a chance to protest; instead, he muscled past the man.
“I do say, that is not allowed!” the butler protested. “Lord Dunfair is not even at home!”
Christian ignored him, making a beeline for the drawing room.
When Lord Dunfair saw him, he rose to his feet. The man’s face had entirely healed from their last altercation. For some reason, that infuriated Christian all the more.
“Your Grace,” Lord Dunfair sneered, shockingly glib for someone who had had his ears soundly boxed by the other man not too long ago. “To what do I owe the distinct displeasure?”
Christian took several slow, measured steps forward. He relished seeing how, despite the other man’s attempts to appear cool and collected, Brandon still swallowed nervously at Christian’s approach.
“My wife’s maid came to me the other day with the strangest story,” he said.
“Did she, now?” asked Lord Dunfair.
“Indeed,” Christian affirmed. “She said that you accosted my wife by carriage while she and her maid were trying to walk home from her friend’s house, and that you persisted in trying to lure them into your carriage even after my wife had told you no several times in a row.”
Brandon scoffed, but didn’t reply.”
“Now,” Christian continued, “Kate isn’t a liar, so I know she must have been telling me the truth. But it struck me as, frankly, bizarre, considering I thought I had made myself quite plain the last time we spoke. I believe I had warned you thoroughly against attempting to make any contact with my wife.”
“You did,” Lord Dunfair said.
“Well, perhaps I wasn’t clear enough,” Christian said, stepping even closer.
Lord Dunfair clearly wanted to step back, but he resisted the urge. “I think you should worry less about me, and more about hiring staff who aren’t quite so imaginati?—”
Before he could finish the sentence, Christian punched him harder than he had ever punched anyone before in his life.
Lord Dunfair fell to the ground immediately, gasping in pain.
“I would have thought you would have learned to dodge better, since our last encounter,” Christian remarked casually, standing above the man and watching him writhe in fear on the floor. “Moreover, I hope for your own sake that you have learned to listen better, because I only have one last warning to give you.” He leaned down. “Are you listening?”
Lord Dunfair nodded with a whimper, clearly terrified, though he had nowhere he could even crawl to in an escape, not with the way Christian was looming over him thus.
“Leave England,” Christian said. “For a long, long time. If you ever make the poor decision to return, you will stay away from my wife. You will avoid any room she is in. If you so much as look at her, I will destroy you. If you dare to breathe the same air as her, you will find your breath swiftly leaving your body. Do I make myself clear?”
For once, Lord Dunfair had no clever words or snide expression in reply. Instead, he simply whimpered, shaking and nodding his assent.
“Good,” Christian said lowly, his voice an angry growl. “What’s more, I think you will find that you are the one with the wildly overactive imagination. If you dare to tell anyone you even saw me today, your destruction will be all the greater.” He nodded. “Good day.”
Lord Dunfair was speechless.
Christian straightened back to standing, leaving Lord Dunfair on the ground. Then he smoothed out his coat and walked straight back out the door, leaving the butler flabbergasted.
As he walked out, he felt settled in his belief that he would never see Lord Dunfair again.
And more importantly, Ava would never have to see Lord Dunfair again.
He could not protect her from every one of life’s dangers, but he rested easy in the knowledge that he had at least done all that was in his power to protect her from this one.
