Page 21 of Keeper of Secrets

She looked stunning.All achieved in under an hour.If a man were in want of a wife, he suspected it would be difficult to do better than Chloe.

Some competitive part of him puffed with pride to know she’d be his in name.

Perhaps she was right.After a year of running the club, he’d retire too.Announce to the world that he was off the market, quiet the debutantes who regularly set their cap on him.

They’d still have to live apart.She was far too tempting to be under his roof.But some part of him actually wanted to tell the world that she belonged to him.

He thought back to the Master’s comments yesterday, the man’s obvious interest in Chloe.He didn’t care who the Master was in the real world, he’d knock the man’s teeth out if he tried to make a move on the woman that Ryker had claimed for himself.

Well, secretly claimed.

A niggle of a problem started in the back of his thoughts.If he never publicly announced their marriage, no man would know she wasn’t available.

And then there was the issue of her fulfillment… publicly, privately....His jaw clenched.He’d offered her a life where her financial needs were met but not much else.

Chloe came down the stairs in her large skirt, lifting the hem to expose her trim ankles.His body responded with the most inconvenient tightening.Who the hell became turned on by ankles?

Her clause to take her out was going to be the death of him.Having her on his arm without publicly claiming her would be a sweet torture.

Had she done it on purpose?He paused at the thought.He didn’t know Chloe at all, really.What if his assumption that she’d be easily subdued was just wrong?

He reached out a hand, her gloved fingers sliding into his.“You look ravishing.”

She smiled with a nod.“As do you, but I knew that already.”

“Thank you again.”He smoothed his cravat.She tied a better knot than his manservant, which was impressive.“Where did you learn the art?”

“My father,” she answered her smile slipping.“It was a ritual of ours right up until the end.”

Ryker had also lost his father, but it had not been more than a passing sadness of a relationship that had never been.“You were close?”

“Very,” she whispered, her fingers slipping from his again.“My mother passed when I was a newborn and so we only had each other.”

His chest ached a bit at her obvious pain as he wondered which was worse.A dead mother or a mother who obviously found her child a nuisance at best and a reminder of her absent husband at worst.“My mother didn’t die when I was young.She just didn’t like me.”

Chloe paused, her head cocking to the side.“That can’t be true.”

“It is.”He held out his elbow, surprised that he actually felt a pang at the words.He’d not lamented his mother’s disdain for him for a very long time.He supposed he blamed his father.“In her defense, my father barely had time for her either.Perhaps, if the duke had loved her, she would have had some affection for her son.”Why was he sharing all this?He never talked about his past.

But Chloe’s honest admission, the quiet way in which she stated her past without complaint, had stirred something in him.

Chloe slipped her hand into his arm, her clear blue eyes searching his.“I don’t care what your father did or didn’t do.A mother should love her child.”

He looked down at her, his jaw locking tight.“You really think so?”

“I do.”

“If you were to have a child, you’d love that child no matter how much of a beast you were married to?”It was a lovely thought.A woman who’d give her child all her love no matter the circumstances.

“Are you calling yourself a beast?”she asked, her head cocking as she assessed him with a small smile.

Right.“I already told you.I don’t plan on having children.”

“Too bad.I was looking forward to being a mother, myself.I think I’d be a good one.”

He had no doubt she would be excellent.It was a shame… but he couldn’t trust himself to be a father.And now that he’d committed to this plan, he wasn’t certain he could let Chloe go.

Leading her out to the carriage, a footman opened the door, and Ryker helped her in the vehicle.

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