Page 619 of From Rakes to Riches

Perhaps he truly couldn’t bear not to be the one in control all the time.

Gemma.

She had a way of stealing into his thoughts at every turn.

“Shall I have tea brought in?” asked Celia, a nearly imperceptible, questioning line knitted between her eyebrows.

Rake shook his head.

Another silence stretched between them.

He hadn’t come here for tea, and they both knew it.

He’d come here to ask this woman a question.

And she’d come here to say yes.

It was all a foregone conclusion. And yet…

The question refused to dislodge from his mouth.

He cleared his throat. “Actually, I’ve come to…”

The words that would ask her to marry him were having a devil of a struggle.

He tried a different configuration of words. “I’ve come to the conclusion that I should ask…”

Her eyebrows crinkled together.

Should? As if it were an unsavory chore?

You to marry me, should’ve been emerging from his mouth.

It’s in the in-between space that the magic in life happens.

More of Gemma’s words.

And Rake realized something—he would never experience that magic with this perfect duchess who would make him not unhappy.

And he realized something more—he wanted that magic.

Heneededthat magic.

And there was only one woman with whom he could experience it.

Sudden urgency and impatience streaked through him.

He was in the wrong place—speaking to the wrong woman.

But first, he needed to make the attempt to smooth matters over with this wrong woman. She was regarding him as if he’d suddenly sprouted a pair of horns.

“It turns out,” he began, “I’ve come to ask if you wouldn’t mind very much if Idon’task you to marry me.”

Startled silence met his question that wasn’t really a question.

Then Celia’s eyebrows released, and a stony laugh escaped her. It seemed he couldn’t help provoking that response from every woman he came across today. Still, he hadn’t been expecting it from this woman.

Now that he thought about it, he didn’t know what response he’d expected.

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