Page 78 of Bad Duke

“I think I figured it out when we were fucking in Elizabeth Winfield’s bathroom, but I’ve been too scared to admit it. But after what happened today, I’m not scared of anything anymore. Just losing you two.”

“I love you, too.” He strokes my hair behind my ear.

“So, when did you fall, Your Grace?”

“When you came into my office and showed me your virgin pussy.” I slap his arm for ruining the moment.

“No, I’m being serious. The strength and courage I saw in you that day changed everything for me.”

“I was a nervous wreck,” I admit, cringing at the memory of our first encounter.

“You were determined and brave, and I decided before you even left the room that you were going to be mine.”

“I had no hope, did I?”

“None, whatsoever.” He shakes his head and before his lips touch mine I press my finger over them and hold him back.

“Promise me you won’t change. Don’t try to be a different man for us. I fell in love with the man who knew what he wanted and made sure he got it.”

“Are you sure?” He creases his forehead.

“I’m sure.” I nod my head and smile.

“Okay, but remember, you asked for it.” He kisses me and bites down on my lip.

ALEX

TWENTY MONTHS LATER

“Shhhhhh. We don’t want to ruin the surprise,” I whisper to Maxwell as he toddles along the corridor toward the studio door. I wait until the music on the other side of it stops, and for Olivia to dismiss her class before I hand him the bouquet of flowers and send him in. My son is immediately stampeded by an army of teenage girls who squeal and make a huge fuss of him.

Olivia takes the flowers, which are almost as big as he is, from his hands before she kisses him. When I step into the room she looks up at me, wearing that huge beam on her face that makes all the wrong in the world seem right.

“Girls, this is my son, Maxwell, and my husband. The Duke of Hatherly,” Olivia introduces us, proudly. “You can call me Alex.” I smile at the girls who are enrolled in my wife’s scholarship programme and wait for them to leave before I scoop our son up off the floor and steal a kiss from her.

“We came to take you for lunch, I heard a rumour that you were craving ice cream.” “Barnaby ratting me out, again?” She rolls her eyes while I stroke my hand over the tight fabric that’s stretching over her bump. She’s showing much more than she did when she was carrying Maxwell at this stage, and it looks so sexy and prominent in her leotard. “Ice cream sounds perfect, what about you, Maxy? You want some ice cream?” Our son’s big, round eyes stretch even wider and his smile answers the question. I place him down on his feet so he can run around the studio, and I can give my wife a proper kiss. Since she opened the studio last year, I’ve missed having her around the house all day. Of course, her enthusiasm for her work and the way she’s always smiling makes it all worthwhile, but I admit I’ll be glad when our next little bundle slows her down enough to leave this place in the care of her staff

“How is our little, prima ballerina, today, has she been kicking you much?” I started to be able to feel her moving last week, and since then I haven’t been able to keep my hands off my wife's growing bump. “Alex, I’ve told you not to do that, we don’t want Maxwell to be expecting a sister if it’s going to be a boy,” she reminds me. “It’s a girl, I know these things,” I assure her.

Olivia, once again, has decided she wants a surprise, and I agreed as long as she promised that it wouldn’t be delivered in my car. “You had a lucky guess with Maxwell, but this time, I don’t know… I think it might be another boy.” “It’s a girl.” I stroke my finger over her delicate cheek and stare into her bright, blue eyes. “And how can you be so sure?” She giggles. I think about the girl who came into my office and brought with her a curse that I never want to be free from and smile back at her. “Because I always get what I want,” I remind her before kissing her lips and feeling my daughter kick under my palm.

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