Page 91 of The Duke's Virgin

I’d just told him that Luka hadn’t handled it well and had assumed the baby was Emmett’s, then had been angry when he thought I was trying to play him by making him think the baby was actually his.

“But it is Luka’s baby, right?” He’d been baffled as he asked it, confused by how Luka had acted. Then pissed.

Before I’d even relented and told him, I’d made him promise he wouldn’t do anything, that he couldn’t tell anybody or go yell at anybody or hit anybody, so even as angry as he was, he’d been trapped.

He’d sulked and tried to talk me into just letting himgive Luka a talking to.

I told him if he saidanythingto Luka, I’d punch him.

I’d never hit anybody in my life, and I didn’t even know if I could follow through. But at the time, I’d meant it.

He’d looked at me like he didn’t know whether to laugh or shake his head.

In the end, he’d just asked, “Why?”

“I’m not begging somebody to believe me, Emmett,” I’d told him. “Not even by proxy.”

“You used to laugh and smile more than this,” he told me softly, pulling me back to the present. “I’m worried, Stacia. That’s all.”

“Actually, I only laughed and smiled because you were around.” Shrugging, I shifted position on the padded bench to avoid the sun’s changing angle and met his gaze. “My parents weren’t the kind to foster a happy home life, Emmett. Trust me…I’ve been through worse than this, and I had to do it alone.”

“You didn’t go through itpregnantand alone.”

“True.” Feeling drained already, I shrugged. I couldn’t let him see that though. He was so sweet, and he already worried too much. I gave him a wide smile and said, “Besides, Emmett. I’m not alone. I’ve got you, don’t I?”

“Yeah.” He grabbed my legs and pulled them over his lap so he could slide closer, giving me a friendly hug. After dropping a kiss on my forehead, he added, “I’m here for you, as much as you need me to be, Stacia. I want you to know that.”

Hearing thebuthanging off his words, I met his eyes.

The rich, deep blue was full of compassion, but at the same time, stark in all its honesty. “You and me both know, it’s not the same thing, is it?”

Thirty-Two

Luka

Her picture flashedacross the screen again.

For the past twenty minutes, I’d done little more than channel surf, jumping from one American news channel to the next, trying to find information on the story that had caught my eye earlier.

American Heiress, Stacia Harden, Missing

Harden.

I hadn’t known a fucking thing about her, not really. Yes, I’d seen her last name in theNew York Times, but I hadn’t ever thought to look up anything more about her.

That had changed exactly twenty minutes ago.

American Heiress, Stacia Harden, Missing

A fucking heiress.

No wonder Aeric had called me an idiot.

Iwasan idiot.

The Harden family of New York wouldn’t surpass the Hahns as far as fortunes went, but there weren’t many in the world who could compete with a family as old and as monied as mine.

However, Stacia wasn’t a pauper either.

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