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“They do?” Marina asked, leaning forward a little. He passed the flower back to her, brushing her fingers as he did so. Marina tried not to jump at his touch. It was something that she had felt in the church – like a spark travelling through her body.
“Everything I will tell you now is the truth,” he promised. “I never wish you to fear me, Marina. I would never hurt you or any woman.” His words were solemn and deep.
She frowned a little, considering he had not said the words hurt ‘anyone’ – only women were forbidden from his ire.
“Whatever you read of me in scandal sheets… it is not all true.”
“It’s not?” she asked in surprise. “So, you do not own a gambling hall?”
“Oh, I do.” He nodded. “Yet there are no criminals there, no hustlers, and I never gamble myself.”
She sat straight in amazement, scarcely able to understand it.
“You could resist such temptation when it is literally within your own doors?”
“I believe in discipline,” he whispered. “It is why I never touch liquor either.”
“Oh…” She gasped in amazement. This was not quite the picture of the rakish Duke she had read of. “You have had affairs though, have you not?”
“Passionate nights, certainly, but I have never promised anything more than that.” The way he’d said the word ‘passionate’ had her breathing quicken a little.
Is it so wrong to wonder what a night with my new husband could be like?
As she fiddled with the white chrysanthemum, her eyes went wandering. They danced over the midnight blue tailcoat he wore and the silver waistcoat. They fitted him well, flattering his athletic figure.
“On that subject.” He picked out another flower and used the blooming head to lift her chin so that her eyes found his own. “I think a few ground rules need to be set if you are to continue looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” She purported an innocent tone.
“I may not be the devil many believe me to be, but I’m an experienced man.” His words made her mind go wandering again, and her heart rate fluttered. “I know what she is thinking when a woman looks at me like that.”
“You could be wrong. It could simply just be arrogant thoughts,” she challenged. When he laughed, deeply, she realized she’d not heard him laugh before, only seen him give small smiles. The laugh transformed his countenance from something authoritative and distant to something altogether much warmer.
“Here is the key rule.” He held up the flower stem as if it was number one. “It is a marriage for convenience, so I will not restrict you in what you do or where you go too much. The idea is that we can both be happy with our lives.”
“That sounds reasonable and fair,” she acknowledged as he lifted a second flower, representing the second rule.
“Number two, I shall not bed you.”
“I beg your pardon?” Her eyes widened, and her lips fell apart.
“I have no desire for an heir, Marina,” he explained slowly. “We may each satisfy our lusts elsewhere, but an heir is not needed therefore relations between us are not a necessity either.”
“Oh, I see.” Marina supposed she should have been relieved, but she wasn’t. Deep in her gut, she was disappointed as if she had been winded by some stone. Her curiosity about what it could be like to be with her husband now dwindled, disappearing like smoke in the air. “Any other rules I should be aware of?”
He reached for a third flower.
“A couple,” he said, holding up the third flower and proffering it forward. “I want my wife to call me by my name. James.” Marina blinked, rather startled at the offer of intimacy when he had just shut the door on the thought of them ever being physically close.
“Not ‘Your Grace?’” she asked.
“No.” He pushed the third flower toward her. “I am hardly enamored with hearing the title, and I am addressed as such repeatedly by my staff as it is. My name is James, and I wish you to use it. Just as, if you have no objection, I shall call you Marina.” He smiled at her with the words, and Marina could have sworn something in her felt weak. She nodded, happy with the deal, and wondering why she had suddenly lost the power of her tongue.
Is it the proffer of some intimacy without all that could be offered? Nothing physical at all…
The thought cut deep. Even as her eyes threatened to wander away from the flowers she was amassing toward her new husband, she fought the temptation, fearing her eyes would go wandering over his figure, thinking of indulgent things that she was clearly not allowed to think of.
“Next, I desire you to learn about my business.” His words made her sit tall on the coach bench, her back abruptly rigid.
