Page 52 of Duke of Wickedness
Ariadne might be unpracticed in duplicitousness, but that didn’t mean she was unable to tell a little white lie out of kindness.
“You have been very kind to me,” she said. He hadn’t. He’d been polite at best. “And I respect you a great deal.” She really, really did not. “But I fear we aren’t a good match.”
“Butwhy?” he repeated. It was practically a wail, the angry cry of a boy who was not used to being denied a treat.
“I don’t think I would really make you happy,” she said. “Not in the long run.”
Anger brewed in his expression, turning his unremarkable features into something twisted and unkind.
“You aren’t what I thought you were,” he spat. It was clear that he considered this the worst insult he could levy in her direction, but it only made Ariadne laugh.
“You are right,” she said simply. “I’m really not.”
If her refusal of his suit had discombobulated him, her failure to be cowed by his insult seemed to actually alarm him. He gave her a long, shocked look, like the entire world had turned upside down before his very eyes.
And then, without a word—or, more accurately, without seven polite platitudes about the weather or matters of propriety—he left.
Ariadne stared at the empty hallway. And then she turned back to her flowers, a grin on her face, feeling as though she was as light as air.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
David had a good life. He had a life that was the envy of three-quarters of the gentlemen of theton, not to mention likely a fair portion of the ladies, not that they were given leeway to admit it.
He was a duke. He had his fortune—and, as Ariadne kept reminding him, the glorious freedom to do as he pleased in his own home. He had his morals, tarnished though many might consider them. But it mattered that he lived his life openly. To him, at least, it mattered.
And he had those things. He had them all.
But the night prior, he had felt…
He’d feltproud.
He hadn’t been able to name the feeling until Ariadne had said the word. They’d been finishing up their exploration; he’d kept his hands off her all night, aside from a couple of chaste caresses, and he felt so aroused that he worried that he might actually combust from it.
“You should be proud of this collection, David,” she said, smiling at him in a way that caused something in his stomach to lurch.It was a smile that didn’t want anything from him. It wasn’t a bargain or a deal or a request.
“And I’m sure you collected it because you’re—” She waved a hand up and down, encompassing all of him. “Because you’reyou, but still. It’s very impressive.”
Thatyoudidn’t sting the way it would have from someone else. From anyone else, they would have been indicating the notorious Duke of Wilds, chaotic hedonist, walking scandal. And Ariadne knew about those parts; she’d never really blinked at them. By contrast, she’d always been hungry for more.
The things he had shown her tonight, though—those were the things that might repulse even some of the more open-minded people of David’s acquaintance.
Ariadne had asked to learn more.
It wasn’t merely the sensual elements, either. She had listened while he’d talked about history, while he had explained, albeit tangentially, the places where he thought the world could be better than it was. She’d been eager and hungry for that information, too. She’d wanted more—more of the part of him he kept much closer to his chest.
And when she’d told him to be proud, he’d realized that that was what he’d been feeling.
Proud of her for her courage, for her curiosity. Proud of her for reaching for everything she wanted, even when the world had told her that she oughtn’t. Proud of her for not accepting less than what she deserved, which was absolutely everything.
And maybe, if he looked at himself through her eyes, he could be a tiny bit proud of himself, too.
That was a dangerous feeling. It had to be, even if he couldn’t say precisely why.
“Thank you, little bird,” he had said to her, meaning it.
And then he had hurried her out the door so quickly that he wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d been offended.
The unsettled feeling hadn’t faded, however. Instead, it had intensified.
