“Phineas, I am no longer a girl. I am a woman capable of making her own choices.”
“I don’t see you as a girl,” he denied.
“Yes, of course. I am Saville’s sister, a lady. If I carried any other title than that of innocent lady, you would not be shooing me away like a naughty child.”
“I’m not shooing you away.”
“You clearly are. I am nothing but a diamond that must be handled with care. A jewel that cannot be tarnished. Well I am rather sick of being a diamond. Why can’t I be a stone or a rock? Even a pretty shell you pick up on the beach will be fine.”
“Jewel, diamond, rock, stone. When you are in my bedchamber, I don’t see you as any of those things. That is the bloody problem.”
He paused, letting the full weight of those words—those splendid words—settle over her.
“But,” he said, and she stilled, a breathless pause that filled with tightness. “I cannot ignore the possible consequences.”
“Would it have been a problem if I were a widow?”
“A widow? Don’t be absurd.”
“No, answer me. If I, a widow, stood before you in your chamber tempting you to act the beast, would you hold back?”
He paused.
Hah! “I knew it.”
“Fine.” He scratched his chest. “I cannot argue against such logic. But the fact remains that you are not a widow.”
Selena followed the movement of his hand, wanting to be the one to trail her fingers across his chest. “Pretend that I am.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“What would you do right now if I were a widow? Or a courtesan? Or whomeveryouwish me to be.”
He stared at her, his gaze intense. “WhomeverIwish you to be?”
The lowered timbre of his voice sent a new wave of shivers down her spine. Selena swallowed and nodded. “What would you do?”
His lips arched in a smile she had never glimpsed from him before. He motioned with his finger for her to come closer. Selena inhaled deeply, taking one small step that brought her slippers up to the bed. “I would punish you.”
Startled, she replied, “Punish me? Why? Didn’t you say you are not the sort of man thatpunishes?”
“I’m feeling rather contrary at the moment.” He pointed at his lower region. “For almost robbing me of the ability to sire children.”
Selena blinked, half intrigued and half terrified, her smile slow in coming. “What punishment shall the beastly earl dish out then?”
His hand snaked out to snatch her wrist, and Selena found herself pulled onto the bed to lay next to him, shackled within his warm, strong arms. “Let me show you.”
*
Control had neverfelt this good snapping. He had held onto it for far too long, and by Christ, her body was heaven against his.
Whateveryouwant me to be.
What those words did to him, she would never understand. Never had such a simple sentence jolted him to such an extreme that Warrick had to keep from pouncing on a woman. A lion who had caught sight of his gazelle.
Whatever he wanted her to be.
Whatdidhe want her to be?
