"I will open my doors," she continued, each word carved from fury, "to any and every man who would care to fuck me. I will make myself the scandal you are so determined to turn me into. I will cause you such shame that no one in England will speak your name without remembering mine. I will make your mother regret every breath she spent trying to cage me."
Henry looked like she had driven a blade into him.
"I will cause you such scandal, the sight of me will be appalling and nauseating…"
Henry lost himself in that moment. One moment Livia was standing before him, throwing ruin back in his face with shaking hands and burning eyes; the next, something dark and vicious rose inside him and swallowed every better part of him whole. His hand closed around her arm.
