Cedric couldn’t give her the whole story, but he could give her some of it. It would admit her some power, yet he knew, as he had back at Haerton, that now was the time for honesty. And that he wouldn’t get what he wanted unless he gave it to her.
“I want sex with you.” He told her.
“Me?” This time she sounded shocked. “But… I… why should that matter?”
“You have passion. And I am a connoisseur of passion. I want yours and I think that perhaps you want mine too.”
Anna said nothing. And suddenly Cedric found himself on the edge of his seat, tension gripping him, every part of him focused on the phone in his hand and on the woman on the other end of the line.
“One night,” he said in that bare-bones voice, all his seductive techniques deserting him, leaving only demand left. “That’s all I will ever ask of you. Just one.
And I can tell you this with absolute confidence, that if you want to enjoy your first time with a man then I am the man you should enjoy it with.”
More silence.
“That’s the most arrogant thing I’ve ever heard anyone say,” she said at last.
Cedric wanted to smile, but not because he was amused. “I have never pretended to be anything other than what I am. And yes, I can be arrogant at times. But if you know my reputation then you will also know that women do not go away from my bed unsatisfied.” He felt himself wound tight as a spring. “I will make it a night to remember, I promise you. Now I know that this is something you haven’t done before, so I’m willing to wait until you are ready. It doesn’t have to happen on our wedding night….”
Yet more silence, longer this time. You sound as if you’re begging. Since when did you ever beg? Cedric asked himself. He didn’t like that thought. Didn’t like that thought at all. It made him feel the way he had with his father. Fuck, why had he said anything? Why had he granted her even this modicum of power over him?
Too late to regret it now.
“Just one night?” Anna said at last. “One night and that’s all?”
He didn’t move. “Yes. One night and that’s all.”
The silence this time felt like the longest stretch of time he’d ever experienced.
“All right.” Her voice was breathless. “You can have one night.”
Then she disconnected the call.
______________
The Duke moved with unsurprising efficiency.
The next day a courier arrived on Anna’s door-step with a thick-looking folder of legal documents that proved to be a contract cementing her agreement to marriage and a child legally. Which stood to reason.
This was a business agreement after all.
So she sat down and spent the entire day combing through it, making sure she understood everything. It was clear and unequivocal and there were no loopholes of any kind. The Duke’s ruthless business reputation was obviously well earned.
You’ll soon find out if his other reputation was also well earned.
The thought wound through her head, the words of the contract blurring in front of her as the memory of the previous night’s conversation abruptly hit.
“I want one night.”
Anna’s heartbeat sped up, the throb of some deep and inexplicable ache gathering inside her. She still wasn’t sure quite why she’d agreed a night with him when she’d been so sure that she wasn’t going to sleep with him. Or how she’d somehow let slip that she was a virgin.
The latter, because she’d wanted to shock him maybe. But the former… He’d told her he wanted her passion, and after that his voice had gone deeper, rough, no longer quite so lazy or seductive. Almost as if he was desperate, which a part of her had liked far too much.
She, the little virgin, had the most notorious playboy begging her for a wedding night.
She’d said yes before she’d thought twice about it. He wanted her. And more than that, he wanted her passion, and no one had wanted that in so very long. She also couldn’t deny that she wanted him in return. It was probably a mistake, probably a sign of her general lack of control, but surely one night wouldn’t hurt? Just one. He said he would wait too until she was ready. And after all, he’d basically insisted. She really couldn’t say no, could she?
Dismissing the thoughts of the wedding night, Anna read on, the terms for the child giving her another lurch of doubt. It was strange seeing it in black and white, her agreement to provide him with a son. A big undertaking, especially when she’d never thought about having children herself. And most especially considering the child would live with the Duke and not with her.
Yet, as she’d thought earlier, that would be the best thing for the child. She wasn’t motherhood material after all. She could visit though, the Duke had promised her that, and she would. A child should know its mother, even if that mother wasn’t a particularly good one.
That all of these were rationalizations she knew deep in her heart, but she decided it was better not to think about them too deeply. The most important thing was that she and her father got the money that the Duke promised them.
Sure enough, after she’d signed the contract and sent it away, the money landed in her bank account. Then a car and a nurse arrived to take her father to a renowned stroke specialist for an assessment and some recommendations for further treatments at her father’s preferred facility. It was horrifically expensive, but the Duke agreed to cover the cost without hesitation and soon arranged for her father to travel there after the wedding.
Anna had expected some registry-office ceremony, conducted swiftly and without much fanfare, since it wasn’t as if they were making vows of love in front of friends and family. But apparently that was not what the Duke wanted. A small ceremony with a ‘few hundred’ of his closest friends was what the Duke wanted, though she wasn’t sure why he seemed so set on making a big deal out of it.