He could have hexed her and she would have been less shocked by the response. His dismissal landed like a shot to the gut, her breath catching somewhere in her throat along with her heart. "As melodramatic as courting a girl for an empty veneer to your pride?" She tossed back snidely. This she was familiar with: the dismissal of her feelings, the belittling of her opinions. She'd had this and worse from Victor, but the crumbling of her marriage had been a gradual decline at first. This was an earthquake when she had prepared for a siege.

"You have been hiding for months." She gave right back, her voice rising in her own defense. "I do not care whom you dance with," Lie the first. "I care that you promised yourself to that silly child while coming to my bed. Are you truly so delusional to believe that I would welcome this?" She forced herself to break from her glaring, to turn her face back to the fire and breathe. "I ask you again: why her?" And why not me?

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