Page 67 of A Bride for the Wicked Duke

“Look who it is…” In the doorway to his office, Victor appeared with a mischievous grin on his face. “I did not think I would be seeing you here tonight.”

“This is my office, isn’t it.” Gerald snapped at the man. He had a glass of whiskey, half-poured, in front of him, and beside that was the bottle. He finished the glass in a single mouthful and then poured himself another. “And my establishment. I do not need permission.”

“And I did not say that you did.” Victor walked across the office and without asking took the bottle off Gerald’s desk and had himself a mouthful. He smacked his lips as he put the bottle down. “And this isourestablishment. Do not forget that.”

Gerald bared his teeth at his friend. “Is there a reason you are here?”

“I was going to ask the same of you.” Victor sat down across from him. “Me? I am here every night – which you would know, if you came here half as much as you are meant to.”

“Not here,” Gerald said. “My office. What do you want?”

“Well, someone is in a mood,” Victor chuckled.

“You have that effect on me.”

He glared at Victor in warning, preying the man would leave him alone because with the mood that he was in, the last thing he wished to deal with was Victor’s sardonic sense of humor.

Was there any reason to say that his mood was caused by seeing Lady Hakwins earlier?I am past the point of pretending, as much as I might like to. Dammit! This was supposed to be done with. Cutting her off was meant to free me from this… this hold she has on me. But these last two weeks have only made things worse.

It had started the day after she had come to see him. A night still burned hot in his mind. A night he could not move on from. A night that had not meant to happen the way it did, but Gerald was weak and pathetic and unable to control himself. As was always the case where Lady Hawkins was concerned.

He could still taste her on his lips. He could still feel her mouth wrapped around his manhood. Too many times since that night, he had thought about her. And too many times he had questioned why in the name of all things was he such a fool as to let her go.

His feelings for her were only ever meant to be sexual. That certainty had been what kept him sane and focused. Yes, he wanted her more than he had ever wanted another in his life, but she and he were of two different worlds it felt like, they could never work – he did not want them to work! And when she finally found a man to marry her, that would be it for once she was no longer available, he would simply move on…

At least that had been the plan. Now, I do not know what to think.

Seeing her today had undone him once again. Never mind howgoodshe had looked. Yes, she had lost some weight, but that was not it. It was in her eyes that Gerald had become lost. They had met, held, and he had felt his stomach turn with guilt and his manhood stiffen with attraction. Were they alone, he would have gone to her, taken her, made her his as he had thought of doing too many times these past weeks to count. But… no, even that would not have been an option.

She had spurned him. Turned from him. When their eyes had met he had seen fury in them, confirmation that even if he wanted her, she would not take him. A relief, it should have been, but here he sat, drinking, sulking, wondering to himself what it was all for. Why was he so damn insistent that she was no good for him.

“No… this is beyond your usual sour temperament,” Victor mused as he studied Gerald and the cloud which hung over him. “Now, I am trying my best to think when this attitude of yours began…” His eyes flashed wickedness.

“I have had a long day, Victor. Do not make it longer.”

“A long week by my count,” Victor said. “No, a long two weeks. Yes…” He chuckled and rubbed his chin. “Two weeks it has been. The question is, what happened two weeks ago to cause this once bastion of propriety and fakery to take a turn toward the morose.”

Gerald grimaced. He had thought he’d been more subtle than he had been. Indeed, for two weeks he had wandered about as if he was a ghost. Lamenting. Trying to instill in himself the belief he had made the right decision. Failing miserably all the same.

“Ah, that is right…” Victor chuckled knowingly. “Remind me, it was two weeks ago when Lady Hawkins became engaged, yes?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Nothing at all,” Victor mused. “Although by my mind, this announcement should have had the opposite effect. Lord Mildenhall, as pompous as that lout is, also happens to be rather wealthy, meaning that the debt her family owes us will be paid off in good time. Good news, as it is.”

“And it is,” Gerald said, forcing a smile. “Lady Hawkins… her family does not deserve to suffer for her father’s sins.”

Victor chuckled sardonically. “No matter, for you are doing enough suffering for the lot of them.”

“What does that mean?”

“Oh, please, Gerald…” Victor took the bottle and had another swig. “Do you think me a fool? A blind fool, at that. I know you do not hold me in high respects where my intelligence is concerned, but you should know that there is little I do not see.”

“There is nothing to see.”

“So, the way you were looking at Lady Hawkins that night at your home was nothing?” He made sure to be watching Gerald, whose eyes opened in surprise, which had Victor chuckling further. “As I said.”

“I… I do not know what you are –”

---