Page 28 of Seven Nights with the Wicked Duke
His reputation as a rake should have been enough to clear her infatuation, but it had not been. Not really. She had just learnt to suppress it while pretending that he did not exist. It worked for the most part, until that day when he caught her with the letter.
She had expected that with his loyalty to his friend, he would report her, but instead he volunteered to help her achieve the items on her list. A most unconventional deal if she had ever seen any. But then she agreed that she didn't truly know Theo well. Not the real him at least. The innocent girl she had once been, would never had guessed that one day she would be posing semi naked for the object of her infatuation, with the possibility of being caught.
"What if someone comes into this room and catches us?" she asked.
She might be willing to pose for Theo half dressed, but that did not mean she wanted anyone to see her this way. Apart from the fact that it would lead to her ruination, there was also the fact that if she got ruined and the story got back to Magnus. All hell would break loose, quite literally.
"No need to worry, pet," he said with confidence. "No one will come in here. My servants know never to enter this room no matter the circumstance, unless I call for them. I care deeply about your reputation and welfare. I will do nothing to jeopardize it. The only way we would be found out is if Magnus caught wind if our activities and you would be the likely cause if that were to happen."
His words assured her and she breathed a little easier.
"He doesn't have any idea. I made sure I was careful while sneaking about."
"Sneaky little thing you are," he said with a mischievous smile. "I am sure that Magnus would never expect or imagine the things his little innocent sister gets up to under the cover of the night."
"I am a grown woman, Your Grace," she replied testily. "I am hardly the child you knew."
"Trust me, I noticed," he replied, swallowing deeply as his gaze flicked down her frame again, bringing along with a surge of self-consciousness.
While his appreciation of her form did much for her esteem, she still was unused to being seen by a man in such a manner. She had always been taught that her husband alone would be permitted that pleasure and that education burned at the back of her mind, judging her with every second she lay there.
"Apart from your servants," she began, clearing her throat in a bid to dispel the tension in the room. "Is there no chance that you might have family that could come looking for you?"
"No one will come, Cecilia," he replied quietly.
His eyes were heavy lidded as he put some touch on his art piece and while he looked unbothered by her question, Cecilia could sense a certain coolness come over the room.
"I do not have any family who live close enough to visit. They all left me a long time ago," he added after a long minute.
"All of them?" she pried, knowing she should have left well alone but she couldn't bring herself to.
"Well, I wouldn't say that they all left voluntarily though. The grim reaper did play a role." he said with a dark humorless chuckle. His eyes met hers and they were completely cold, awarning was evident in them. "My mother still lives, do not worry. I do not deserve your pity. I am not an orphan yet."
She wanted to say she wasn't pitying him but she knew her words would be naught but a lie which wouldn't soothe him. Instead she kept silent and nodded.
There was an uncomfortable silence while Cecilia studied him, doing her best to see behind the mask of cool indifference, he had suddenly donned and there was something there, something very painful that he was doing his best to hide, and somehow she knew that this was not the moment to push the matter.
"Where does your mother stay then if she does not live close by?" she asked instead.
"At one of my estates in Edinburgh. She is ill, had been sick for quite some time. It was determined that she would heal better if she was away from me. That seems to be true. I have heard tales that her health had improved since she left just after Father's death."
"Why then have she not come visiting? Since it is said that the state of her health had improved. You are her only living child. One would think that she would be glad to visit."
"Perhaps she could not bear to look upon my face. After all I was not the Duke she had envisioned," he said with a bitter smile. "I was not meant to be a duke at all."
"But you are the Duke now. Are you not? You have done a fine work holding the title this past few years surely that is enough?"
"Perhaps it is not enough." he muttered.
"Perhaps you misunderstand her. Every mother would be proud to have a son like you."
"Thank you. That might be true, except for the mother who bore me. I am a living reminder of everything she has lost. You cannot expect her to be overjoyed to see me."
"You lost them as well. They are your family as well."
"Perhaps she might have thought it better if I had died at war rather than losing her precious son instead."
"You are her son as well."
