Page 23 of Five Nights with a Rakish Duke
“So? What do you say?” he asked, leaning toward her again. Penelope opened her mouth to reject him outright, but the words died in her throat.
What choice did she really have? Either she turned down the Duke and lost the properties forever, losing all those happy memories with her parents and the dowry, inhibiting any chance she had of making a good marriage, or… she spent a few nights with the Duke. She could try and keep this lust at bay, yet as he moved toward her, she felt the heat rise in her body, travelling up her chest and neck.
She would be selling herself to him in order to get her property back, and the more she thought about it, the more torn she was. Her honor would be lost, but she’d have her property. No, she would never let it go so far as sharing his bed, otherwise how could she secure a husband? She could spend her nights with him and delay what he wanted from her.
“You are unsure,” the Duke said, disturbing her thoughts.
“You are asking me to throw away my honor, Your Grace. It is not a decision that is easy to make,” she said, lifting her head to look at him.
“Reputations are only damaged when people know of what you have done. I assure you, Lady Penelope, I have discretion. No one would know.”
Was it possible? She rather liked the idea of it: of discovering what a few nights with this man could be like, yet keeping her reputation intact.
“I… do not know.” The words fell from her lips with uncertainty. It was hardly an easy decision to make!
“Then let me help persuade you,” the Duke said and bent down toward her. It was done so fast that she was not prepared for it. He kissed her, molding their lips together in an instant. Unlike the last kiss at the soiree that had started out gentle, this one was fierce and passionate.
He pressed their lips together and moved one of his hands to her waist, making her arch her body into his chest. The touch set off that heat in her stomach again, only this time instead of travelling up her body that feeling moved south and curled around the most sensitive and private area of her body.
He begged permission past the barrier of her lips with a playful nip, and she gave it willingly, allowing him to take her tongue with his own. He was soon arching her back over the piano, until more keys were pressed in a cacophony of clashing sounds. It was urgent with him pulling her against him and her not wanting to fight it. She only made a move to pull away when she felt him lift her waist, so that she sat on the keys completely with him separating her legs and standing between them.
“Stop,” she said, pulling her lips off him. He abided instantly, stopping the kiss and moving his hands down either side of her again though he did not move away from her. His cheeks were flushed from their excitement as he smiled at her.
“Five nights of something like that. Could it be so bad, Lady Penelope?” he asked. There was something in that tone or even in that kiss, that she didn’t want to resist.
Five nights, that is all. Then the estates will be mine again.
Her mind was made up. “You have yourself a deal, Your Grace, but on one condition. No kissing, and nothing else that makes you look at me in that way.”
“No kissing?” he said in horror. “How about this instead? Kissing, but I will not take you to bed. What do you say?”
* * *
“What do you mean Lord Larson gambled away the estates?” Veronica asked in horror as she presented Penelope with a glass of wine. “Why are you trembling, dear?”
“It is nothing,” Penelope lied as she eagerly drank from the glass, hoping the white sparkling liquid would calm her nerves. After agreeing to the Duke’s deal, she had left his house as quickly as she could, but unable to go home yet, she had found herself at her godmother’s door, desperately in need of her help.
There is only one way this can work, and for my reputation to stay intact: I will need someone’s help.
“I do not understand,” Veronica said, her husky voice strong in the room as she sat down beside Penelope. They sat in the drawing room of Veronica’s estate on a neo-classical settee with ornate golden arms and a plush dark green cushion. “Lord Larson has the greatest respect for you. Why would he gamble your dowry away?”
“He obviously thought it a safe bet though he was wrong,” Penelope said, finishing what was left in the glass.
“Good Lord, Penelope. Go carefully dear; I do not want to have to pick you up off the floor at the end of this evening,” Veronica said with a small smile. Despite her words, she took the glass out of Penelope’s hands and filled it up, before passing her the glass back again. “He lost both of the estates? To the Duke of Kendall? Are you sure?”
“I am certain, for I have just come from the Duke’s estate,” Penelope whispered, watching as her godmother stiffened. Veronica seemed to understand what was coming next, for together they both looked to the door of the drawing room, but seeing it was firmly closed with no sign of the butler returning at any moment, they were safe to talk freely.
“My dear, a sentence that opens with ‘I have just come from the Duke’s estate’ can hardly end well when you did not have a chaperone.” Veronica raised her eyebrows.
“Please, do not disapprove. I had to ask him to return the estates,” Penelope said, turning to her godmother, afraid to tell her the truth.
What choice do I have? I will need her help for this to work! What will she think of me?
“Did he agree to?” Veronica asked with some doubt.
“He did if we made a deal.”
“Good Lord, what kind of deal did you make? I hope it was not made over a hand of cards.”
