A Wild Night's Bride (The Devil DeVere #1)(22)

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At DeVere’s insistence, Phoebe had stripped down to only her shift and stockings before creeping under the covers and removing these items as well. He had lingered half-dressed, waiting with confident certainty for what was to come. Nevertheless, Phoebe cried out in surprise when Ned burst through the door.

“Get out, DeVere. You can’t have her.” Ned retrieved Phoebe’s shift and gown from the end of the bed and tossed them to her. “Get dressed,” he commanded.

“What if you are too late?” DeVere taunted.

“Am I?” His rage-filled gaze flew to the bed where Phoebe had yanked the covers to her chin. He’d apparently noted DeVere’s state of partial dress.

“You had your chance, my friend,” DeVere said with a twitch of his lips. “After all, I had a wager to win, and she agreed to it.”

“Because she’s lost her livelihood, you ass! Not because she wants you!”

“How do you know what the girl wants?”

“Damn you for a rutting sod!” Ned exploded. “And double damn you for taking unfair advantage of her.” Ned’s fist crashed into DeVere’s jaw, dropping him instantly to the floor. He spun toward Phoebe, raking a hand through disheveled hair. “Tell him! Tell him you don’t want him.”

Phoebe stared back in wide-eyed astonishment. “It’s true. I don’t want him...I never did. I want you.”





CHAPTER NINE




Watching as her words penetrated his fog of astonishment, Phoebe bit her lip in nervous anticipation.

“You’re not thinking clearly,” he said. “I won’t take advantage of you.” Although his words said one thing, the dilated pupils, the tic in his jaw, and his erratic movements all betrayed agitation, an inner struggle.

“You deny you want me?” she asked, letting the covers slip just enough to reveal the milky white tops of her breasts. The air crackled with the coiling tension, yet he still made no move toward her.

“It’s not that!” he said. “It’s just you don’t need to do this. I’ll give you the money. No strings attached. You can buy the cottage in Bath or do with it as you please.”

“No,” she said, masking her mortification of being rebuffed once more. “I don’t want your money! If you don’t want me, I won’t take it.” She averted her face. “I have my honor, and I have my pride.”

“Your pride? You call it pride to sell yourself?”

His words filled her with fury. “I am not a harlot! I pledged to help DeVere win his wager. That was all. It was strictly a business arrangement between us. Nothing more.”

Ned looked to DeVere who still hadn’t stirred. “Then it was a bad bargain altogether, as I think it highly unlikely he’ll be holding up his end of it.”

“Only because of you!” she cried, looking to the lifeless body on the floor. “My God! Have you killed him?” She scrambled out of the bed, sheet clutched to her breasts, and knelt by DeVere to feel for a pulse.

Ned cocked his head to one side. “He’s breathing but, indeed, out cold. He should recover in a few hours. He did the last time I took him down. DeVere is nothing if not resilient, but I daresay, he won’t be frolicking with anyone for a while.”

She glared. “What was your point in all of this?”

“It wasn’t right for him to exploit your weakness. For that’s what he does, you know. He can’t help himself.”

“So you take it upon yourself to act as his conscience?”

His jaw clenched. “If need be. When I must.”

“But there was no need,” she said. “We’re consenting adults. I was not coerced. I told you earlier that I sought a protector. This wager was just a much simplified means to the same end but with no attachments, no involvement. Then you had to come along and—and ruin everything!”

“Ruin!” His large body loomed over her. “What the devil does that mean?”

“That you don’t want me but can’t stand to see me with anyone else either!”

“It’s not like that! You can’t understand how it is.” He clawed a hand through his hair.

“You’re right. I do find you impossible!”

“Damn it! It’s not that I don’t want you.” He retrieved her cast-off shift and offered it to her with a shaking hand.

“You’re trembling,” she whispered. She gazed up into his face, and what she saw made her heart seize.

“Because I want you so much, my bloody teeth ache! My entire being is about to explode for want of you!”

His confession took her breath away. “Why then?” She exhaled. “Why do you deny yourself when I do not?”

“Because I’m a rutting animal. That’s why!” His face was contorted with a mixture of anguish and rage. “And my damnable, unslakable lust killed my wife!”

His face, his words filled her with a momentary panic. “Impossible,” she reasoned aloud. “You loved her. How could you have killed her?”

His visage grew grim, his eyes dull. She could see the supreme effort he made to control his rioting emotions. He continued in a hoarse voice, “I nearly lost her when Vesta was born. She had a number of miscarriages after that even though the physician said she should not try to carry another child. Yet she wanted to give me an heir. I tried to restrain myself and could not. She died giving birth to our son.” He choked out the last words with tears streaming down his cheeks. He dropped to the floor beside her, his big body racked by a miasma of grief.