Page 29 of Wedded to the Ruthless Duke

“What did you say to my father?” she asked in a firm whisper, glancing back at the door, fearful her mother would come looking and find her at any minute.

“What do you expect?”

“Any conversation you wished to have about me or about… marriage,” she struggled to say the word, watching as the corner of his lips turned up in amusement, “it should have been had with me. Not my father.”

“It’s not the way of the world, Grace; you know that.”

“Lady Grace,” she snapped, reminding him of the need to use her title.

“Not anymore.” He mockingly grimaced and shook his head. “A married man would hardly address his wife with her title, would he?”

Grace moved around the piano, silently, moving her hands fast as she approached him, but he went the other way, avoiding her.

“What did you say?” she murmured.

“I said, a married man. For that is what I soon shall be.” He came to a stop around the piano, having swapped places with her. “You wish to know what we said? Very well, I’ll tell you. I offered to marry you. Your father said you had no dowry though that is hardly relevant now. I shall marry you anyway. Then he alluded to what happened last night. You do not need to worry there. I spared him the details.”

A rage took hold of Grace like she had never known before. How dare he talk of such things in this room and after all that had passed? The memory of the way she had scandalously arched into him, how he had gripped her through the dress, was now appalling to her.

She marched around the piano, and this time he didn’t move to escape her. She raised her hand, determined to exact punishment for speaking in such a way.

“How dare you — oh!”

He took hold of her wrist before she could slap him across the cheek. He used it to jerk her toward him. She scarcely managed not to fall into him. One hand rested on the curve of the piano, keeping her standing, as the other hand was still caught in his grasp.

“Careful, My Lady,” he whispered in a deep husky tone. His eyes slipped down to her lips, and Grace felt her stomach coil tight. For a second, he said nothing. They both just stood there, tension radiating between them as he grasped her wrist. “Any hits between us will take place in one room only.”

“What?”

“They will be playful things in the bedchamber and nothing more.”

She hadn’t seen where his other hand had gone. She was not prepared for the light slap he made to her rear. Alarmed, she jumped back from him, snatching her wrist out of his hold. Ashamed as the feeling of his hand on her rear had made excitement course through her, she scrambled away from him around the piano again.

“That is some blush,” he murmured with a deep chuckle. “I do not think you exactly disliked that, did you?”

“I cannot believe you did that,” she muttered in a dark tone. “You are never to do that again.”

“Someday, you may beg me to do it,” he said, leaning upon the piano between them.

“Never,” she promised.

Silence fell again as they stared at each other. A wild picture entered her mind. She could suddenly see herself flung across this piano with Philip behind her. He was behind her, exploring her, then slapping her rear in a playful way, not hard enough to hurt but enough to excite.

“Your cheeks look ready to start a fire.” His words broke through her imagining.

“You can’t be intending to go through with this,” Grace said, doing her best to keep her calm. “I am just Eleanor’s friend to you. Nothing more. You can’t be considering marrying me for the sake of our reputations.”

“Reputations matter. Unlike you, I am not willing to leave mine in tatters wherever I go. If I could go back to an untarnished reputation completely, I would, but as I can’t, I’ll do the next best thing.” He spoke in a business-like tone.

It was as if all the flirtatious things he had just said hadn’t happened at all.

“Now, to the crucial points of this discussion.” He folded his arms across his chest, a man of formality and business.

Grace was doing her best not to think of the strong arms she could see pressing against the sleeves of his jacket in this position.

“I’ll obtain a special license. All being well, we’ll marry within a week.”

“A week?” Grace repeated. She felt weakened all of sudden, shocked at the speed of it all. Her palms planted onto the piano between them.

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