Page 77 of Never Dare a Duke
And she was not wrong with that conclusion, he knew, understanding more of her desperation. It would be a scandal of no small proportion for a wife to have a career.
“And what will you do now?” he asked.
She bent to pluck a blue flower from the ground and contemplated it sadly. “With my life? I don’t know.”
“Then with my life.”
She gave him a faint smile. “As I already told you, I did not learn anything about you that would ever be termed a scandal. Although I did hear clues.” She regarded him curiously.
He said nothing.
“Even if I knew something about your past, I could not write it.” Her voice was solemn. “I have become too fond of…your family, and I regret that I thought it would be so easy to deliberately hurt them. When I first had this idea, I had convinced myself that what I was doing was fine because I didn’t think someone as wealthy and powerful as you could be hurt by a scandalous action you’d committed. After all, you seem to have a charmed life—but for the pesky noblewomen chasing you.”
Abigail let relief ease through her at last as she watched Christopher’s slow smile. Her decision to tell him the truth had been the correct one. He did not trust her—and she didn’t blame him—but after last night, he’d been willing to hear her out. And she was grateful.
“So what will you do?” he asked again.
“I just said—”
“I mean for your future? For your father?”
An arrow of sorrow and fear lanced her. “I don’t know. I’m not certain I can be the dutiful daughter he wants. But if I find a man who attracts me physically as you did, then perhaps I shall reconsider.”
“You know I can’t let you leave, not yet.”
She sighed. “Because of Mr. Walton and his article. You cannot trust that I would not be tempted to join forces with him.”
“I can’t trust that he won’t force you to tell him what you might have learned here.”
“So you’re protecting me.” Though she tried for a bitter tone, it ended up only as faintly amused. “My, how things have changed. Yesterday it was blackmail and intimidation, now today everything you force on me is for my own good.”
“You make it sound like I’m your father.”
“Oh believe me, I don’t think that.”
“Well, that’s good.” He glanced down her body again.
She somehow had to combat this ability of his to make her forget herself. “If you hadaskedfor my help with Walton, I would have granted it, even if only out of guilt, although it would have truly been for more reasons than that.”
“I wasn’t in the right mind to be polite.”
She leaned back against a tree and regarded him coolly. “But that didn’t matter last night, did it?”
He stiffened but did not come to her. “No, it didn’t. As I already told you, nothing mattered but what I wanted from you.”
“And now that you have taken it, you can ignore me yet keep me here until you deem it safe.”
“No, I only wish that were true.” Those dark eyes still smoldered, even in dappled sunlight. “I won’t be able to ignore you, Abigail, for one taste was not enough.”
Heat flared in her, conflicting with worry and even satisfaction. “Are you asking me to be your mistress?”
“I’ve never taken a mistress, and I don’t intend to start.”
Boldly she countered, “But you want me.”
He took a step closer. “I do.”
Her breath tightened in her chest, but she was determined to ignore his effect on her. “Is that not a contradiction for you?”
