"Please, let me finish." Theo continued to keep his voice calm even though his insides were twisted into knots. "It wasn't just an ordinary kiss. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before."
"Enough!" Delilah waved a hand at him, her face growing paler than before, paler than Theo even believed possible. "I don't wish to hear it."
"You don't understand." Theo gripped her wrist in order to stop her from leaving. "We shared the kiss of fated mates. There was nothing either of us could have done to prevent any of this."
Delilah yanked her wrist from his grip then and stood, once more turning to glare down at him.
"That is your defense?" she demanded. "You're telling me that fate intervened? What about the fate that caused our parents to arrange our marriage all those years ago?"
Theo's stomach clenched and bile rose in the back of his throat. She had a point but Theo knew there was nothing he could do to change any of it now.
"I don't know what you want me to say but all I can say is that I am sorry if you feel hurt or betrayed. It was never my intention to hurt you."
She began to scoff at that, laughing so hard that for a moment Theo wondered if her wits had snapped. Then she closed her eyes, visibly composing herself.
"I don't believe you," she said. When she opened her eyes once more they were cold and accusing, boring into Theo until he felt as though he might never feel warmth again. "Where is my companion? What have you done with her?"
So she hasn't been to see her, Theo thought. He had half expected Fleur to use her newfound freedom to go to her mistress and try to limit the damage.
"I have done nothing with her." Theo shook his head, struggling not to smile as he remembered all that he had done to her on the beach. Now was not the time to be thinking of such things.
"Where is she? Where are you keeping her?" Delilah demanded. Her hands separated then and she tightened them into fists at her sides. "I demand to be able to see her. She is my servant. We have been together since we were children."
Careful or I might begin to believe you mean to call her a friend, Theo thought before reminding himself that noblewomen did not have friends. They had co-conspirators and people they believed would help them get what they wanted but they did not have friends. To others her relationship with her companion might have appeared to be friendship but knowing Fleur as Theo knew her, he could tell how innocent she was and how naive, and he knew there was no way she could possibly be friends with a lady like Delilah.
"Fleur is not being kept against her will," Theo assured her before adding quickly, "If she had wanted to see you, she would have come to you already."
Anger flashed in Delilah's eyes. Then she dropped back onto the bench and Theo was more than a little surprised when she gripped hold of his hand.
"Please, Your Grace, I must see her. I must know that she is safe and unharmed," she insisted. Theo opened his mouth to snap that he would never allow a hair on Fleur's head to be harmed but Delilah continued, "Of course, I know you would never allow any harm to come to someone in your palace but I must see it for myself."
It was in that moment that she said the one thing that Theo could not resist, "If you allow it, I will leave the Summer Isle on the next boat if you would just permit me to see her."
Deep down Theo knew that he should have been wary and yet he couldn't help himself.
"What do you mean?" He raised an eyebrow, suspicion gnawing at his insides.
"What I mean is, I will cause you no more trouble and I will return home to petition our parents to have the arrangements between our families put to an end."
What she was offering was more than Theo could ever have dreamed of.
He was about to protest, sure that she was hiding something, when she added, “After all, neither of us really wanted this marriage, anyway, did we?”
She eyed him closely, almost as if she were trying to search his expression for something he might not be willing to say out loud. Theo weighed the situation carefully before answering. He could lie and tell her that he had always had every intention of living up to the arrangement between them but then he began to wonder what good it would do. Now that she knew the truth, it seemed stupid to continue to lie to her.
“No, we didn’t,” he responded. Was that hurt he saw in her eyes?
He didn’t get the chance to figure it out because Delilah quickly plastered a brilliant smile upon her face.
“Well, that settles it then. I will do my bit to see it fixed if you will permit me to see my companion,” she said, her voice suddenly over-cheery. Although she appeared in a far better mood than she had upon his arrival, Theo still felt uneasy.
How will any of us get what we want if I don’t at least try? he asked himself.
“I shall have my guards take you to her.”
Chapter 12 - Fleur
She dreamed that she was back on the beach, resting in Theo’s arms after yet another lovemaking session. The area between her thighs was tender as it had been the first time, but the rest of her body was tranquil. Her muscles were like jelly while her skin tingled wherever he had touched her, wherever he had laid a kiss.