Page 40 of Her Wicked Duke
Alexander laughed softly. “Oh, Anne.” He shook his head, and when he talked again, his voice had changed. She was starting to notice the difference between his vulnerability and his stoic distance. “It will get my grandmother off my back, for once. She keeps trying to force me to dance with everybody’s granddaughter. Hence why you saw me dancing with those two ladies.”
“Is that the only reason you wish to court me?”
He had told me to simply ask and he wouldn’t hesitate.But that was when he was trying to seduce me. I was right not to take him seriously. As always, he is thinking only of himself.
“Yes.”
What about my feelings, Alexander? What about my heart, which you are toying with? Do not treat me like a conquest and then discard me the moment you get bored or my brother returns.
But she bit her tongue and kept her thoughts to herself.
She lifted her chin and lowered her parasol, trying to be bold. His plan could work, and she was willing to try it. If her stalker thought she was taken, then hemightback off.
“What if he threatens you?” she asked worriedly.
“I would like to see him try,” Alexander replied, smirking. “I can protect myself, Anne.”
“I know, but he is terrifying.”
“He is an insecure coward who cannot reveal his true identity and gains pleasure from scaring innocent women.” His voice was hard, angry, and she looked up at him, surprised. “I despise cowards, Anne.”
There was something underlying his tone, something self-deprecating, but she didn’t ask further.
She only nodded. “If you wish to openly court me, then you and your grandmother should come over for dinner. My parents are itching to properly meet you again after all these years, and you can get properly reacquainted with everyone.”
Alexander huffed out a laugh, and she arched an eyebrow at him.
“I recall dinners with your family, my darling,” he said. That term of endearment sounded wrong in his voice. He looked like he tasted something sour, too. “You were unsatisfied with my only kissing you once? Well, this dinner shall cost you steeply.”
He gave her a self-satisfied smile, but she returned it with ease.
“I will pay the price, Alexander.” She leaned into him and enjoyed the way his eyes flicked to her mouth. “No matter how high. And I shall do itgladly.”
The dinner was swiftly arranged, and Anne was forced to endure her mother’s talking about Alexander for the following week. Another letter came, but she was mostly excused from someSociety events because she was courting Alexander now.
He was due to properly make the announcement to their families and ask her father officially, but Anne had whispered itto her mother, and the two of them giggled just as badly as she did with her friends.
“Oh, it will be so lovely to have Alexander at our dining table again,” her mother said. “And perhaps for every occasion after that.”
“What do you mean, Mama?”
“Oh.” Annette giggled. “I am merely considering the possibilities of having Alexander Dunst as my newest son-in-law.”
Anne had been sipping on a cup of tea, and at her mother’s words, she swallowed too fast and coughed. “Mama!”
“Don’t be dramatic, dear!” her mother chided. “It is a possibility, as I said.”
Anne kept her mouth shut, not wanting to explain the true reason that Alexander was doing this for her. Her mind felt crammed with all of the things she had not yet confessed—her stalker, Christian’s request, her desire for her brother’s best friend, seeing her sister’s worries…
When had she become the kind to keep secrets from her mama this way?
Soon, everyone arrived for the dinner. Alexander wore a dashing navy jacket with white trims, and his hair was combed back andparted to the side. Anne could not take her eyes off him for a moment.
But he seemed as equally entranced by her, although she couldn’t understand why. Anne knew she was pretty—she had been blessed with her mother’s face and thick, dark hair, after all—but had not thought herself genuinely capable of attracting the Duke’s attention.
It must be for show.
Still, she was not naïve. It was just easier to think that rather than get her heart broken. She still craved romance and a happy, beautiful marriage, despite her parents’ marriage giving her a rather bad example.
