Page 8 of Married Off by the Duke
“You’re not going to marry Adkins,” the duke ground out. “You’re not marrying anyone, except me.”
Then he tugged her close and kissed her breathless.
CHAPTER 5
Emma’s inner turmoil calmed instantly. Rooted to the spot, she could only tip her face up to meet his warm lips. Her tiny gasp offered him an opening, and he pressed the advantage, sweeping his tongue between her teeth in a shockingly intimate caress. Were it not for his arm around the small of her back, her knees would have given out.
How could a man who made her feel bad every time he opened his mouth, make her feel this good with those same lips?
Emma twined her arms around his neck. She’d never realized how much she needed this. Touch. Intimacy.
Never realized how much her prickliness toward him had been driven by her hurt at feeling unwanted.
“Sweet Emma,” he murmured against her temple. “You have tormented and tempted me from the first moment we met. There’s no help for it. I must have you for my duchess.”
Emma’s heartbeats thundered inside her skull. He wanted her.
Reality intruded, like hitting the ground after jumping off a roof and thinking for a few exhilarating seconds that she could fly.
This was Max. Her nemesis. Handsome, rich, never wanted anything to do with her. That Max.
She wasn’t about to tie herself to his capricious carelessness forever. Not for all the money in the world.
Gathering her wits, she pressed both hands against his chest and pushed.
“It’s always the same with you, Maximus Aloysius Tremaine. You say ‘I want’ and expect the world to drop everything and give it to you.”
“I am a duke, after all.”
Emma fought not to laugh. He wore his title so casually, sometimes. She hated to admit she liked anything about Max, but she did enjoy that singular aspect of him.
“That does not give you leave to order me around. You interrupted my perfectly content life at the school and brought me to London, with the stated purpose of washing your hands of me. Now, when your plan to marry me off was poised to work, you change course? Has it ever occurred to you to ask what I want?”
They both knew he’d never contemplated what she wanted for a single second.
“Perfectly content?” he scoffed. “You were miserable at that damned school.”
Her mouth fell open. “I was not!”
“You absolutely were,” he insisted. “Waiting for me to rescue you.”
Emma gaped. “You do not honestly believe that.”
The carriage arrived then, preventing any further discussion. When she glanced up, Emma was dismayed to find the party guests leaning out the window above, pointing at them and gossiping.
There would be no salvaging her reputation after this. Conniving man.
Emma had no intention of tying herself permanently to Max, dukedom or no. He might think he wanted her hand in marriage, but she knew better.
“You, sir, are the last man I would ever consider marrying.”
Max
Emma’s declaration crushed him.
He’d earned her refusal. He had no rational explanation for his actions this evening. Only a swirl of emotions he could barely make sense of. Taken together, the facts added up to one inescapable conclusion: he was in love with his ward, and had been for some time.
Everything clicked into place.
