Page 28 of A Bride for the Cruel Duke

“I—” She caught her tongue, not even sure what she was going to say. “I do not fear you, Your Grace. That is not what this is.”

“What then?”

“Peace and quiet. That is what you want? Something which you and I will never have.”

“And why is that exactly?”

Her face scrunched with confusion, and she gestured about them as if the answer was obvious. “Well… because we hate one another, is why.”

“Is that what this is?” He almost seemed amused by the notion. “You hate me?”

“Do you not hate me?”

He considered her. “You frustrate me. You annoy me. And I do not think I have ever met someone so…” He clicked his tongue. “Damn troublesome as you have proven to be. But hate you?” He scoffed. “We are not quite there yet.”

“But we will be,” she insisted. “Unless you call off this marriage at once!”

“Is that a threat?”

“M—maybe.” Caroline had come here for one reason and one reason only, to force the duke to call off this marriage. And, for that, there was nothing she would not do.

Her heart was racing, the heat rising in her as she forced herself to meet his eyes. Strange that she no longer feared him as she did when they had first met. Nor was she as intimidated. That wasn’t to say that he wasn’t a frightening individual, but she didn’t think him to be cruel. Despite the rumors.

Rather, she sensed in him a man who was used to getting his own way, and certainly not accustomed to being told no or argued with. What she needed was for him to see that if they were to marry, this is all they would do. An impossible union that he would do better to avoid. She had to make himsee.

“A threat that I will happily follow through on,” she continued, forcing herself to hold his stare. “Unless you…” She swallowed. “Unless you do as I ask.” She looked at him boldly. “Now.”

“Is that right?” he asked, his voice turning cold.

“That’s right. As you are—whoa!”

The duke stepped closer to her suddenly, his hands finding her waist just as they did the previous evening. He held her, forcing her to look into his eyes, behind which she saw the anger she had been trying to elicit. Only now, she wasn’t sure why.

“I do not appreciate being spoken down to,” he said, his voice low. “Or being bullied, which you are clearly trying to do.”

“I—”

“Am trouble,” he growled.

“You have no idea,” she shot back, doing her best to ignore his hands around her waist, despite the havoc they wreaked with her breathing.

“I am beginning to.”

“It will only get worse,” she pressed, finding herself leaning into him, which only made him pull her closer.

“I am starting to think I might not mind that so much.” His hands squeezed her tighter.

“You—you will,” she stammered, not even sure what she was saying anymore. Her mind was almost completely on his hands, and if not that, the feel of his chest, his warm breath tracing her face… and a look in his eyes which she understood a little too well. “Unless you cancel this marriage. It is what’s best. For both of us.”

“You do not get to decide for me what is best.”

“I—”

It happened quickly.

The duke moved his face as his hands went around her, gripping her back and pulling her forward. Her eyes widened in shock, and her mouth half open. Her lips found their way to the duke’s, and before she knew it, they were locked in a passionate kiss that was as unexpected as it was... as it was... as it was unbelievably debauched.

Their lips mashed. Their tongues wrestled. Teeth nibbled and then bit. The duke’s spare hand was around the back of her head, pulling her face in harder somehow, his mouth opening wide as if he meant to devour her. Caroline didn’t think to fight it. She didn’t want to fight it! They kissed freely, openly, as if their lives depended on it. For only seconds, it might have been minutes, the duke and Caroline’s lips and tongues mashed and pressed together, and she completely forgot herself...

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