Vincent will have my virginity because the union requires it, and I carried the deed box into the carriage myself. This union is how I claim my future. What I did not expect is how little control I hold once the carriage door shuts. The desires I kept hidden even from myself do not stay hidden.

He touches me like a man already granted the right, and I hold perfectly still while the fear twists inside me. My fear is plain enough. He wants the untouched heiress and nothing more than that. Underneath it something more dangerous stirs. It wants to be seen for more than what I have never given away.

I could still refuse him, and we both know I will not.