Eventually. It was all but inevitable.
“Oh—she’s looking this way.” Nick gestured with his sandwich, but when James whipped his head toward her she was still engaged in conversation. “Ha,” Nick said, his voice a study in amusement. “You see? You can’t help yourself.” He polished off the last of his sandwich and set his plate aside. “You’re not going to be able to do it,” Nick said.
“Of course I will,” James said. “She doesn’t mean anything. She’s just a means to an end.” A beautiful, passionate, intelligent means to an end. But a means to an end none the less.
“She would make you a good wife,” Nick said. “She doesn’t give a fig about your title. She’s not seeking prestige or wealth. If you make her fall in love with you, and you don’t intend to keep her, well…I’m sorry for you. You’ll have thrown away something precious. A woman with whom you could be happy.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” James snapped. “I’m not seeking a wife, and when I do marry, it won’t be someone I could love. That would be a special kind of hell.” He suppressed a shudder at the thought—a wife who would command his time and attention, a wife who would expect monogamy, fidelity, all the virtues that he had long since surrendered, all the goodness and honor that had long forsaken him. A wife who would own him as surely as if he’d been bought and paid for. He didn’t want that.
“I always thought the same,” Nick said slowly. “But watching you watch her—I think if I ever found a woman who could incite that level of feeling, I would never let her go. Not for revenge. Not for anything.” He set aside his empty plate. “You can’t see your face right now, but I can, and you’re a fool if you think you don’t love her.”
James felt a peculiar sensation somewhere in the vicinity of where his heart might’ve been, had he been in possession of one. He didn’t love her—he couldn’t. But even if he did, it wouldn’t matter. Love did not factor into his plans.

∞∞∞