Chapter 5
Chapter Five
“We need to talk!” Iris did not waste time with knocking. She threw the door to Philip’s office open and stormed inside.
Philip was sitting behind his desk. The room, darkly lit, seemed to grow darker around his hulking frame, this was despite the lamp sitting on the edge of his desk. It was a large room too, but it was made to appear smaller with him taking up so much space.
Despite Iris’ temper, she came to a sudden stop when she stepped inside the room. All that anger inside of her wilted in the face of the duke’s coldness, the way he looked up and narrowed his eyes on her with warning and displeasure.
“For future reference, I would appreciate it if you knocked before you came barging into my office,” he said simply. “This might be your home too, but certain courtesies are still expected.”
“I…” She stammered and found herself double-guessing this most brazen action.
It was all well and good to think that she could be brave when Philip wasn’t right in front of her.
But to see him in the flesh and she was reminded of just how intimidating her husband was.
“I thought I would see you at supper,” she managed.
He frowned. “And why would you think that?”
“Because…” She swallowed. “Because you need to eat, and… and we… I just assumed…” She was stuttering, unable to come up with an explanation that didn’t sound like begging.
“This is why you barge in here? Because you thought I might be hungry?”
“No.”
“What then?”
There was a part of Iris that thought to apologize, turn, and then run. She could sense the anger bubbling away beneath the surface. The sense that her husband was containing it because he did not want to snap at her for no good reason. But should she push him…
Would that be such a bad thing? At least that way he will speak to me.
Iris thought back to today. The carriage ride yesterday. How boring it was. How lonely. How obvious it was that if something did not change then this life of hers would be a most depressing thing. She did not want to fight her husband, but if that was what it took, so be it.
She forced herself to straighten and looked right at him. “We need to talk.”
“I am confused; is that not what we are doing?”
“No,” she said. “Not like this. I mean… I have been here for a full day now, my home as you have said it, and not once have you done me the courtesy of checking on me. Not once have you sought me out to see how I am adjusting and if I need anything.”
“As I said it, Mr. Tibbitt –”
“I do not care about Mr. Tibbitt,” she snapped. “Nor do I care to trouble him with things that my husband should be eager to see to himself.”
That did it. Her snapping and Philip’s jaw clenched, the edges of his lips twitching. “Such as?”
She took a breath to calm her anger. “You have been avoiding me. All day, I have wandered these halls alone, nothing to do, no one to speak with. I understand that you are not eager to spend time with me, or to even pretend that you wish to. But the least you could do, as is right, is check on me. To treat me not as a stranger but as your wife.”
“Avoiding you? Is that what you think I have been doing?”
“Have you not been? This house is not so big that my not seeing you is an unlucky coincidence.”
“Did it occur to you that I was busy?”
“Did it occur to you that I don’t care.” Her tone was sharper than she meant it to be. But by this point, she was through with caring.
Her husband’s body turned rigid and again the side of his mouth twitched with vexation. “You disappoint me, Iris.”
“I don’t care—”
“I thought we had an agreement,” he spoke over her, a growl to his voice now.
“Was it not just last night that I came to you and specifically told you what I expect? Rules that I wished to be followed so that we might avoid unpleasantness. And now, one day in and you have already broken one of them.”
She frowned, not sure what he meant. “What… what do you mean?”
“Rule two. You were not to disturb me unless it is for good reason. A reason that I thought I made clear needed to be considered close to life or death for me to be disturbed. This…” He shook his head and clicked his tongue. “Your boredom, as it is. I hardly think that qualifies.”
“This…” She hesitated, sensing his anger. “This isn’t about my boredom.”
“What then? So far, all this sounds like to me is the complaining of a bored wife who can’t find ways to entertain herself. A problem, perhaps, but not the travesty you seem to think.”
She scowled at him, her anger still there, through with giving a damn about how angry she made him. “This isn’t about my boredom. It’s about being treated with respect. Like… like your wife.”
“And that is what you want, is it? To be treated as my wife? I was under the impression you didn’t want this marriage at all.”
“I don’t!”
“And yet you insist on acting as if you do. I thought I made it perfectly clear what this was. A marriage of convenience that the two of us have been forced into. But the way you are behaving, it is almost as if you secretly desire more…” It was subtle but a smirk flicked across his lips and there was a look in his eyes that sent a shudder up her spine.
Iris felt her heart racing and her body began to shake. For a second, as she met his eyes, she was transported back to the previous night, trapped in the pull of the duke’s dark eyes, the feeling that she had no power and he could do with her as he pleased.
“This…” She found her voice cracking. “This isn’t about that.”
“Yes, it is.” Suddenly, the duke stood from behind the desk. If he looked big before, now he was towering. And as he stepped around the desk and strode toward her, the walls felt as if they were closing in around them. “You say you want one thing but then act as if you want another.”
“I don’t.”
“But you can’t have it both ways, wife.” He reached her, thankfully stopping short a few feet back. Iris would have liked to have taken a step back, but she was frozen, utterly drawn to the duke and his power. “Do you want a typical marriage or don’t you?”
“I told you that I don’t.”
“Which means that you shouldn’t expect me to behave as a typical husband. Isn’t that fair?”
“What…” She gave her head a shake, desperate to try and settle herself. “No, you’re twisting my words.”
“I twist nothing,” he said, his voice dropping. And as he spoke to her, he looked down and held her stare so she couldn’t so much as blink. “When I gave you my rules, it was because I thought we had an understanding. One I was led to believe you accepted.”
“We do. This isn’t… I don’t expect you to—”
“If we do not have this understanding,” he spoke over her, this time taking another step closer.
“Then I am to assume this is a traditional marriage. And if that is the case, I might have to rethink the timeframe I gave you.” His eyes flashed and she could see the delight he was taking in unsettling her. “Regarding an heir.”
Her eyes widened and her heart leapt through her throat.
Deep down, Iris was certain that Philip was testing her. That he knew why she was there, what she wanted, and all this was, was his attempt at reminding her of that. But also…
She felt her mouth turn dry just as a warmth spread from her loins and up her body.
Her thighs started to shake, and her limbs began to tingle.
It was easy to tell herself that she wanted nothing to do with her husband.
But in the face of his flirtation and with the implication of it sitting between them as it was, Iris wasn’t such a fool to deny what she knew entirely.
“You need to have a long and hard think about what you really want…” Philip was a foot away from her, but he was so big it felt like he was right on top. And as he spoke, he reached up and gently touched under her chin.
She shook his hand back and leaned away, unable to look at him directly. “I know what I want.”
“Do you?”
“Y—yes.”
“If that is the case, I expect you to do as you promised me.” This time, he snatched out with his hand and pinched her chin between her fingers. She tried to shake him off, but he held on, forcing her to look at him. His eyes danced and the curve of his lips was mocking. “Can you do that?”
“I… of course I can.”
“Or are you in need of some… let us call it a punishment.”
Her heart nearly exploded in her chest, and her knees just about gave out. “Punishment?”
“To remind you not to break my rules again,” he purred, his fingers now stroking her chin. “The next time you think to barge in here and cause a scene to which you do not even know the purpose, think about this and what will happen if you do it again.”
That word… punishment. It lit something inside of Iris that she had never felt before.
But she understood its meaning well enough.
How hot her body ran. How it shook. And the way she found her defenses weakening because all her life she had been coddled and treated like a fragile piece of porcelain, never once being in trouble, never once in need of being punished.
She wanted it. She didn’t know why. Just that she did.
“What are you saying?”
The duke said nothing. Rather, he showed her exactly what he meant.
Still holding onto her chin, he leaned forward as he lifted her face and before Iris could so much as breathe his lips found her own and he pulled her into a passionate kiss.
Iris might have cried out were her lips not so busy.
Her body erupted. A fire spread from inside of her and consumed her fully.
She thought to pull away but the feel of Philip’s lips touching her own and she gave in, melted into her husband, and allowed him to kiss her like she never knew she wanted but now knew she would kill for.
Their lips parted and his tongue slid into her mouth. It licked her tongue, lapped at her lips, danced around her mouth and all she could do was accept it and pray that he did not stop…
Which he did do, seconds after beginning.
She gasped and lurched forward as he pulled away. She blinked, her heart racing, her body shaking so she could hardly stand. He dropped her chin and took a step back, a smile of delight on his lips, a chuckle escaping him because he saw too clearly what that single kiss did to her.
“You may leave me now,” he said.
“What?” she lurched in surprise. “But—”
“Leave me.” He turned and walked back to his desk. “Your punishment, as it is.” He chuckled and sat back down. “Is knowing what you might have, but what you claim you do not want.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I think that you do,” he said with a knowing smile. “And know that next time, I won’t go nearly so easy on you. Now…” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Leave. And don’t make me tell you again.”
Iris’ body was still rebelling against her. And her mind was fractured into a million pieces as it tried to reckon with what had just happened and what it meant. That kiss… even she could not lie to herself about how it felt. Just as she could not convince herself she didn’t want more.
And that right there is the punishment.
Unable to speak. Not daring to push her husband further, Iris was quick to turn and leave. She raced from the room and slammed the door closed behind her, falling back on it and sinking to the floor the second she was alone.
That, whatever it was, had not gone how she wanted. Or had it?
She had been so convinced that this marriage would be one of convenience only—that all she desired was a husband who did not ignore her, but who did not want her either because she did not want him. And now… her husband was right, and Iris had no idea what she wanted.
And dammit, she had never felt so confused because of it.