Chapter 10 #2
Her frown deepened, and then her eyes widened. “Lord Donmere? How did you…”
“I have my ways,” he said simply, seeing no need to elaborate. “I am correct in saying that he accosted you?”
“He did not accost me…” She looked away and the drop in her voice told him the truth of the matter.
“What did he say?” Caspian asked her.
“Nothing that needs repeating.”
“What did he say,” he asked again, his tone growing sharp.
Thalia flinched, and then she told him about the interaction.
Caspian knew how to control his temper. He knew how to keep his cool. He also knew that a lord of Donmere’s standing should know better than to speak to his wife as he had done.
As Thalia spoke, Caspian’s hands began to tremble as rage built inside of him. Absurd, he knew. After all the claims he had made that he did not care about his wife, why did this anger him so much?
It is not about that. It is the fact that Lord Donmere thinks he can get away with such things. To speak to Thalia that way is to speak to me the same. I will not have it!
When she finished, Caspian was still shaking, and his hands were clenched by his side.
“Lord Donmere should not have spoken to you like that,” he said with some amount of calm.
“It is quite fine.”
“It is not fine,” he hissed. Thalia’s eyes widened and a smile took over her face. Caspian cursed silently and found calm. “I will speak to him myself at the first chance.”
“Are you upset?” she looked at him, searching for the answer.
“It is principal,” he said. “That is all. You are my wife, and Lord Donmere should know better.”
“So, you are not upset…” She was still searching him, still smiling to herself, and still very much eager to see his reaction. If he did not know any better, Caspian might have said that she had planned this herself.
“What I am upset about is the implication that this raises.” He unclenched his hands, returned his breathing to normal, and looked flatly at his wife. “I was hoping that our marriage would quell the rumors that your actions started.”
“My actions?”
He scoffed. “Let us not go over this again. Our marriage was designed specifically to convince the ton that you and I are in love, and your interruption of my wedding was in protest of my marrying another.”
She laughed. “Oh yes, that’s right. I had almost forgotten.”
He maintained composure. “If Lord Donmere thinks otherwise, he will not hesitate to tell anyone willing to listen. And while you might not care, think of what it will do to Lady Rosaline. Her future is reliant on our marriage remaining scandal free. She needs people to believe it, even more than you do.”
“I did not think of that…”
“Clearly you did not,” he said dryly. “So, now the question is, what are we going to do about it?”
“Do you have any ideas?”
“I do, in fact.” Caspian started walking toward Thalia, a surprise to him, because he did not mean to. But he felt a sudden pull toward her, and was unable to fight it. “Firstly, any notions of a honeymoon between you and I will need to be put on hold.”
“Oh no,” she said with much sarcasm. “However will I survive?”
“The perception people have of this marriage is what matters, meaning that we have to prove to our peers that Lord Donmere’s rumors are unfounded.”
“And how do we do that?”
“Simple,” he said. “Starting immediately, you and I will be attending more social events across the Season. We will be seen together, and when we are, we will prove to all those who dare to question us that we are happy. Dare I even say, in love.”
The surprise on Thalia’s face was evident. She might have even thought he was joking, if she did not know he wasn’t capable of such things.
This is not something I want to do, but something I must do. That we must do. And she best realize that.
“You are being serious?” She half-smiled as if expecting a joke.
“Do I look as if I am not being so?”
The half-smile dropped. “There is one problem with this plan of yours, as brilliant as it is…” Thalia rolled her eyes. “Shall I tell you? Or do you wish to figure it out for yourself?”
“You are worried that we won’t be able to convince the ton that we are in love.”
“Or that we even like each other.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Caspian dismissed. He then took the final few steps toward Thalia, closing the distance. She did not back away, but he did not expect her to. “Surely, even you are capable of pretending.”
“I am not the one we should worry about,” she shot back. “It is you who…”
“Me who what?”
“It is one thing to tell people how you feel, but to show them? To make them see it with their own eyes?” She scoffed. “I am sorry, Caspian, but I just don’t think you have it in you.”
“I think you are wrong.”
She laughed. “Not from anything that I have seen.”
Caspian was indeed closed off when it came to showing a side of himself that even he rarely allowed to surface. He did not like the idea of other people seeing him fawn and flirt, nor did he like how it made him feel. He was better than that.
However, he knew that in this singular instance he had no choice but to demonstrate what he was capable of… should the situation call for it. Which it looks like it is going to do.
The fact that it was with Thalia, someone who he was already having a hard time controlling himself around, meant that he didn’t have to try nearly as hard as he might have. If anything, it was almost too easy.
“Have I told you how beautiful you look?” he said to her.
Thalia leaned back in surprise. “Wh – what?”
“Yes…” He smiled and flashed his eyes with hunger at her as they worked up her body. “That dress…” He purred and took a final step toward her, so their bodies were inches apart. “It sits well on you.”
“I…” She laughed awkwardly. “What are you…”
“However, I do wonder…” Slowly, so very gently, Caspian reached up and stroked Thalia’s arm; his touch was so soft that his fingertips grazed her skin. “… what you might look like without the dress on.”
Thalia’s eyes widened. “Excuse me?”
“Come now,” he continued to purr as his hand moved further up until he was stroking her chin. Her eyes were still wide, and she stood frozen in surprise. “Do you mean to tell me that you haven’t wanted to show me yourself?”
“I… I… what are you…”
“One month, you said?” His fingers touched under her chin and moved her face so that she was looking right at him. He smirked and tilted his head, licked his lips, and slowly leaned in. “Can you wait that long?”
She said nothing, but he could feel her body shudder as he came closer.
Caspian did not move for her mouth but found his lips bushing her right ear. She gasped when he did, and she moaned when he gently wrapped his lips around her earbud and started to nibble.
“Caspian… what are you… is this…”
“It’s what you have to look forward to,” he cooed as he continued to nibble her ear. His other hand went to her waist, grabbed it, and squeezed, which made her gasp. “Less than a month now, I hope you are ready for it. I know that I am.”
She said and did nothing; totally frozen in surprise.
Caspian was only supposed to be proving a point, but now that he was so close, that he could literally taste Thalia on his lips, he realized immediately his mistake. The danger that Thalia presented…
On no.
His blood ran warm and surged through his body. His heart leapt through his chest. His body shook as it tried to contain the impulses that rippled up his spine and through his limbs. And none of that was to mention what was happening inside his pants.
He was still nibbling her ear. He was still squeezing her waist. And he knew as he knew anything that if he wanted it, he could have pulled her into him, found her lips, and kissed her as if their lives depended on it.
What was more, from the way she started to moan and melt into him, Thalia would not have objected.
Should he try again? Was now the time to make good on their agreement? Oh, how he wanted to…
But Caspian, ever the picture of decorum and self-control, did not like how it felt to lose himself like this. He wanted his wife like nothing before, but he did not want to succumb to his urges because it terrified him what he might become once he did.
His breathing was ragged. His tongue licked Thalia’s ear, and she moaned and her hands went to his waist. He chuckled deeply and squeezed her tighter…
“That will do.” Somehow, through sheer strength of will, Caspian took a step back and released his wife. “For now, anyway.”
Thalia stood frozen. Eyes wide. Body trembling. Looking like she was not in her own body, for how still she was. And all the while, her chest rose and fell as if she had just run a mile.
“As I said…” Caspian straightened and did what he could to look as if the moment had no effect on him. “We will be attending more social events from now on, and you had best prepare yourself for them.”
With that, Caspian turned and strode down the hallway. He walked as if in triumph, but in his mind, he was running.
That was too close… another second of that and who knows what I would have done? No, that’s not true. I know exactly what.
Caspian had suspected going in that this marriage was dangerous, and now he knew it for fact. If he was right, it was only going to get worse from here. And even Caspian did not know if he had enough self-control to keep his impulses at bay.