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of Georgianna’s back and the vulnerability of her exposed nape, knowing he could not give in to the impulse he felt to take her back into his arms and apologise for having deliberately insulted her.

      For having hurt her?

      Her eyes had looked awash with tears again before she lowered those long, protective lashes, as if his cutting words really had injured her feelings.

      Damn it, how long could it take to confirm or deny Georgianna’s information? Zachary wondered impatiently. How much longer did he have to wait before he...?

      Before he what? Exactly what difference was it going to make to Zachary’s dealings with Georgianna once he did know the truth?

      Georgianna might have responded to him a short time ago, but she also so obviously despised him, and herself, for that response. He could not see anything, even the unlikely confirmation of her information being true, ever changing that.

      ‘Very well.’ Zachary nodded abruptly, having no appetite himself now. For dinner, at least. ‘But a dinner tray will be brought up to your room.’

      Her head remained bowed as she nodded. ‘Thank you.’

      ‘And you will eat its contents,’ he added sternly.

      Humour glinted in her eyes as she looked across at him. ‘Must I remind you that your dictates to me so far have not proved in the least successful?’

      No, Zachary needed no reminding of Georgianna’s wilfulness. Or of his own response to those displays of stubbornness. ‘That is because you are contrary in the extreme.’

      ‘That being the case, perhaps you should have instructed me not to eat the food on the dinner tray rather than to eat it?’

      ‘That would be a useless exercise now that we have discussed the possibility,’ Zachary dismissed impatiently. ‘Eat, or do not eat,’ he advised wearily. ‘Personally, I grew bored with the subject some minutes ago.’

      As Georgianna had no doubt he was bored with having her in his home. With her. And who could blame him? It was so obviously not his choice, but had been foisted upon him by his superior. As she had been foisted on him.

      Zachary could not really be blamed for having tried to lighten that burden by entertaining himself in making love to her. A woman whose intimate association with another man put her well beyond the need for either respect or maidenly consideration from the top-lofty Duke of Hawksmere.

      She straightened her shoulders. ‘Then I will relieve you of the necessity of suffering any more boredom by removing myself from your presence, so allowing you to go out and seek more entertaining and exciting company.’

      Frustration surged inside Zachary as he eyed her impatiently, knowing he did not find Georgianna in the least boring. Indeed, she continued to intrigue and entertain him in a way he could not remember feeling with any other woman. Nor could he recall ever being anywhere near as ‘excited’ by another woman, as he had been just from kissing and caressing Georgianna.

      He gave a mocking inclination of his head. ‘That is very considerate of you.’

      ‘I thought so, too,’ she riposted drily.

      Georgianna’s sense of humour so appealed to his own that Zachary knew if he did not have a care he would find himself laughing once again, a move guaranteed to completely nullify the distance that he had deliberately put between them this past few minutes. It was a distance Zachary knew he desperately needed to maintain if he were to continue to keep the upper hand with this particular woman. If, indeed, he still had it. If he had ever had it?

      Georgianna’s flight from a marriage to him ten months ago would seem to imply, that even as the flirtatious and slightly immature Lady Georgianna Lancaster, she had possessed a wilfulness that had been strong enough to at least ensure the unwanted marriage did not take place. The Georgianna who had returned from France was even more determined to defy, and alternately beguile, him at every turn.

      Zachary held himself stiffly. ‘Luckily I do not need your permission to do anything I wish, or go anywhere I please, whereas the same obviously cannot be said of you.’ He eyed her challengingly.

      Rebellion glowed in those violet-coloured eyes. ‘The bedchamber you have allocated for my use is far superior to my lodgings at Mrs Jenkins’s house. It also has the added advantage of being given to me completely free of charge.’

      Experience, so far in their reacquaintance, had served to show Zachary that it was doubtful he would ever manage to have the last word in a conversation with this particular woman. ‘That could change at any moment,’ he drawled challengingly in an attempt to do so.

      Her chin rose stubbornly as she met that challenge. ‘Your threats grow as wearisome to me as my company has become boring to you.’

      The smile refused to be denied this time as Zachary gave a weary, defeated shake of his head. His lack of sleep the night before was certainly taking its toll on him now. A disadvantage Georgianna obviously did not suffer from. ‘I do believe your tenacity of will has worn me down for this evening, Georgianna.’

      ‘I am glad to hear it,’ she replied pertly. ‘Now, if you will excuse me? I really would prefer to return to my room.’

      And Zachary, much as he might prefer to go out for the rest of the evening, well away from the temptation of knowing Georgianna was in the bedchamber adjoining his own, now knew himself to be so tired, from lack of sleep and the exhaustion of constantly crossing verbal swords with Georgianna, that he wanted nothing more than to go to his own bedchamber and sleep like the dead for a dozen hours or more.

      He nodded abruptly. ‘I will arrange for Hinds to bring you up a tray of food shortly.’

      She arched one dark brow. ‘Do you not intend to lock me in again first?’

      He smiled slightly. ‘I believe Hinds may find it rather difficult to deliver your tray if the door is locked.’

      ‘And if I should attempt to escape in the meantime?’

      Zachary took two predatory steps forward, coming to a halt just inches in front of Georgianna and forcing her to tilt her head back in order to look up at him.

      ‘If you were to escape, Georgianna, then I should then have the pleasure of tracking you down,’ he told her softly. ‘And when I had, you may be assured I should extract the necessary revenge for your having dared to defy me.’

      Georgianna repressed a shiver of apprehension as she saw the raw intensity of emotion glittering in the hard depths of Zachary’s eyes. Challenge. Confidence. Amusement.

      It was the latter emotion that caused her to straighten resentfully. ‘You would have to find me first. Something I believe you were not too successful in doing ten months ago,’ she added with deliberate sweetness.

      His lids narrowed about those silver eyes. ‘Perhaps that is because I did not bother to look too hard for my obviously reluctant bride?’

      Colour warmed her cheeks. ‘As you had never so much as bothered even speaking to her, I am not surprised. Indeed, as I have already told you, my only surprise is that you haven’t found my replacement and married since.’

      Zachary looked down at her coldly, only too well aware that his time for marrying, and producing an heir, was ticking by faster than he would have wished. ‘Perhaps that is because I have decided to be more cautious in my second attempt at matrimony.’

      ‘How sad to know you were the second choice for the Duke of Hawksmere’s duchess!’ she retorted tartly.

      He drew in a sharp breath. ‘My wife will not be my second choice, but the correct one. Which you, most assuredly, were not.’

      The colour deepened in Georgianna’s cheeks. ‘Then it appears we may both be thankful for having escaped such an ill-matched union.’

      ‘Indeed, we can,’ Zachary bit out harshly.

      They stared each other down for several

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