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that she was an adventuress. She had used that tempting body and wayward prettiness to entrap a rich and dissolute prince. Now she was using a different form of bribery to lure him into a marriage of convenience. Anger shook him. He wanted to make her admit her culpability. She was defiant and morally corrupt and ready to sell herself for gain. And he was no longer a green youth to be taken in.
    He looked at her a little quizzically. "So it was not worth it in the end, then?"
    Their eyes met.
    It was never worth it.
    Isabella did not say the words aloud, but for a disconcerting moment Marcus was sure that he had read them in her eyes.
    "I cannot see the purpose of your impertinent questions," she said sharply. "I do not care to speak of my marriage."
    Marcus raised his brows. "You do not think, then, that you owe me an explanation for what happened twelve years ago?"
    She looked disdainful. "What can that matter now?"
    He wanted to shake her. Of course it mattered. She had taken all his youthful dreams and hopes and crushed them beneath the heel of her dainty shoe. And she had done it in passing, as though it had been of no importance. She had stolen his illusions. He had been physically experienced when he had met her. He had been the seducer. He accepted that. Yet he had also been emotionally untried, with a youthful innocence and trust that had been entirely at her mercy. It was that which Isabella had ended and for mat she owed him.
    He thought of India. His wife. She had been Isabella's cousin. He knew that he had married her for all the wrong reasons, grasping after something that Isabella had promised that had eluded him. India too had suffered at her cousin's hands. Marcus had discovered how Isabella had set her family against one another in her quest for riches and status. She had been entirely driven by greed.
    Now was the time to collect on the debt she owed him, but he had to bide his time. He could feel his anger increasing with every word and sought to control it with cool reason. It was true that cold-blooded revenge was more satisfying than a hasty reprisal. He would accept her proposal and then, although she did not know it, she would be in his power rather than the other way around.
    There were still a few things that he needed to know. The more he knew of her plans, the easier it would be to thwart her.
    He shrugged. "Perhaps you are right and what has passed between us no longer matters. After all, this is a matter of business. Explain to me how you envisage our agreement working."
    She gave him a suspicious look, as though she could not quite believe that he had let the matter go so easily, but then she capitulated. Evidently she was so anxious to secure her future that she was prepared to make concessions.
    "This so-called marriage between us would be a short-term measure to see me over a temporary financial embarrassment," she said. "Once I have sold my house and realized my inheritance, the debt will be paid off and the marriage annulled."
    Marcus frowned. "In that case, can you not simply wait for your money to come through? It would surely be easier than contracting a marriage you do not want."
    Isabella was shaking her head. "Matters of inheritance take time to resolve and it is time that I do not have. But in a little I shall be unencumbered by both debt and marriage."
    There was a pause. Marcus found that his pride revolted at the thought of being used and discarded, no matter that he was manipulating the situation as much as she.
    "I dislike the idea of being married off and then dismissed at a whim," he said slowly. "It is demeaning."
    Isabella smiled with genuine warmth this time. "Well," she said sweetly, "you now know how it feels to be a woman."
    Touché. He felt the clash between them like a ripple of memory along the skin. This was how it had always been with Isabella. She would challenge him rather than placate him as most women were wont to do. She had been unpredictable and exciting, and