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Robert stared at his traitorous wife-to-be. Another woman he was about to marry. Another woman choosing another man to bed. He watched as minute features changed across her expressive face. She shut her eyes tightly, looking as if she were on a torture rack.
“I have a few conditions of my own,” she blurted before opening her eyes again. “If we are to be married, I want them to be written into a contract.” She looked confidently into his eyes, although her hands were fisted at her sides, betraying her nervousness. She had quite the nerve indeed.
“Please.” Robert indicated a chair across from him, curious as to her conditions.
Lady Julie took a couple of steps and sat gingerly in the offered seat.
“I’m listening,” he said, as he settled in his own chair.
“First, I want your help in getting my sister out of the asylum,” she said evenly.
Robert blinked. This was the last thing he’d imagined her asking him. True, when she had talked about her sister last night, he’d registered hurt in her eyes, but he’d assumed it was more due to the embarrassment of it all. He’d never imagined this spoiled, self-involved creature actually cared for her unfortunate sibling.
“She would live with us,” she continued, “and be treated with respect.” She blinked several times.
Robert thought he saw her eyes glistened with unshed tears. He frowned at the thought.
“Go on,” he said when she obviously expected an answer.
“I—” She swallowed audibly and took a full breath of air, her chest rising and falling with the effort.
Robert cursed his traitorous eyes for following the movement of her breasts.
“I will give you heirs, however many you want.” She cleared her throat before continuing. This concession seemed to cost her a great deal by the way she pushed it past her tight throat. “And then Mary and I get to live in the country. You’ll settle an allowance on us, so we are not to want for anything.” She closed her eyes briefly. “I understand you want to prepare your heirs to inherit the dukedom. But I’d ask you to leave the children to live with Mary and me until they are old enough.” She looked up at him. “Mary’s my sister,” she clarified. “She is not insane.” She paused. “She’s just… Different.”
“Anything else?” Robert was touched by her defense of her sister and even more by the insistence to keep their children by her side. He’d expected her to birth them and throw them at him, out of her sight. She kept surprising him at every turn. Maybe he was mistaken about her after all.
Lady Julie quietly shook her head.
“And you agree to all of my conditions?” he asked.
She looked up at him then, her eyes full of pain and grief. “I do,” she said with all the conviction of a virgin, throwing herself on the sacrificial altar.
“No late-night rendezvous with any of the lords?”
She shook her head.
“It’s not enough,” he said, getting up from his chair. She followed his movement with a terrified gaze before standing herself. Robert took a step and brought them toe-to-toe. “I want you to show me a gesture of good faith.”
“H-how?” She craned her neck to look up at him. At this distance, their considerable height difference was too noticeable.
“A kiss,” he said in a deep voice. He had the satisfaction of seeing her blanch, her eyes widening. He wanted to ruffle her feathers. Somehow her calm and composed demeanor unnerved him. At least that’s what he told himself was the reason for his accelerated pulse. He didn’t want to look beyond that. She lowered her lashes briefly, her hands playing nervously with the pleats of her skirts.
“Fine,” she said finally, tilting her face up to his and closing her eyes.
Robert smiled to himself. “Oh, no,” he said disapprovingly. “No, that won’t do.”
“What—” She opened her eyes, looking confused.
“I will not kiss you like a sacrificial offering. I want you to kiss me,” he said smugly.
Lady Julie suddenly turned crimson.
“No need to act all innocent now,” he said, taking a tiny step closer to her. “It’s not the first time you’ve been in a room alone with a gentleman, and I assume I am not the only man you’ve been with.” Despite her behavior, the tryst she’d arranged with Gabriel, and his own past, he somehow hoped she would deny it. Not that he particularly praised virginity. She, however, only downcast her eyes again. “Go on then,” he urged her.
Lady Julie took a deep breath, then stood on her tiptoes and placed a warm, chaste peck on his lips. She was about to pull away when he caught her by the waist and dragged her flush against his body.
