Page 91 of A Duke Changes Everything
“Where will you be while I’m at Enderley?”
“Here at Lyon’s.” He swallowed hard before adding the rest. “I’ll visit you when I’m able, and if you’d be willing, I’d like you here.”Always.“As often as you wish to come to London.”
She licked her lips. He could see her pondering, almost hear the clockwork gears of her sharp mind sifting the matter.
“We could purchase a townhouse,” he added, the thought that should have been obvious to him coming clearer. A duchess did not live in the bowels of a gentlemen’s club. “In Mayfair or Belgravia. You choose.”
“So...” she started, but didn’t finish the thought.
The tenterhooks Nick hung on began to tear at his insides. “So?”
“This is to be a verypracticalarrangement?”
“Absolutely.” Nick knew how she loved practical solutions. He would give her the most sensible marriage in the history of wedlock if it would win her.
“You need an heir.”
“I don’t care about that.” He swiped a hand through the air, pushing that obstacle away. She had to know that he didn’t want her as a broodmare. The Tremayne lineage could burn in hell as far as he was concerned.
Unless... “Do you want children?”
“Up until a few hours ago, I believed I’d die a spinster.” She gave him a sad little smile that nearly broke him in two. With a longing gaze at the bed, she added, “But we must think rationally. As your duchess, producing a son would be my duty.”
His cock twitched to life. Suddenly he wanted nothing so much as to devote himself earnestly to producing an heir. He imagined ways of starting immediately—taking her on the bed, near the bed, against the bedpost.
She approached until they were toe to toe.
“If I’m in Sussex...” Her palm came down on his midsection, and Nick let out a tiny gasp of relief to have her touching him again. “And you’re here in London.” She trailed her fingers down his row of shirt buttons, her nails clicking on each one. “Then that becomes a tricky proposition.” With one searching slide of her hand, she found how ready he was for her. She shaped his hardened length boldly, gaze fixed on his.
“Mina.” He breathed her name and that was all he could manage before he bent and claimed her lips. Cradling her neck, he pulled her closer, kissed her hungrily. She stroked him until he feared he’d spill. “I need your answer.”
She released him, then pressed her palm low on his belly. “I don’t know what answer I should give.”
Nick kissed her cheek. “Yes.” Then the corner of her mouth. “Tell me yes.”
She shook her head, moving her lips away from his.
He caught her chin, held her gaze, prayed she could see that he’d laid himself bare before her.
“Please,” he said softly. “What more can I give you?”
“You’ve offered me so much.” Her hand came up, caressing his scarred cheek. “More than anyone would say I deserve.” She inhaled sharply, as if trying to catch her breath. “But a part of me will always be that girl who loves fairy tales.”
“Fill the library with them.” Yes, he knew that was part of her and thanked the gods for her childhood love of fanciful stories. Perhaps it was why she might be willing to bind herself to a monster.
“Love.” She waited, breathing in short, shallow breaths. “That’s the only thing you didn’t offer me. I’m afraid I don’t wish to marry without it. If we wed, will there be love?”
The pain that clutched at his chest a moment before became a Herculean fist around his heart, smashing the organ to a pulp. Nick’s throat wouldn’t work. His mind emptied. All he could see was Mina and sense the future he wanted with her slipping through his fingers.
The word was easy enough to speak, but this wasn’t a bluff. He refused to put any cards on the table that he didn’t truly mean to play. Everything he had, he’d gladly give her, but he knew she was asking for something more. A fairy-tale prince with a noble heart and romantic words flowing easily from his tongue.
He could never be that man.
Love made men weak and turned some into raving madmen. Love brought men to their knees.
He was prepared to give Mina anything she wanted, but all of him? To be utterly defenseless and keep none of the walls he’d built around himself—to protect himself—intact?
That he wouldn’t do for anyone.
