“Does it distress you that you must lower yourself to marry a man so far beneath you?” I asked, all silk and threat. “A man who is little more than a mongrel while you have been deliberately bred from blood kept blue enough to burn?”
I could not seem to help but notice that her skin was so fair it was like cream and made me...hungry. And when her eyes glittered, they gleamed copper.
“Does it distress you that I am not my sister?” she asked in return.
I hadn’t expected that.
I felt myself move, only dimly aware that I was squaring my shoulders and changing my stance, as if I found myself engaged in hand-to-hand combat. I supposed I was.
“You cannot imagine that the two of you could be confused,” I murmured, but I was looking at her differently. I was viewing her as less a pawn and more an opponent. First a knife, then a sucker punch.
So far, Imogen Fitzalan was proving to be far more interesting that I had anticipated.
I wasn’t sure I knew where to put that.
“As far as I am aware,” she said coolly, “you are the only one who has ever confused us.”
“I assure you, I am not confused.”
“Perhaps I am. I assume that purchasing my hand in marriage requires at least as much research as the average online dating profile. Did you not see a picture? Were you not made aware that my sister and I share only half our blood?”
“I cannot say I gave the matter of your appearance much thought,” I said, and I expected that to set her back on her heels.
But instead, the odd creature laughed.
“A man like you, not concerned with his own wife’s appearance? How out of character.”
“I cannot imagine what you think you know of my character.”
“I have drawn conclusions about your character based on the way you allow yourself to be photographed.” Her brow lifted. “You are a man who prefers the company of a very particular shape of woman.”
“It is not their shape that concerns me, but whether or not other men covet them.” This was nothing but the truth, and yet something about the words seemed almost...oily. Weighted. As if I should be ashamed of saying such a thing out loud when I had said it many times before.
Though not, I amended, to a woman I intended to make my wife.
“You like a trophy,” she said.
I inclined my head. “I am a collector, Imogen. I like only the finest things.”
She smiled at me, but it struck me as more of a baring of teeth. “You must be disappointed indeed.”
Though she looked as if the notion pleased her.
I moved then, closer to her, enjoying the way she stood fast instead of shrinking away. I could see the way her pulse beat too fast in her neck. I could see the way her copper eyes widened. I reached over and helped myself to one of those red-gold curls, expecting her hair to be coarse. Much as she was.
But the curl was silky against my fingers, sliding over my skin like a caress. And something about that fell through me like a sudden brush fire.
If I was a man who engaged in self-deception, I would have told myself that was not at all what I felt.
But I had built my life and my fortune, step by impossible step in the face of only overwhelming odds, on nothing short of brutal honesty. Toward myself and others, no matter the cost.
I knew I wanted her.
She reached up as if to bat my hand away, but appeared to think better of it, which raised her another notch or two in my estimation. “You have yet to answer the question. You can marry anyone you like. Why on earth would you choose me?”
“Perhaps I am so enamored of the Fitzalan name that I have hungered for nothing but the opportunity to align myself with your father since the day I met your sister. And you should know, Imogen, that I always get what I want.”
She swallowed. I watched the pale column of her neck move when she did. “They say you are a monster.”
I was so busy looking at her mouth and imagining how those plump lips would feel wrapped around the hungriest part of me that I almost missed the way she said that. And more, the look on her face when she did.
As if she was not playing a game, any longer.
As if she was actually afraid of me.
And I had dedicated my life to making certain that as many people as possible were afraid of me, because a healthy fear bred respect and I did not much care if they feared me so long as they respected me.
But somehow, I did not wish this to be true of Imogen Fitzalan. My bride, for her sins.
“Those who say I am a monster are usually poor losers,” I told her, aware that I was too close to her. And yet neither she nor I moved to put more space between us. “It is in their best interests to call me a monster, because who could be expected to prevail against a creature of myth and lore? Their own shortcomings and failures are of no consequence, you understand. Not if I am a monster instead of a man.”
Her gaze searched my face. “You want to be a monster, then. You enjoy it.”
“You can call me whatever you like. I will marry you all the same.”
“Again. Why me?”
“Why does this upset you?” I didn’t fight the urge that came over me then, to reach over and take her chin in my fingers and hold her face where I wanted it. Simply because I could. And because, though she stilled, she did not jerk away. “I know that you have spent your life preparing for this day. Why should it matter if it is me or anyone else?”
“It matters.”
Her voice was fierce and quiet at once. And emotion gleamed in her lovely eyes, though I couldn’t discern what, exactly, that sheen meant.
“Did you have your heart set on another?” I asked, aware as I did so that something I had never felt before stirred to life within me. “Is that why you dare come to me with all this belligerence?”
It was because she was mine, I told myself. That was why I felt that uncharacteristic surge of possessiveness. I had not felt it for a woman before, it was true. Despite how much I had wanted Celeste back in the day and how infuriated I had been when I had lost her to that aristocratic zombie of a count she called her husband.
I had wanted Celeste, yes.
But that was a different thing entirely than knowing she was meant to be mine.
Imogen was mine. There was no argument. I had paid for the privilege—or that was how her father planned to spin this match.
He and I knew the truth. I was a wealthy man, my power and might with few equals. I took care of my sisters and my mother because I prided myself on
