Sin watched as understanding dawned on Lady Calliope’s expressive face. For a fleeting moment, her countenance took on that same haunted quality of a wild creature facing down her hunter. He knew a moment of guilt at what he was doing, but then he ruthlessly squelched the inkling.
She deserved this.
She had destroyed his reputation—not that it had required much effort on her part—with Confessions of a Sinful Earl. And she had not stopped after that. Rather, she had enjoyed her vengeance. She had continued.
Only now, too late, did she realize that in so doing, she had made herself vulnerable to him. Oh, so very vulnerable. Yes, she had brought this on with her madcap scheme to decimate his chances at making a match. Before she had disseminated her tripe, he had been about to secure the hand and vast dowry of Miss Vandenberg.
Never mind that Miss Vandenberg paled in comparison to the delectable, dark beauty of Lady Calliope. He did not need to desire his wife. Lord knew, by the end of his marriage with Celeste, he had been so repulsed by her, he had not been able to touch her.
“This is blackmail,” Lady Calliope accused then.
Quite accurately, as it happened.
“You are damned right it is.” Smiling, he nibbled at another strawberry.
She was looking rather pale at the moment, his future countess. Likely because she was still refusing his offer of food and drink. He could outlast her in a battle of stubbornness, however. Perhaps she was also feeling bilious at the notion of being forced to marry a man she erroneously believed had caused her brother’s death.
Again, a stab of something akin to guilt prickled at his conscience.
Again, he sent it to the devil.
“If I agree to this…this horrid plan of yours, how do I have any proof you will not still reveal I am the author of Confessions just to spite me?” she asked next.
He swallowed his bite of strawberry, his grin deepening. “Why would I want to harm my own wife?”
Her pallor grew even more heightened. “Why indeed?”
Ah yes, she believed him a wife murderer as well as a brother murderer. How could he have forgotten? The creature certainly had a wild imagination. But then, he knew from his own experience that having someone to blame always felt better than the realization that one was completely and utterly at the mercy of the universe.
“You have my word as a gentleman that I will take your secret to my grave,” he reassured her, keeping his tone light. “I have had enough scandal to last a lifetime. It will be an even exchange—you marry me, and in return, I will never reveal the truth, and nor shall the younger Mr. White. When we return to London, I will pay a call to your publisher on your behalf, explaining to him that he is no longer permitted to publish the next installment of the serial, and further, that no more shall be forthcoming. I will instruct him to deliver the manuscript to me, for safekeeping. You are amenable?”
“Amenable as I must be,” she allowed. “However, I will not share your bed.”
Still imagining she possessed the power to bargain, the foolish chit.
He chuckled. “Yes, you will. I cannot very well get an heir on you if I do not bed you, my lady.”
“You cannot possibly expect me to suffer your attentions.” Her lip curled, as if the notion of his touch disgusted her.
And mayhap, in a sense, it did. But her body had been most responsive to his earlier. Her mind may be convinced he was a heartless devil, but her body could easily be persuaded otherwise. He knew the feeling—after all, he loathed Lady Calliope Manning. Yet kissing her and touching her and waking with his prick nestled against her feminine curves had given him a cockstand just the same.
“Only until my heir is secured,” he told her. “After I have my heir and spare, I will never return to your bed.”
Her lips compressed. “Do you swear it?”
He raised a brow. “Madam, I have no wish to share a bed with a conniving jade. If it were not for your dowry, I would ruin you in the blink of an eye. I need your funds, and I need an heir. You can give me both, and then you can go to the devil for all I care.”
Her stomach growled once more, reminding him she had yet to eat.
On a sigh, he rose and dragged his chair nearer to