Free The Devil's Match by Victoria Vane

out, remember? You came to my bed, and I gave you what you
asked for...and much more. How is that exploitation?”
    “As soon as you got what you wanted, you broke it off and
disappeared! You were gone for four
years, Ludovic! No word. Nothing!”
    “And you believe it was by my choice?” His voice
sounded rough and edged with bitterness. “Have the past years not
brought you any clarity?”
    “You made it clear enough at the time. ‘Amorous
idyll’s are best ended before the bloom is off the rose.’” She
laughed, an equally harsh sound.
    He winced. “Did I say that?”
    “Yes! And then you paid me off like some
high-priced whore.”
    “It was an exceedingly generous settlement,
intended to provide for your security.”
    “Am I supposed to feel gratitude?”
    “Frankly, yes!”
    “But a lease to a house is so very mundane,
Ludovic. What do you intend to offer me this time? Diamonds and
rubies?”
    “Don’t, Diana! You are different from the
rest.”
    “How am I to think myself any different from
your countless mistresses, concubines, and whores, when you took
what you wanted and offered payment in return?”
    “Damn you! It wasn’t like that. You know
that’s not how I thought of
you. How I feel about you!”
    “Feel?” she cried out. “What could a man
like you possibly feel beyond
your—”
    “My what?” He brought her hand to his groin.
“Say it, Diana. I love hearing vulgar words from your lovely
lips.”
    “I refuse to gratify that.” She snatched her
hand away as if burned.
    He laughed. “Then I’ll say it for you—my
cock. The part of me that oftimes governs my life. Yes, I feel a
great deal there and with
great frequency, but each encounter is soon forgotten. You were the
exception to that. You were never just a fuck to me. Can’t you
understand that? For the first time, I wanted more. I wanted
something else from you, Diana, but that something was denied me.
And when I knew I couldn’t have it, when it appeared utterly
impossible, I was enraged.”
    “So you left.”
    “Yes, I left. I had several good reasons
for doing so...not the least of which was to protect a certain widow’s good
name.”
    “What misery it must have been for you to be
obliged to gallivant about continental brothels and gaming rooms
for four years. So self-sacrificing,” she jeered.
    “I won’t apologize to you or to anyone else for
my way of life, madam. Wine, women, gaming, and horses are a
lifelong habit but one with which I have become utterly bored of
late. The drinking, the gaming, the whoring, it became the same day
after day, just in other locales. ‘Tis why I eventually went to the
East to try to discover something more, something worthwhile.
Ironically, the only diversion or peace I have found was among
those so-called heathen Turks.”
    “Then why did you bother to return?”
    “I almost did not, but you might say I
wore out my welcome. My money only bought me limited time as they
never truly accept infidels. I seriously contemplated conversion
just to remain there, but I lacked the spiritual fortitude and
could not in good conscience pretend to live under their religious
yoke. I am many things, Diana, but not a hypocrite.”
    “You expect me to swallow that tripe when you
have reembraced all the depravity you just professed to have
shunned?”
    “Don’t mock me,” he said. “I bear physical
evidence of my sincere attempt of redemption, but I accept that I
failed. Thus, what is left for me now but to indulge my
senses?”
    “Your journey of self-discovery is a truly
moving tale, my lord, but I fail to see what any of it has to do
with me.”
    “Do you not?” he asked. “For I see it at last.
It’s rare that I have known honesty, Diana. I realized this three
weeks ago, the very moment you marched into my private chambers in
all your glorious, self-righteous fury.”
    “But you knew I would come, didn’t you? It was
all a ploy, just an amusing game to you. That’s all I have