Page 2 of Nothing Compares to the Duke
“Mama said it was the most important dress I’d ever wear, at least until the start of the Season. But she is dramatic when it comes to fashion.”
He laughed and the sound was infectious. She always laughed when he did. But the sound was richer now that she could feel the reverberation against her palm.
“Show me what it is,” she insisted with a gentle push.
Rhys tipped his head and looked down at where she touched him. She felt his response. His heartbeat raced faster. When his eyes met hers again, their cool blue shade seemed darker.
“Turn around, Arabella,” he said on a husky whisper.
Bella did as he requested without protest or hesitation. That was new too. Usually they debated everything.
Her breath snagged in her throat as she waited, listening to the rustle of fabric as he brought his arms forward. A little squeak sounded in the high-ceilinged library, like the metal-on-metal rub of a hinge giving way.
A hinged box? Bella’s mind went to jewelry and then to the image of a ring and her deepest most secret wish that she was almost afraid to admit to herself. She was expected to have a wildly successful coming-out Season. Her mother had been planning for months. Years. But since her change of heart toward her best friend, Bella’s dream was an uncharacteristically rebellious one.
Deep down, she hoped her Season might be unnecessary because Rhys would ask her to be his.
Her parents couldn’t disapprove. They’d known Rhys as long as she had and loved him as a son, not to mention that he was heir to a dukedom. As her mother had told her a hundred times while they discussed eligible noblemen who might be promising prospects for the coming Season, “nothing compares to a duke.”
It would come as a shock to no one to discover that he’d had her heart for years. Even Rhys couldn’t doubt that. But it had always been a friendship kind of love.
Now it was so much more.
He swept his fingers across the back of her neck and Bella gasped.
“Are my hands cold?”
“N-no” was all she could manage. Her skin tingled where he’d touched her and a ribbon of warmth spread out from that spot and slid all the way down her back.
She felt his other hand come up and he stretched one arm over her shoulder, then the other. Cool metal landed gently against her neck and then his fingers were fumbling at her nape again, brushing against the wisps of hair that had escaped her coiffure.
He’d hooked a necklace and the thin chain tickled against her skin.
“There,” he said softly, pressing the flat of his hand to the curve between her neck and shoulder. When he let go, the chain slid down, almost to her cleavage.
Bella lifted the pendant and tilted it up. A daisy flower, its petals made of opal and its center a round of etched gold.
“Will it suit you? Daisies are your favorite flower, aren’t they?”
“I love daisies.” But they weren’t her favorite flower. Lily of the valley was her favorite and always had been, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him.
He came around to stand in front of her and took her hands in his. “They’re as sweet and lovely as you are.”
“Thank you.” For a long awkward moment, she couldn’t get any more words out. She struggled so long that his encouraging smile faltered. “Rhys—”
“Arry, I know you’re nervous about the speech. But don’t be. We practiced and you’ll pull it off beautifully.” He glanced behind her at the clock on the wall. “You should head down. It’s almost time.”
“Weshould head down.” She’d come looking for him because she could not imagine speaking to all the guests from that dais without being able to look out and focus on his face.
He reached up and cupped her chin, tilted her head gently, and stared down at her as tenderly as he’d ever looked at her in the decade they’d known each other.
Bella held her breath. Her gaze flitted down to his lips. This was it. This was the moment of her very first kiss. There would never ever be another and there was no man she would ever want to kiss more than Rhys Forester.
“You,” he said emphatically, “are so much more than you know. More clever, more talented, more beautiful than you even yet realize. I hope when the Season comes a dozen men tell you so. There will be many vying for your heart and your hand.”
No!Everything in her shouted the word. A dozen men didn’t interest her in the least.
Only one. This one.
