Page 65 of Raising the Duke’s Unexpected Twins

“You think you are smarter than everyone, love, always trying to argue and to fight, thinking that your opinions are true and correct. But why can you not let things be as they are?”

“And what are they? What is this?” she asked, motioning her hands between them. She turned away and sighed, rubbing at her temples. “And what of the children?”

“What of them?” he asked. “I care for them, I pay for the meals and their home. I pay for their nanny, and I make sure all is well. What more could they want?”

“More of you!” she cried, turning around again. “They have lost their parents, so we are all they have left, and yet you hide from them. You hide from me!”

She hadn’t meant to say that, and she cleared her throat. “I mean you hide any true feeling. I cannot tell what you are feeling from one moment to the next.”

“There is no reason for you to know what I’m feeling, love,” he said in a low voice. “I am doing my duty, and my gambling den is what keeps us afloat.”

She shook her head. “Yes, you are doing your duty, but –”

“But what?” he asked, drawing ever closer, his eyes burning with fire. “I cannot give more than that, Cordelia, why can’t you see? It is not wise for me to get close to anyone.”

“And why not?” she asked defiantly. “You would rather embarrass me by bringing me to pleasure, for allowing me to…do the same to you, and then pretending it was all for nothing.”

“I never said that!” he said loudly, his eyes widening, and he rubbed his hand at the back of his neck. “For God’s sake, it didn’t mean nothing.”

Her heart skipped a beat, and she waited for a moment, but he did not continue.

“They were wrong, weren’t they?”

“Who?” he asked with a confused look.

“Helen and David. To force us into matrimony. We will kill each other, and it is only draining you and bringing you down.”

She could feel tears in her eyes, but she kept them down.

I will not cry in front of him. It will break all barriers, and I am not ready. He is not ready.

“You will drive me mad, woman!” he said, throwing up his hands. “It is I who will bring you down as I have told you time and time again.”

“No, it is you who will drive me mad!” she cried, and he stepped closer to her at her words.

“Good. Then let us drive each other mad.” And with that, he grabbed her around the waist and kissed her.

Cordelia immediately responded and sank into him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him back, relieved both that they could put aside the conversation for now and that she was in his arms again. At least there, things made some sense, and there was no doubt between them.

He opened his mouth against hers, wrapping his arms around her waist as he lifted her slightly off the floor.

“Oh!” she cried into his mouth, making him laugh against her lips.

“Now,” he said, kissing down her neck as he placed her safely again on the ground, “While I would greatly love to see one of those lovely nightgowns I got for you, I would much rather in this moment, see you with nothing at all.”

Cordelia shivered, feeling the pull of his finger against her bodice. She had a decision to make.

If I say yes, he will descend into that place of passion where he can escape my questions and my attempts to see him as a good man.

If I say no…

She could not even finish that thought for she didn’t want to say no. If she could not have Nicholas in the way she was growing to want, then she would have him this way.

“If you will let me, that is,” he whispered, nipping at her earlobe before bringing his mouth to hers again.

“Yes,” she breathed, leaning her head back as he kissed down her neck again, having pulled the gown from her shoulders and pressing his lips to the soft skin there.

When their eyes met once more, she noted again the depth of the blue. The blue always seemed to change every time she saw it, and in them she could see that animal hunger he so often wore whenever he looked at her, but now, there was tenderness too.