Page 31 of Master of Games
She tensed, resisting the urge to turn away.
He leaned over and trailed his lips along the edge of the damaged skin. “I have a secret.”
She’d been about to withdraw, but his words stopped her. “Not that you’re a bastard?”
“Everyone knows or guessed that one. This is one I guard. Only a few people know and only because they stumbled upon it.”
She pushed up on her elbows, tugging the fabric of her skirts even higher to try and see his face. “What is it?”
“I…” He flattened the fabric, his pained features coming into view as he lifted just enough to be seen. “I can’t read.”
Her brow furrowed together. “What?”
“I can’t read.” His face twisted into a painful expression she’d never seen before. “I’ve tried. I’ve had every tutor in the world.” He shook his head. “And forget about adding columns of numbers. I’m complete shit.”
Tabbie sat up, holding his face in both her hands. “That is your big secret?”
He blinked at her in surprise. “I’m mentally inferior and a bloody duke. It’s a big secret.”
She let out a long breath of air, not sure how to tell him that his inability didn’t change how she felt a bit. “I see.” And then her finger stroked across his cheek.
“No, you don’t. You bear scars that are badges of honor, and only skin deep. What’s underneath is pure and beautiful. I am broken. Defective.”
“Caden,” his name came out in a whisper, a sigh. And in it, she hoped a bit of a promise. Because she thought she might finally understand…
“Don’t pity me,” he said, pulling away. He hated the way her voice sounded just then.
But at his withdrawal, she gave a small cry of protest and snapped her legs together as she started to push down her skirts.
He rumbled, her eyes flying to him as he gently reached down and stilled her hand. “The rare person who discovers my…abnormality, always treats me like the most pitiful creature.”
She relaxed again, “I don’t pity you. I sympathize with the feeling that you’re worth less than everyone around you.”
He leaned closer again, pressing his stomach on her knees until she felt them give again, allowing his torso between her legs. “We understand each other, don’t we?”
“I think maybe we do.”
He reached up then, touching her cheek. “I understand if you don’t want to accept my proposal. All you need from me in this relationship is acceptance. I would require your actual support.”
Tabbie stared at him, her eyes wide. “Are you saying that you’d have the better side of the arrangement if we were to wed?”
“I know I would,” he answered, reaching for her ankle and wrapping his hand around it, his fingers overlapping. He raised her leg, kissing the inside of the trim stocking-covered flesh. “I’m the one with a terrible reputation and a worse secret deformity. And unfortunately for you, I need a woman who will be strong enough to help me, not just be disappointed when I can’t be the man she needs.”
Tabbie cocked her head then. “Are you not strong enough to give up your rakish ways?”
That one caught him off guard, and his mouth fell open before he snapped it shut. Of course she would think that. And it might be a serious deterrent in accepting his proposal. But how to answer in a way that would ring with the proper truth. “I have lived that life, not because I enjoyed it, but because I hated myself and thought I wasn’t worth better. But I’ve already told you, I put that past behind me.”
A small squeak in her throat was the only noise she made before she scrambled up and wrapped her arms about his neck pulling him against her body. “Caden, don’t you know how few men would ever come to that realization? How special that makes you?”
“I’d rather talk about how special you are,” he whispered against her chest that his face had been nestled against. A very fortunate turn of events.
He snaked his arms around her waist, only wincing the smallest bit at the twinge in his injured arm.
“If by special you mean different?—”
“I mean that no woman is as beautiful, smart, or as strong and I have no doubt you’ll keep me on the proper path.”
She stiffened his arms. “Other men would not agree.”
