Page 61 of Enticing the Devil

When she said nothing in reply, he turned to stalk toward the low burning fire. Needing something to do, he crouched before the hearth and set about rousing the flames back to life. Having his back to her made it easier to continue.

“I wanted time to overcome any objections your father might express.”

There was a pregnant pause following the statement. Then Anne asked in a voice that was tense and quiet, “And did he? Object?”

Beynon’s stomach knotted sharply as he used an iron poker to stir the coals.

Lord Humphries’s response to Beynon’s confession of having compromised his daughter still shocked and infuriated him. He’d fully expected the man to be furious that someone so socially inferior would be taking his daughter as bride. He’d braced himself for a father’s righteous outrage that his daughter had been dishonored in such a way. But he never would have anticipated the man’s utter disrespect of his own child.

The silence following her question lengthened until she finally spoke in a voice leveled and flat. “What did he say?”

Beynon rose and turned.

She was still standing where he’d left her—tall and proud and unflinching. She deserved so much better.

Beynon had no intention of repeating anything the despicable man had said. Clearing his throat, he replied simply, “He offered no objections to our marriage.”

She didn’t seem surprised by her father’s acquiescence. “I imagine he was quite relieved to be rid of me,” she observed with calm resignation.

That she would take her father’s lack of protection and concern for her well-being so readily infuriated him all over again. What had she endured from the man to expect so little from him?

“It doesn’t matter,” she noted. “I object. And my agreement should be the only one that matters.”

She was right. But it was far too late. As frustration mixed with the guilt and regret inside him, he slowly approached her. No more prevaricating. No more apologies or skirting of the truth.

Her nostrils flared and her lashes fluttered subtly before she steeled herself once again and tipped her head back to stare up at him as he came to a stop in front of her. Vulnerability and stubborn pride were still obvious in her posture, but there was a glitter of temper in her eyes, buried deep and tightly reined, but present none the less. The sight of it stirred him. So gently refined yet so fierce.

Fierce and passionate.

He recalled the way she’d melted in his arms even as she’d clasped him to her. How she’d wrapped her long legs and elegant arms around his body as she accepted him into hers.

In an unwitting attempt at halting the rise of temperature in his blood, he lowered his gaze from the fire in her eyes. But the graceful arch of her neck was no less enticing. The steady, frantic thrum of her pulse visible beneath her soft skin. He wanted to claim that pulse with his mouth, lave it with his tongue, and scrape it with the edge of his teeth until her head fell back in surrender and her body arched into his.

His body hardened with shocking swiftness and intensity. Every inch of him was suddenly desperate to feel her against him. To feel her surrounding him with heat and sighs and lovely grasping hunger. A frantic fuck against the door hadn’t been nearly enough to assuage the yearning inside him. The desire to do better by her—to take his time—to lay claim to her pleasure over and over.

Despite how dreadfully unmatched they were and how unsuited she was to life as a farmer’s wife, he still wanted her. His body strained for hers. His insides clenched with need.

And her bed was only steps away.

His forced his gaze to meet hers again, even though he knew it was a risk. There was no way she wouldn’t see the heat and lust in his eyes, in the furious tension claiming his body, the hard clench of his jaw.

But her expression told him a great deal as well. Her eyes widened and her lips parted on a sharp, deep inhale as her arms fell heavily to her sides. If she recognized his sudden desire for what it was, she was not unaffected by it. One purposeful step forward and he could take her in his arms.

But that’s what had gotten them into this in the first place. And once again, he’d prove himself the brute everyone believed him to be. He had to fight it. Deny it. Refuse to surrender to the need clawing through him even now.

His voice was rough as he spoke. “You cannot convince me you didn’t understand the ramifications of what we did last night.”

Her lashes flickered, but she held his stare to say with a hint of challenge, “I’m afraid such things were rather far from my mind at the time.”

Though her words inspired another jolt of lust through his system, he forcefully ignored it. “I took advantage—”

“Don’t you dare,” she warned in a heavy whisper.

Beynon scowled. “I had no right—”

“Don’t make me a victim,” she demanded with quiet ferocity. “I was there, Beynon. You took nothing I didn’t willingly give.”

Again, the details of her passion rushed through him like tingling flames, making his belly clench and he curled his hands into tight fists. His throat was raw as he muttered in reply, “Then you cannot deny what must happen now. Restitution must be made.”

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