Chapter 14

Maddy was feeling pleased about the outcome. She’d been afraid the vicar might be more afraid of Colin than of the church, but in the end, he had followed the rules of the religion, which forbade marrying anyone who was not willing. She couldn’t help a surge of satisfaction as she recalled how angry Colin had been at being denied his edict.

Now, she stared at him with what she hoped was a cool expression, though she was unable to keep a small smile from her lips. She had won at least this battle, though she doubted he would relent and return her to London. Perhaps she should’ve accepted him as her husband to preserve her reputation, though what difference did it make? She had no intention of marrying, and working as an actress and living with Bella, no one expected her to be pure anyway.

“What if there is a child?”

His words chilled her, and that was the only concern she truly had about the situation, other than wondering when he would finally grow bored with his game and release her. Sounding more resolved than she truly felt, she said, “I do not care. I shall simply hurl myself down the stairs. I will not bring your offspring into this world, even if it means killing myself to prevent it.”

He cursed, and in spite of herself, she flinched. Having spent the last three years working at the theater, she’d been around some rough men with rough language, though none of them deliberately cursed in front of a lady, but it was genuinely shocking to hear the crude words pour forth from the marquess’s mouth.

He lunged forward, dragging her into his arms and onto his lap. She fought against him, even managing to punch him in the cheek, though she suspected it hurt her hand more than it hurt him, because he didn’t seem to notice, while her thumb flared with agony.

“You will stop this rebelliousness. Accept you belong to me, and you will be happy. I can take care of you. I will give you anything you want.”

“Except my freedom. That is all I want from you, Lord Kressley.”

“You are a liar.”

She glared at him, and then let out a startled sound as he flipped her onto the bench, laying with her back awkwardly against it, and her feet braced on the floor. That position splayed her thighs wide, revealing her to him. He purred with satisfaction when he touched her lightly, discovering she was already wet.

She was ashamed by that, realizing that when he had jerked her onto his lap, and they had started struggling, it had turned her on. She flushed as she looked away, not wanting to admit to that defect in her personality.

“You have a passionate nature, and you respond to me. Why are you making it so difficult between us?” As he asked, he started fingering her.

She stiffened and tried to squirm away, not wanting to accept the weakness inside. “You took me after I had already told you I had no interest in being your mistress. Men like you are monsters.” Even as she said the word, she gasped when he started to press gently on her clit, increasing her arousal.

How could she find their arguing and anger stimulating when it had been so fear-inspiring the last time she’d been in a similar situation with another man? How could she be drawn to the darkness inside the marquess, which seemed to illuminate an unknown potential darkness in herself when her mind was so resistant to the idea?

“If you do not want to marry me, then you shall simply be my paramour as originally designated. If you do not care about honor, propriety, and shielding your reputation, why should I?” He was thrusting his fingers in and out of her rapidly now, almost punishing her with the orgasm that came upon her. “You have set this course, so you have no one but yourself to blame when you are ruined and cast aside.”

“Cast me aside now.” She bit hard on her tongue to keep from crying out in her pleasure as the orgasm consumed her. When the worst of the ravishment had passed, and she was able to breathe and speak again, she said, “I do not want to be your paramour or anything else.”

“Yet you cannot deny you want this.” As he spoke, his cock surged into her forcefully. There was a moment of discomfort, but it had been a sufficient amount of time since he took her before that the pain was fleeting and gone quickly as he started to drive into her vigorously.

She was pushing back just as eagerly, though she hated herself for capitulating even marginally. She was like an animal around him, driven by lust and instinct rather than cool logic and reason. How could she fight that?

She had little power in the situation, but she could refuse to accept his attempts to atone, since they were given for his own reasons and to improve his image of himself. She doubted he cared a whit about her reputation, and he was doing what he considered the gentlemanly thing. Or he had been, until she foiled him. Now, he was freely indulging his desires without the burden of conscience.

She was mostly relieved by that. Surely, he would remove any hold on himself, do what he wanted with her, and allow this obsession to burn out before returning her to London. Then she could put this behind her and try to move on. If his obsession had ended, she would have no reason to flee London and her life there. She didn’t want to leave Bella and the theater, and she had managed to hide this long from Stefan, so she could continue to do so.

Realizing she was consenting in a fashion to allowing him to at least indulge his physical desires until they burned out, she stopped trying to fight him and dragged him closer, digging her nails into his buttocks as he surged inside her, determined to have another climax before he did.

***

He was different over the next few days. For one thing, he made no attempt to modulate his desire for her. If he wanted her, he took her, but Maddy had realized there was freedom in her submission as well. She could enjoy what he did to her and learn new techniques all without the expectation of any sort of commitment or giving up her freedom.

Now that she knew how pleasurable sex could be, she almost wished she had accepted his contract to be his mistress from the start. It would’ve provided financial security for her when his obsession ended.

Disconcertingly though, he didn’t show any signs of it diminishing yet. In fact, he was treating her more gently, as though he had changed his approach. He seemed to be wanting to persuade and woo her now, and though she was mostly able to keep herself aloof from him except when they were having sex, she couldn’t deny she was starting to soften toward him.

It was an alarming prospect because she wasn’t entirely convinced he still didn’t plan to make her his wife. Why couldn’t he be content with her sexual capitulation? Perhaps he was, but if that were the case, he had no reason to be so gentle with her, except when they were in bed. He was just as likely to be rough and commanding as he was to be the tender lover. She liked both sides of him.

This evening, they had indulged in a far gentler session of lovemaking, but it left her no less sated, and she was practically boneless in her exhaustion. “I would like to return to London.”

“We shall stay here a while yet.”

She cleared her throat. “I would like to return soon. Do you believe you might be amenable to letting me go in the coming days?” She was asking so much more than to return to London.

He stiffened, perhaps realizing that as his hand pressed more insistently on her stomach. “We will not leave until we see if you have gotten pregnant.”