Page 43 of The Devil's Accidental Duchess
CHAPTER 14
Philip was in the entrance hall before he realized Selina had not followed him.
After the evening he’d had, her defiance was a razor to his patience, fraying it. There had been a time, not so very long ago, when no onewould have dared to disobey him.
“You are not at war anymore, old boy.”
Zachary’s parting words rattled in his skull.
Taking a calming breath, Philip turned and walked back to the drawing room door. The three women were exchanging knowing looks, clearly very pleased with themselves—pleased with Selina, at least. Lizzy looked positively ecstatic that her dear friend had adopted her habit of making things more difficult for him.
“Lady Selina.” He stared at her intently. “A moment of your time.”
“You could begin with ‘please.’ That might help,” Lizzy remarked, smirking.
Selina, however, was stony-faced. “I am enjoying an evening with my friends, Your Grace. Whatever it is you wish to say to me, we can discuss it another time.”
“Your evening is over,” Philip growled.
Lizzy sniffed. “You can’t send us to bed, Brother. We are not children.”
“Then do not act like children,” Philip replied. “Go on, get out of here. You have all made quite enough mess for the servants to clean up in the morning.”
“Says the man who is pouting because he is not getting his way,” Lizzy muttered. “I am not going anywhere.”
Selina, however, rose to her feet. “I am rather tired, and I do not want to get between the arguments of siblings.”
While Melody picked up a book and pretended to read, and Lizzy glared at Philip, Selina walked past him without sparing him a second look.
She was not obeying his request; she was defying it in a subtler fashion. It irritated him more than if she had just stayed where she was, in the same outward rebellion as his sister.
He shouldhave just let her go. But no.
You willtalk to me.
He caught up to her on the stairs, and his hand closed around her forearm, pulling her back.
“Do not walk away from me until I am finished with you,” he said quietly. “Did you forget already?”
She turned, rolling her eyes. “Didyouforget my response?”
“I asked to have a simple word with you.” He ignored her remark. “As your future husband, youwillshow me respect enough to listen.”
“And if it is something I have no desire to talk about?” Anger flashed in her eyes, her arm suddenly rigid in his grip, as if his touch offended her.
Was that why she kept making herself scarce? Had she… not liked the kiss? He wanted her respect and her obedience when it mattered, but he was not someone who would kiss a woman who did not want to be kissed.
Did I get it so wrong?
It had felt like she was enjoying herself, spurred on by hunger as he was, but perhaps he was losing his intuition for that sort of thing. Among other things.
“If I offended you, My Lady, then I am sorry for it,” he said, a frown lowering his eyebrows.
She met his gaze with cold eyes, dismissive in a way he hadn’t seen from her before.
“It is quite all right,” she said crisply. “I am aware of what it means to be a wife.Yourwife. I knew a kiss was something I would have to give one day, just as I know that I will also have to give you children someday. That is all most wives are good for, in the opinion of noblemen.”
He stared hard at her, taken aback by her frankness.
