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But she was right. The necklace belonged to the Duchess of Wakefield.

He turned to look at her, this woman who had given her body and perhaps her soul to him. This woman who knew him like no other on earth. This woman he could never, never honor as he should.

As he wanted to. “Yes.”

“Penelope will like it,” Artemis said, her voice very calm, her beautiful eyes wide and unblinking. She was always brave, his Diana. “She loves jewels, and the emeralds are magnificent. She’ll look gorgeous in them.”

Her very bravery broke something inside of him. She showed no trace of jealousy, no rage that he might bed another woman, and somehow that made him want to break her, too. To make her say how obscene this was. To make her put her rightful claim on him.

“She’ll be magnificent,” he said cruelly. “Her black hair will make the emeralds glow. Perhaps I’ll buy her emerald earbobs to match.”

She watched him steadily. “Will you?”

And he knew somehow, no matter what happened, that he’d never buy Penelope Chadwicke emerald earbobs. “No.”

He shut his eyes, breathing. If she could withstand this, then so could he. At least he’d have her—no matter that it would be only partially and badly. He could not give her up, so he vowed to take what he could of her.

Maximus closed and locked the box before taking Artemis’s hand and pulling her gently down beside him in the bed. He arranged the covers over her as tenderly as if she were a queen and he a lowly cavalier. “I’ll ask your brother in the morning.”

She huffed and laid her head on his shoulder. “I know you think Apollo is a murderer, but he couldn’t have been part of your parents’ murder. He was much too young.”

He reached to pinch out the candle. “I know. But he may know the murderer—or someone who does. In any case I must question him.”

“Mmm,” she murmured sleepily. “Maximus?”

“Yes?”

“Did you have my room searched at Pelham House?”

He tilted his head to peer at her face in the dark. She seemed perfectly serious. “What?”

She traced a circle on his chest with her finger. “The morning you sent the messenger to inform me you’d rescued Apollo, someone searched my rooms.” She knit her brows and looked at him. “When I realized that the emerald was real, I started wearing it all the time. I just didn’t know what else to do with it, it was so expensive. And then when I got your signet ring I strung it on the same chain.”

aughed then, for she knew he didn’t truly want such a biddable doll. She squirmed and turned in a sudden movement so that she lay facing him.

“No, I’d hunt with you by your side,” she said as she reached up to pull his face down to hers. “I am your equal, my lord. Your equal and mate.”

“So you are,” he breathed, and bit her lip.

She tasted rain on his mouth. Rain and wine and something much darker. Something was driving him, and she needed to talk to him—about her future and about releasing Apollo. But right now, in this moment, she wanted none of reality. Reality was a screeching harridan who never could be made happy.

If she couldn’t have happiness, then she could at least have this.

She opened her mouth wide and bit her mate back, digging her nails into the nape of his neck as if to hold him as fiercely as he held her.

His chest rubbed against her nipples, and he felt warm and male. His arms braced on either side of her head, a welcome cage. And between her legs he worked his cock against her, making her slick.

He pulled back. “Like this.”

And he flipped her again.

She growled a protest and he actually laughed.

“Magnificent Diana,” he murmured into her ear, rubbing himself against her like a great tiger. “I’m going to fuck you now.”

She arched against him, part in protest at being used so cavalierly, part in sheer excitement. She felt his cock sliding into her crevasse, seeking, prodding. One day she wanted to see him—all of him. Wanted to touch and taste and explore this magnificent body, but at the moment, all she wanted was to have him in her.

She got her wish.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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