Chapter 22
“Are you planning to fully enter the room, or do you intend to let the fire go out and allow the frost to enter?”
Her husband’s eyes were fixed on his ledger. His pen stopped mid-stroke on the page, leaving a blot. She imagined he would not be too happy. She also knew he had been fully aware of her presence even before the draft came in.
Juliana closed the door with a click and sauntered toward the hearth.
The morning light was still pale, filtering pale streams into Stonevale.
But it was not what caught her attention completely.
It was him. The way his profile cut sharply and the way his face seemed softer when illuminated by the light.
She had also been too aware of how he sat, as if to ease the pressure on his injured hip and leg.
“Do you not think the house becomes too quiet when there are secrets everywhere? There is too much to say that is repressed,” Juliana said, her voice steadier than she felt inside. “Everything that is not said becomes too heavy.”
Cassian looked up at her, narrowing his eyes. “Are you here to discuss my sister and the West Tower again, Juliana? You know how that turned out. I suggest you save your breath for something we can agree on.”
“I did not come to speak of Marta, Cassian. I… I am here to speak of Kit,” she said breathlessly.
Even as she said those words, she felt the room’s temperature drop. Cassian looked furious, a muscle ticking in his cheek. He set his quill down with a finality that made the items on his desk rattle.
“Kit? I thought that after everything I told you, you would understand why I cannot bear to hear his name, let alone speak of him. Your brother is a leech,” he bellowed.
Juliana flinched at that. Her brother might have done terrible things, but she would never call him that.
“I do not understand how you can care about him after all he has done to you. To Marta. He is a man who dances on other people’s misfortune.
If he can behave that way toward his own flesh and blood and the woman he said he cared about, what would he be like to the rest of the world?
He is a menace! Worse, he is involved in dealings with dangerous men.
Illegal dealings, and I want you to have no part in it. ”
“What do you mean? Oh, I knew he had mixed up with the wrong lot,” Juliana said in despair.
“Yes, and he does not understand that these men are not his friends. They are only in it because they believe the Hawthorne name will be a boon to them.”
Dread rippled down Juliana’s spine. She knew Cassian was right.
Kit was reckless, to the point that he barely considered the consequences of his actions for himself or his family.
And Cassian? Cassian was the sort of duke who knew what the darkness of London was like.
He was not as unexposed as others in the peerage.
However, Kit was the older brother she had spent her whole life cleaning up after, as if she had been born to it.
“He is in danger,” she whispered, something she knew all along.
“Of course, he is,” Cassian corrected harshly. “Once upon a time, I thought I was the greatest danger to him, but he owes money to men with no self-control or honor. He is fortunate to have the sister he sold still on his side.”
Juliana bristled at the reminder. She looked at Cassian warily even as she approached him. Her husband always carried the familiar, comforting scent of sandalwood. She wanted to inhale him, bury her nose in his strong biceps.
“Cassian, darling, I know my brother has done many unforgivable things. I am his sister and should be the most offended. However, look at us,” she said, almost pleadingly, gesturing at the air between them.
“We are married, bound, hopefully not only by that. If we are to start our own family, we can only hope for peace if we start working on the same side.”
He scoffed, his face crumpled with emotion. “You want me to dig into the mud to rescue a man who was the reason I got dirty in the first place. Now I am almost drowning, and he shows no concern. I married you to punish him, Juliana. I am not here to become his savior.”
“It does not matter what he is to you. I am asking you to be the man you are, the one I got to know,” she insisted, her voice pleading.
“Kit is my blood, no matter how you look at it. Promise me, Cassian, that you will at least try. Use your connections to pull him away from these nefarious dealings. You know he is in danger. Can you secure him before any of those men do? Please.”
“No,” he growled as he rose from his desk and turned his back on her. “I cannot help that devil. I will not.”
Juliana did not retreat even when Cassian looked at her with fury in his eyes.
She knew she had some power over him, a power born of the nights they had already spent unraveling each other’s defenses.
Unraveling each other’s bodies. She knew that her husband cared for her enough to indulge her in this.
Juliana moved behind Cassian, gently guiding him back to his seat. He obeyed as if he had no choice, groaning as her hands slid over his shoulders. She could feel the knot of tension there. Then she massaged it, hoping to give him some relief.
“Cassian, do you want me to beg on my knees for it? I know you hate Kit right now and want to see him ruined. This marriage shows you will go to great lengths for revenge. However, you are much more than that. I feel your warmth. I know we both want a family. If you truly want that and me as your wife, please show some mercy.”
Juliana felt him shudder beneath her masterful touch. She knew then that he wanted the same thing. Peace. A life without pain. A journey without revenge. His hands gripped the armrests of his chair as she let him take control of his muscles.
“You are no doubt a manipulative little witch,” he groaned, and the words did not feel like an insult. They almost felt like praise, making her smile. Not in triumph, no. She was far from that still.
“I prefer determined,” she laughed. “Or you can say I am a wife fighting for your redemption and my brother’s safety,” she retorted.
She walked to his side and placed a palm against his cheek, turning him toward her. Her gaze held his as she felt the air between them crackling. It was thick, almost solid. She could not breathe.
And Cassian? His pupils widened as he watched her with undisguised desire.
While Juliana might not be certain of much, she knew there was a deep attraction between them.
The revenge failed because of it. She did not mind being married to the Duke of Stonevale.
Not anymore. In fact, she rejoiced in it.
“I know what you are thinking, Juliana. You think you can sway me with one kiss? You think your body is payment for your brother’s life?”
She should have been offended that she had just been demoted to a body, but she stirred at his words. While she might have an effect on him, he had an effect on her, too.
“I know you want me, Cassian. But I believe you also want to become the man you were meant to be. The man I believe in,” she whispered.
She leaned toward him, her lips ghosting over his skin.
His jaw tightened. She could see it now, his resolve crumbling under her teasing.
She pressed her hot mouth to his jaw, and all he could do was sigh.
It was almost a defeated sound, yet to him it sounded like he had conquered the world.
He pulled her onto his lap, the pressure a blend of pleasure and pain on his thigh.
His cane clattered to the floor as he pulled her into a searching, desperate, almost feral kiss.
His hands tangled in her hair in a grip that was almost too painful but filled her with satisfaction.
“Juliana,” he said, in the voice that was meant to be a warning and sounded like nothing of the sort. “You are doing this deliberately.”
“I have absolutely no idea what you mean,” she said seductively.
Cassian rose while still half-carrying her, one hand sweeping the ledgers off the desk. They fell to the floor with loud thuds. He set her on his desk, still not letting go of her mouth. The kiss went on and on, his tongue tangling with hers, making her toes curl.
Juliana parted her legs, making room for him. His hands slid up her thighs, dragging the fabric of her skirts upward. He thrust against her, making her feel his hardness pressing against her wetness. Fabric still separated them, but she pressed against him urgently.
Cassian was a man possessed, tearing at the fabric of her undergarments as she clutched his shirt. Together, they always ended up like this. In these moments, Stonevale’s icy exterior thawed.
Juliana liked that Cassian was both rough and reverent, qualities she could reciprocate with wantonness. He was the only one who could make her feel this way, desperate and yearning. She moaned loudly when he slipped his cock inside her, hot and hard, stretching her to the fullest.
“All right?” he asked, his voice strained at the edges with the effort of holding still.
“Yes, do not dare stop,” she rasped as she felt him bury himself to the hilt inside her. She wanted to scream as his thrusts nudged places in her that lit up with pleasure. Places that only came alive whenever he made love to her.
Love?
It was an uncertain word between them, but they had desire and competitiveness. They always sought what they wanted and did it well. He pushed into her, claiming her again and again, even as her eyes rolled into the backs of her head.
Cassian was a rake, but Juliana had made him go to his knees for her.
He barely went to the gentlemen’s club after they had consummated their marriage.
Gripping her hips, he pounded into her even as his nose nuzzled her chest. She pulled back her bodice to free her breasts, arching her back to offer them to him.
He laved a nipple even as he continued his feral thrusts.
“I… I am close,” she panted, as she felt the tension inside her building and reaching the precipice.
So close. She whimpered as he sucked on a nipple, filling her. The dam broke, and she almost screamed. Almost. The door to his study was locked and closed, but she could not take the risk. He followed soon after, grunting his triumph as he spilled his seed into her.
“You did so well, my darling,” he murmured into her chest as her head slumped onto his shoulder from exhaustion. She wanted him as close as possible, even now, with him still inside her.
“I did?” she whispered, and she swore he was hard again. She could not help but shift her hips to seek more pleasure. He had made her want him far too often and far too much.
“Yes. And you know I could not deny you my heart on a platter if you asked for it. Not when you look at me like that,” he whispered back, his voice thick with desire and another emotion she could not fully identify.
“I will do it, Juliana. I will make an effort. I will see what I can do for Kit. I am doing it for you, but do not expect me to always be civil.”
“Thank you,” she breathed, lifting her head to rest it against his forehead. Their eyes met. It felt like a tug-of-war, each begging the other to see their side.
“Do not thank me yet,” he urged, even as he pressed her face to his chest to inhale her scent. “You may know how to make me bend. But that is just you. We will see what we can do about peace with Kit, but it depends on his behavior as well. It also means I can never let you go.”
Juliana smiled at that. Did he not understand?
She did not want him to let her go. She was right there, still feeling the remnants of the powerful orgasm he had just given her.
Reaching the pinnacle had given her not only physical satisfaction but also forged an emotional attachment. She wanted more of him.
“Who said anything about letting me go?” she asked.
He smiled back. Then, from somewhere above them, came the sound of a scream from the West Tower.
Was Marta having nightmares again?
They both went still.
She felt him change beneath her hands, the warmth of the last hour contracting, the familiar tension returning to his shoulders like a tide coming back in.
She watched his jaw set and his eyes go to the ceiling, and felt the weight of Stonevale settle over them both like something neither of them had ever quite managed to put down.
Her heart sank as she saw her husband’s eyes narrow to slits.
“We are going to fix this,” she said. “All of it. I do not know how yet, but we are.”