Page 16 of The Duke's Contract

“I swear to keep my hands to myself,” he told her in frustration. Bre snorted. It wasn’t necessarily Henry and his hands she was concerned about, but she refused to explain that out loud.

“How do you plan to get back to Rochester considering you don’t have a car?” he asked her. He made a valid point.

“There are trains,” she reminded, making an equally valid response.

“The train drops you off several miles from your flat,” he reminded. Bre stopped dead in her track. ‘Damnit,’ she thought. She hadn’t considered that the train was so far considering everything in the small hamlet of Rochester felt so close.

“We can get dinner,” Henry told Bre in an attempt to entice her into the car. “I’m starving, and there’s a fantastic Indian place a few blocks from here.”

“I do like Indian food.”

“I’m aware. You and Matthew order takeaway several times a week,” Henry said revealing that he kept tabs on Bre. It caused a strange heat to bloom in her chest.

“Ugh, let’s go,” she said, stomping over to the open door. “This better be amazing. I’m tired of rich people’s food.” Henry genuinely chuckled at her assessment before sliding in behind her and giving directions to his driver.

Chapter Eleven

Seeing Breanne with Thomas made Henry’s blood to boil. She avoided him for weeks, sending Matthew in her place for every meeting, and seeing her at the gallery opening on the arms of that maggot made Henry want to blow the entire place to the ground. Instead of going nuclear, he ended her date and his own.

Sienna Marlborough was part of the reason Bre remained out of Henry’s reach for the past several weeks. He knew she was kept abreast of him whining and dining Sienna all over town, but what she did not know was that he kept Sienna at arm’s length. Whenever she made an advance towards him, Henry shut her down, which went directly against the plans he had for her.

The gallery felt like a last-ditch effort to get his dick hard for Sienna. Bre’s presence interrupted that since her sheer presence made his dick hard in a way that Sienna’s never would.

As he watched her devour her curry, he decided that even if she had unknowingly destroyed his plans, it was worth it. “I told you this place was good,” he said, appreciating how she devoured her food. Women he dealt with rarely ate with such gusto.

“The food makes your presence more tolerable,” she told him as she continued enjoyed the delicious dishes they ordered. Henry chuckled, enjoying her sass. “How’d you find this place anyway? Seems a far drive for food.”

“When I worked in London, my colleagues and I camehere several times a week. Surprisingly, it’s one of the few places that serve something other than fish and chips this late,” he told her recalling the time with nostalgia.

“I didn’t know you worked in London,” Bre told himswallowing another bite of her dinner. “Was it a long time ago?”

“Feels as such, but no, only about three or four short years ago,” he said. A look of deep contemplation crossed Bre’s lovely face.

“What did you do for work?” she asked.

Henry felt shocked at her question. He’s assumed, given her job, she knew all about him. His pride stung at the fact that she didn’t. He’d been so enraptured with her after their first encounter that he’d wanted to know everything about her, so he’d looked at her personal file, which told him basically nothing. ‘She could have done a quick internet search,’ he thought to himself. Miffed she hadn’t

“I trained at University to be a barrister—that’s a lawyer in Britain,” he told her reading her confusion as a language barrier.

She frowned at the assumption. “I know what a barrister is,” she said hotly.

Not wishing to anger her, Harry continued with his story, “My father decided that was the best route for me to study to manage the family estate. In fact, he often commented that my greatest asset was my ability to convince people to throw away their better sense and follow me into hell.” Henry chuckled recalling his conversation with his father. He missed being able to speak with him. Even before he passed, his health deteriorated to the point where he was barely cognizant through the last years of his life. “I worked for a small technology start-up here in London, making contracts. The hours were insanity, but I thrived on the chaos. The atmosphere pushed me to be my best, and honestly, the exhaustion kept me out of trouble. This place and the pub up the road were the highlights of my weekly social life,” he told her chuckling as he recalled those times fondly.

Silence hung as Bre contemplated the implications of his story. ‘No,’ Henry, though. ‘I haven’t always been a complete tabloid tosser.’ “Being back makes me miss those times,” he admitted out loud unsure why he would tell such a secret to an American girl, even one who refused to leave his mind.

The conversation’s turn made Henry uncomfortable. He enjoyed control and enjoyed exerting it over other people. Being vulnerable left him feeling exposed. “What about you?” he asked. “How’d you end up in Britain?”

“It’s kind of a long story,” she told him clearly not keen on sharing herself. Henry refused to allow her to retreat that quickly, especially considering the amount of information he shared.

“We’ve got nothing but time,” he told her egging her onward. She hesitated to fill the time and space by taking another bite of her food.

“Well, I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania,” she told him. Henry sat back relieved that she’d taken the bait. “The town boomed when steel was a big thing but experienced a rapid decline in the ’90s. Now, it’s a pretty depressing place to live; at least, in my opinion. My family seems to love it,” she said.

“During my senior year, I got a scholarship to college. I was getting out, going to a fancy school to study art design, and I vowed to never get stuck back in the town I grew up,” Bre chuckled recounting her story. “Fast-forward four years—I’m graduating, the market is a mess, and I’m crawling back to my parents with my tail between my legs to find out that my perfect sister married to my high school boyfriend and had a baby on the way. Want to know the worst part?” she asked.

Henry nodded, not wanting her to stop talking.

“I could literally care less that my sister married my ex. In fact, I feel like I dodged a bullet.”

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