“I was not the one who said she had known too many men,” the Duke pointed out, his lips curling into a smirk.
“Perhaps one is too many,” Charlotte replied.
“Are you suggesting that I am too much for you?” His eyes glittered again.
“Do you always assume that what a woman is saying is in fact about you?” Charlotte asked, exasperatedly.
“Do you always avoid questions with another question?” the Duke retorted.
“Only when I have no wish to answer.” Charlotte looked up at the Duke.
For a moment, the air around them seemed to still. A cool breeze washed over them. They stood, neither willing to back down from the other.
“Then it seems we are at an impasse,” the Duke murmured.
“It would seem so,” she agreed, still refusing to back down.
Her heart was beating fast, and she was aware that she was standing very close to a man she had barely spent more than a handful of hours with. Yet she did not move away.He needs to know that he cannot push me around.
“Then there is only one course of action available to us,” he said.
“Which is?”
“Negotiation.” The word hung between them, heavy with meaning.
“What do you propose?” Charlotte canted her head towards him.
“I will tone down my charm though it may break your family’s heart. But you must do something for me.” His eyes glinted, a calculating look that reminded her of a wolf sizing up its prey.
“What?” she tried to sound wholly unruffled but was not sure how successful she had been, especially not as he grinned at her.
“Well, we need to sell this falsehood to my family and yours, or the entire thing will have been for nothing.” Dominic gestured around them.
“If you are suggesting what I think you are suggesting —” she began, but he cut her off, laughing softly, a challenge in his eyes.
“What exactly do you think I am suggesting?” His voice was full of temptation.
“Something lewd, no doubt.”
“I would never suggest such a thing. Not to a paragon of virtue such as yourself,” Dominic teased and then became more serious. “No, my request is much more… personal.”
“What is it?” Charlotte folded her arms across her chest.
“I will keep my distance from your family if you call me Dominic.”
“You want me to call you by your Christian name?” Charlotte took a step back, shaking her head.
Just thinking the word felt oddly intimate. She wondered if he had felt the same when he said her name at dinner.Perhaps he is so used to over familiarity that such things do not bother him at all.
“When we are around people, yes. We must seem as though we are in love with each other, and if we are being overly formal, then it will seem rather strange,” he pointed out reasonably.
“Fine. As you have already used my Christian name, it would make sense that I use yours,” she agreed.
“Good.” Dominic grinned a predatory grin. “Then say it.”
“Right now?” Charlotte arched an eyebrow at him, her heart speeding up as she did so.I cannot let him see this.
“Yes.”
