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There was a flash of eone so quickly that she wasn’t sure she saw it

"My answer to that question would be the opposite," he said, as casually as if he were discussing the weather "Two days of e failed to impress itself on me I am fairly certain that ives the sae was over, to quote your oords" His voice did not rise, but it took on a severe, rather chilling undertone "You threw me out of this house and toldouras we both shall live"

"A tricked into the uise the e adultery?"

The ated that she felt as if a dry spark h, Jarown up

"We have a great deal of hostility between us," he said, finally "I had not thought that you would still hold a grudge Frankly, our e feels like a different lifetime to me I can hardly remember our last conversation--other than your insistence that our ies at the time, I a, not for the hard-facedman whose eyes fell when she screamed at him, who had loved her

Jae acceded to my father’s request and married you under false pretenses In years after, I realized that while the e may well have taken place anyway, our closeness undoubtedlyof my betrayal more keen"

"Be that as it may, we scarcely know each other now," she said

"The boy inher with a smile "The man I am doesn’t know you yet" And now there was a look in his eyes that she recognized, that resonated deep within her

Instantly Theo quashed the feeling She’d jump off a church steeple before she’d bed a man who cared so little for her that he had waited seven years to inform her whether he was alive That was one lesson she had taken froly duchess": if she didn’t value herself, no one would

Except perhaps that boy whoer resembled

"You haven’t been to bed with a man in seven years," he said softly His eyes were frankly hungry now

"That’s true," she responded "But that was before I realized that our vows had been dissolved, in practice, if not in the courts Now I shall have to make up for lost time" And with that, she rose

The desire in his face was instantly replaced by an unmistakable wave of fierce possessiveness

Theo responded instinctively "I aer your wife, James, and it seems you were my husband only as the Earl, for a matter of two or three years before you became Jack Hawk"

"How in the hell did you know that?"

"It’s aood Bow Street Runner can discover I take it that the Earl was ed to half the ladies of the West Indies and beyond"

"Rather an exaggeration," he itihout the islands"