Lord of the Masquerade by Erica Ridley
Chapter 21
Unity had never felt safer and more comfortable than snuggled into the Duke of Lambley’s warm, naked embrace.
Part of her still could not believe the man who maintained ruthless control over himself and his surroundings had let her take charge during their lovemaking. From the bewildered expression on his handsome face when they’d begun, it was not something he had ever considered, much less attempted. But he’d done it.
For her.
He was trying to show her that he saw her, that he heard her, that they were equals.
No, that wasn’t it either. He had not demanded to take equal control. He had not demanded anything at all. What he was trying to show was that her needs came first.
She could have cried from the novelty of it. She hadn’t even grasped the enormity as it was happening. And that was it. It was already over.
Any minute now, he would remember his party downstairs, hand Unity her clothes, and walk off to resume his regular life. This moment would not repeat. This embrace would not continue. These arms that were...
Peeling away from her already.
“Unity,” he said softly.
She drew herself up stiffly. Their time together had been magical. She would never leave this bed, if it were up to her. But things were no longer up to Unity. The game was over.
It was time to go home.
She slid off of the bed and knelt to rescue her chemise and borrowed gown. It was the last time she’d borrow props from the theatre as well. She wouldn’t be back here again. Had no interest in watching Julian escort some other masked vixen up the marble stairs and into the play rooms.
“Unity,” he said again. “Look at me.”
She pulled on her chemise to give herself time to compose her expression, then turned to him with a mask of peace upon her features.
He had risen up on his elbows, but otherwise had made no effort to cover his gorgeously naked body. How many times had he looked just like this, to someone else? A week from today, would he even remember her name?
“I realize what this is,” she said, before he could be the one to tell her. “You don’t need me anymore. It’s all right. I knew it before we started.”
“No.” He swung into a sitting position at the edge of the bed, his knees close enough to brush the loose folds of her chemise. “It is you who no longer needs me.”
She blinked. “What?”
He visibly took a deep breath. “I investigated you.”
“I know,” she said. “I told you to stop it.”
“I did stop... that investigation,” he hedged. “And began a new one into someone else.”
His next paramour? She made a face. “What has that to do with me?”
“Roger Thorne is an even worse blackguard than you think he is.”
She laughed humorlessly. “I doubt that’s possible.”
“Unity, he was the poor relation. That’s why he resented you.”
Her lips tightened. “Not the only reason.”
“When your parents died, their money was meant for you. As your sole remaining family member, he was its trustee.”
Her pulse fluttered. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, because the money was not in a trust, he took your rightful inheritance and squandered it, rather than support his ward as an honorable man would have done.”
“He spent… my money?”
“It’s not his club, Unity. It’s your gentlemen’s club. It was built with your money, staffed with your money. You were underage, so he put every penny of your inheritance in his name as quickly as possible.”
Her head felt faint.
“M-my club?” she stammered. Then the full impact hit her. “My grandfather didn’t give away the family fortune?”
She had known they were wealthy. And then allowed Roger to convince her she’d had a child’s understanding of her parents’ finances. That the money was unrecoverable. That Unity had not even been mentioned in the will and testament.
All of it, lies.
Julian reached for her hands and cradled them between his knees. “Your inheritance isn’t gone. It was in the wrong hands. Your father’s will left explicit instructions that you were to inherit everything. But because you were so young, the handling of the money fell to your self-serving cousin. As trustee, Roger had full control of the purse strings.”
“That craven scoundrel,” she whispered. “If I ever lay eyes on his smug, pasty face again…”
“I’ve addressed the matter for you and taken care of everything,” Julian assured her. “The title for the club is now in your name. Or rather, in the name of an account I’ve had drawn up for you, along with every penny that should have been yours. You can quit your post at the theatre and—”
She jerked her hands from his lap, shaking. Once again, someone was appointing himself trustee of Unity’s life.
“To manipulate my finances so without a single word of discussion is unbelievably high-handed. Or rather, exactly the sort of arrogance I should expect from someone like you. I wanted to forge my future on my own, or at least be involved in the process. I deserve that right. And you come along and—”
“If you feel so indebted,” he interrupted, “I won’t turn down a twenty percent commission in any enterprise you create from this bounty.”
“Twenty percent!” she sputtered. “For money that has nothing to do with you!”
“Ah,” he said softly. “So it is your inheritance, then. Congratulations, Unity. You possess a respectable fortune and your dastardly cousin is beggared once more.”
She glared at him in consternation. Of course it was the best news she’d ever heard. But she could not like being left out of the process. Any decision that upended her life ought to be part of a discussion she was privy to.
“I should have told you,” Julian said quickly.
“You should not have told me,” she said. “You should have asked me. You should have respected me enough to sit down and talk to me before taking sweeping action that would affect my life without my knowledge.”
“I know,” he said. “And I knew it then, too. Or at least, I realized it after I’d already sent my man of business off with no more instruction than, ‘Destroy him.’”
“Then why...”
“I was in too deep. I’d already done the thing that you were going to be rightfully furious about. If it was all going to blow up in my face and cause me to lose you from my life forever, then at least I would leave you in a better position than the penniless one that scoundrel subjected a grieving child to.”
She breathed in slowly, then let out the breath. “What did you do?”
“It’s in a legal trust,” he said. “In your name alone. Along with significant interest, as if it had been invested properly all these years, as ought to have been done.” He named an impossible sum.
She narrowed her eyes. “Your money?”
“Not a penny of it. It comes from the profits of Mr. Thorne’s club, which arguably also should have been your money all along. Your new nest egg is yours, Unity. Just as it always was meant to be. This time, safe in a trust.”
“Safe from my cousin,” she said bitterly. “But what if I marry?”
He shook his head. “No man can ever touch a farthing of your fortune. Not even a husband. You’re completely independent and will never be helpless again.”
It wasn’t a fortune by his standards. Julian probably spent more money on grapes in a year than her parents had ever seen in their lifetimes. But it was more than enough to start the venture she had dreamed of for so long.
An inheritance her parents had meant for Unity to have all these years.
“What you choose to do next,” Julian said, “is completely up to you. Without any financial pressure.”
She frowned. “What I choose to do about what?”
He slid off of the bed and onto his knees, once again taking her hands into his.
“I’m sorry, Unity.” He kissed her fingers. “I was high-handed and I was arrogant, and probably a host of other adjectives you were too polite to throw in my face. You’re right. I was wrong. I am deeply sorry to have broken your trust.”
“I didn’t want to be saved.” Her voice shook. “I wasn’t looking for a savior.”
“You saved yourself. Without me. Despite Roger Thorne. You saved yourself time and again, from the very beginning. You didn’t need me then, and you still don’t need me now. I can only hope that you might choose me.”
Her heart beat faster. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, that money is yours and always has been. It didn’t come from me. It came from your parents. You can do anything you want with it. Just as you can do anything you please with your life.” He gazed up at her, his voice soft. “What I’m hoping you might do... is marry me.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“I’ll not control you,” he said quickly. “You can spend your fortune buying your own food and your own clothes and your own chair to sit on, if it makes you happy. Or you can beggar me down to my last guinea. All I need is you. You saved me.”
She stared down at him. “I saved... you?”
“I didn’t believe in love. Didn’t believe I was worthy of it. Didn’t believe I was capable of it. Life was about control, and never forming attachments with anything or anyone.” His thumb stroked the back of her hand. “And then came you.”
“I thought I was temporary, too,” she whispered.
“So did I. That’s what I told myself, reminded myself, warned myself. But the ice around my heart could no more resist you than the sun. Your warmth melted my defenses. You made me vulnerable. You terrified me. And now I can think of no worse future than one without you in it.”
Her hands shook.
He pressed them to his heart. “Meeting you was like finding the lost piece of my soul, when I hadn’t realized there was anything missing.”
She swallowed hard.
“Marry me, Unity. Please. I beg you.” He released her hands. “Or do not. It is your life, and I will never again attempt to inflict my will upon you without your consent. If you do not wish to marry me as eagerly, as desperately, as I wish to marry you, I will not stop you if you choose to go.”
She had dreaded the moment in which she had to walk away.
And now she didn’t have to.
That was his gift to her: Choice. He was placing her in control. Of not just her own life, but their future together.
“I almost forgot the most important bit of all. Good God, my hands are shaking. I haven’t said these words in decades, if I ever did back then.” His cheeks flushed and he took a deep breath. “I love you, Unity.”
She smiled, her eyes stinging. “I know.”
He blinked in surprise. “You… knew?”
“You showed me,” she said. “Not your interference with my cousin. I mean you and me, right here on this bed. You didn’t say the words, but you didn’t have to. You told me with your body. You would never have given up control to anyone you didn’t love and trust.”
“Let me prove how much every night and every tomorrow.” He pressed her fingers to his lips without taking his eyes from hers. “Make me the happiest of men. Marry me. Or at least stay, for as long as you like, and I will do my best to make that be forever.”
She gazed down into his hazel eyes.
He was right. She didn’t have to prove herself. There was nothing left to prove. Unity had already proven herself over and over, time and again. She was fine. She was complete. She was capable. She was enough, with or without him.
The choice was hers.
She cleared her throat. “Are you certain you wouldn’t mind if I... oh, say for example... launched competing masquerades?”
He grinned at her. “As long as you don’t mind competing against yourself.”
She frowned. “What?”
“I don’t want to possess you,” he said again. “I want the Duke and Duchess of Lambley to be a team. You should do as you please with your money. It’s yours. What I want to do with my life is share every part of it with you. This is your home. These are your parties, too.”
She eyed him skeptically. “I can change the order of the fruit trays?”
He blanched, but nodded. “I want you to choose me. I want you to keep choosing me, every day. Just as I will keep choosing you, over and over again.”
She knelt before him and pressed his hands to her rapidly beating heart. “I’ve been choosing you, day after day. I chose you when you joined me in the market. I chose you when you made ridiculous rules about kissing. I chose you when you fed me grapes I’d never heard of. I chose you when I walked into this room.”
His breath shook. “Are you saying...”
“I’m saying I do choose you. I’ll keep choosing you. I love you, you high-handed, arrogant sobersides. Yes. I’ll marry you.”
“But you were teasing about altering my perfect fruit trays?” he whispered.
She burst out laughing and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You realize half of society will not condone our union.”
He scooped her up. “You do realize I don’t give a fig about their opinions.”
“You were scandalous long before I met you,” she agreed, trailing a finger along his naked shoulder. “So what is it you do care about?”
He tumbled her onto the bed and climbed between her legs, his eyes glinting wickedly. “Let me show you, duchess.”
And so he did.