Rogue Countess by Amy Sandas

chest. Distrust was vivid in his eyes. This was what she had expected from him every time she imagined his return. The hatred, the disgust.
    What she hadn’t expected, and what she had perhaps been too naïve to imagine, was how she would react to the heat of his anger.
    “So what do you want now, Jude?” she asked coldly, shielding the raw emotions of regret, loss and her own personal sense of betrayal churning in her stomach. “What brought you here? You followed me all the way to Newmarket—” she sneered, “—you must want something.”
    “An annulment. I want to end this farce of a marriage. I will not allow you to remain a part of my family. You will no longer be allowed to drain from wealth you do not deserve to fund your amusements.”
    “I never took a damn thing from your family,” Anna replied from between gritted teeth.
    Jude’s laugh was rough and hollow. “Of course, you bought that extensive estate I just came from with money you found on the ground. Or was it a lover who purchased it for you?” he asked, his eyes sliding with cold appreciation down the length of her throat to the shadowed V at the top of her breasts. “You must be a very good mistress to earn such a gift.”
    Anna’s blood shot to boiling. His accusation that she had taken advantage of his family left her with an acrid taste in her mouth. From the second she had landed on the doorstep of Silverly, she had been determined to accept nothing that might have even the slightest connection to the man who had left her to face her new life alone.
    But rather than deny his ugly accusations, she coated her words with thick and heavy sarcasm. “Of course. What other option would a woman like me have? I couldn’t possibly have managed to come by all of this solely on the strength of my own intelligence, determination and hard work.” Her smile then was not pretty as she cast him a sly glance from beneath thick sooty lashes. “I assure you I earned every bit of what I have. As you said, I am very good at what I do.”
    “You disgust me.”
    “Fabulous!” Anna exclaimed with frustrated fury. “Now let me go.”
    Jude didn’t seem the least bit affected by her physical struggles. His hold never loosened and her thrashing could have been that of a kitten for all of its effect. After a moment, she realized the futility of her fight and she stopped with a huff. She rested her head back against the wall and glared up at him.
    “You are quick to cast stones, my lord. How can you justify such a self-righteous position when you have proven yourself to be a depraved and dishonorable scoundrel?”
    One golden brow arched over his unmoving glare. “Depraved, perhaps. But the only thing I have ever dishonored is this farce of a marriage.”
    “And me!” Anna shouted. She was reaching the limit of her endurance. Her anger was going to support her for only so much longer.
    He laughed, a short rough sound. “Do not expect me to feel remorse or pity. You are not deserving of it. I owe you nothing,” he replied with utter conviction.
    “And I owe you nothing,” Anna retorted. “Especially not an annulment.”
    His eyes flared with black fire. “You have no choice in the matter.”
    “Don’t I?” Cunning intellect sparkled in her gaze. “You will need to prove proper cause, my lord.”
    His smile was wicked in its lack of humor. “If you’ll recall, we never had a wedding night.”
    Anna’s reply was thick with malice. “I’ll lie and say the marriage was consummated. There was plenty of time in the carriage ride to the house following the ceremony.”
    Jude glared at her as he weighed her response. “You wouldn’t dare.”
    “You don’t know me very well,” she challenged. “Actually, there are several ways I can make an annulment very difficult to obtain,” she added with haughty certainty.
    “You are that opposed to ending this marriage?” Jude asked as he shifted against her. “Then perhaps you should act like a wife.