Page 66 of The Duke of Kisses
Her eyes shot to his. “With the door open?”
“Probably a bad idea.”
“Most definitely, but now that you’ve mentioned it, I shall be loath to forget the suggestion…” she murmured, her eyes bright with desire.
The arousal he’d felt earlier stoked into something hotter, and he had to work to tamp it down. “I should be sorry I brought it up.”
“But you’re not.” She smiled again. “How I adore you.”
“And I you.”
The happiness faded from her expression. “As I said before, you can’t call on me today. My parents will never approve our marriage.”
“We don’t need their approval,” he said. “You’re of age. We can wed whenever we choose.”
“Precisely. So why bother telling them at all?”
“Because they’re your parents?” he asked.
“And they despise your family. Furthermore, they despise titles of any kind—because of your family.” Her eyes narrowed in disgust. “My sister married a bloody duke, but in their eyes, you’d think she’d wed a murderer.”
“They sound unpleasant.” And that sounded like an understatement.
“The entire situation is unpleasant. If your family hadn’t been so angry that their daughter had fallen in love with the footman, perhaps my great-uncle would still be here.”
“Fallen in love? Is that what they told you?” David recalled his father’s anguish over his sister being kidnapped by the footman who’d brought her body home a year later.
Suspicion lined her features. “What did your family tell you?”
“That your great-uncle kidnapped my Aunt Catherine. My family searched but wasn’t able to find them. A year later, he brought her body home. She’d died in childbirth.”
Fanny sucked in a breath, her eyes darkening with sorrow. “I’m so sorry. However, my Great-uncle George loved her. They’d defied her father—and propriety—just to be together. It sounds terribly romantic.”
“It would if it were true.”
Emotion blazed in her eyes. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Because your great-uncle lied. It’s very possible he fell in love with my aunt. By my father’s and uncle’s accounts, she was a beautiful and kindhearted young woman, if a bit shy. She hadn’t yet had a Season due to her reticence, but she looked forward to it. Why would a woman with aspirations for a Season run off with a footman?”
Fanny crossed her arms as her brows formed a V on her forehead. “Because she was in love with him. I had aspirations for a Season, but then I met you, and now I don’t give a flying fig.Youhad plans to marry your father’s best friend’s daughter, but that didn’t happen either. Sometimes, life doesn’t go the way we intend.”
He didn’t want to argue with her or to be angry. “This isn’t our fight,” he said, taking a step toward her.
She uncrossed her arms, and her features relaxed slightly. “No, it isn’t. We can never know what really happened. I prefer to think they were in love, don’t you?” She looked up at him, and she was so earnest, so heartfelt in her query, that he couldn’t help but agree.
“Why wouldn’t I want love to be the reason?” He curled his arm around her waist and drew her against him. “Love ismyreason.”
She rested her hand on his shoulder. “It’s mine too.”
He dipped his head and kissed her. She tasted sweet and fresh, like his favorite summer day outside. Reluctantly, he stepped back. “Unless you want to end up on that bed, we’d best put some distance between us.”
She nodded, her eyes glazed with desire.
“So if I’m not to call on your parents, what is your plan?” he asked. It was an important question, plus it took his mind off the distracting pulse of his cock.
“The wedding is tomorrow. I can leave after that.”
“You’ll go back to Stour’s Edge?”
