Page 29 of A Duchess Disciplined

“I trust that you will be adequate for that.”

“You keep sayingadequate, as though that is sufficient,” Lady Catherine said. “As though you want better—wish you might have better—but know that you cannot.”

“I am realistic.”

Lady Catherine nodded, and a determined look crossed her face. “I wish to make a contract with you.”

William laughed darkly. “My lady, we have already made our contract.”

“I want a stipulation.”

“I might humor you.”

“I will try to be a goodfemale presencefor your sisters, and I will try to be a worthy duchess in public,” Lady Catherine said. “However, in private I wish to be myself and only that.”

William arched an eyebrow. He imagined Lady Catherine as the Duchess of Sarsen, prim and proper like a lady ought to be. When he tried to imagine the wild, sharp-tongued lady demurring to him and smiling vaguely in that way ladies did when they were trying to be inoffensive, William found that he could not do it. He strongly suspected that Lady Catherine would flounder wondrously at such things.

As the Duke of Sarsen, he would need to correct such behavior. Lady Catherinecouldbe a proper duchess, but she lacked the discipline to become one without assistance.Hisassistance, of course. William smiled and wondered how long it would take Lady Catherine to make a misstep worth correcting.

“Perhaps, I have a stipulation on that,” he said, letting his voice become low and husky. “If you are not a good duchess in public, I have leave to correct your behavior. Again and again until I see satisfactory results.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

He took a step towards her, and Lady Catherine trembled nearly imperceptibly. Color rose to her cheeks, and William knew that her pulse was racing. “Come closer,” he purred. “I have found only one method that works for making a wild woman behave. This is not a negotiation.”

They were so near that he could kiss her. His eyes darted down to her plump, coral lips—slightly parted—and an urge to do precisely that seized him. Oh, heoughtto be gentlemanly, but what would change if he was not? He and Lady Catherine were already to be wed, and they were alone. She must have sent the butler and maids elsewhere to ensure that she could send him off alone. What a wicked girl!

“I do not know what you mean, Your Grace,” she said.

She was doing this on purpose, goading him. William growled and pressed his mouth forcefully against hers. Lady Catherine moaned into his mouth, and he wrapped his arms around her. She kissed him harshly back in a haphazard attempt to gain dominance. A low chuckle rumbled through William’s throat, and he let a hand cup her right breast. She gasped into his mouth and took fistfuls of his jacket.

William reached inside that sinfully low-cut bodice and roughly traced his thumb around her nipple, raising it to a rosebud peak. Lady Catherine melted against him, her hips bucking and brushing against him. William pinched Lady Catherine’s nipple hard, and she cried against her mouth. The sound went straight to William’s hardening manhood, and he knew that he must end this before he could restrain himself no longer.

He gave her nipple a final pinch and her breast a parting squeeze. Then, he stepped back and clasped his hands behind him, the very picture of ducal sophistication. “Why did you…” Lady Catherine trailed off, her breath coming in great heaves. “Why did you stop?

Her face was flushed, and her lovely breasts rose above the bodice of her gown. The right one was still freed, the pink nipple rising defiantly from above the confines of the fabric.

“Make yourself presentable!” he barked. “A duchess does not allow herself to be so flustered.”

Her eyes widened, and her swollen lips remained parted in a manner that made William want to seize her again. Hastily, Lady Catherine pulled at the bodice of her gown. William’s pulse jumped as the lady struggled to work her freed breast back into her stays. At last, she did, but her dress still remained a little rumpled. The color across her face had spread down to her chest.

“You—you did that on purpose,” Lady Catherine rasped. “Youmade meflustered.”

“I presented you with a test that you failed miserably,” William replied, shaking his head in mock disappointment. “A proper lady would have pushed me away. I will see you in two weeks, my blushing bride. I am assuming that we have an agreement?”

She nodded mutely, her eyes wide.

William turned abruptly and walked away, aware of Lady Catherine watching his retreating back. It would be an interesting marriage, especially given that the lady wassowilling. He smirked to himself. Lady Catherine had already exceeded so many of his expectations.

CHAPTER8

Catherine’s last two weeks with her siblings swept by like leaves caught in a violent gale. It seemed as if William had left her flustered and wanting in one second, and in the next, she was being whisked away to Verdant Chapel to marry His Grace.

Catherine let her cheek rest against the seat of the coach, watching the rolling green hills of the Yorkshire countryside as they swept by. A lump rose in her throat. She was to marry this man. Somehow, she still could not entirely believe that she was to be the Duchess of Sarsen.

“Itsoundslike a romantic place,” Bridget said. “Verdant Chapel. It reminds me of a medieval romance, like a place where Sir Gawain would go.”

“I suppose the name is apt given the countryside,” Catherine replied distractedly.

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