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Everything would be well.

He slowly, and painfully, scaled the rocks and slid into the cave.

He looked around, and his hope plummeted. Just like the falls at his back. Swept away just as quickly.

She wasn’t here.

He needed to accept it for what it was.

She was gone.

19

Theo

A demanding knock rang through Theo’s cottage. She glanced up from the book on mineral stone lease structures she’d been perusing while curled up with a cup of tea in her living room. It was only seven p.m. She had no doubt who that knock belonged to. She made her way to the front door.

A smile curled her lips. She couldn’t deny his eagerness had her strutting a little taller. She immediately admonished herself. There was nothing special about having the attention of a man, even if he was a duke. That’s what they all wanted you to believe. He was the one who was bloody lucky. That’s right. All ninny-ness gone, she squared her shoulders and pulled open her front door.

And her heart dropped out of her stomach. Eyes white and wide stared back at her. That chiseled jaw was harder than she’d ever seen it, a muscle ticking violently in his cheek. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

He shifted, chest heaving, a dark stallion seconds from bolting. Panic. It streaked over him like the puckered white scar down his cheek and jaw.

She opened her mouth. “Your Gr⁠—”

Her words left her as she was abruptly lifted off her feet. She scrambled to wrap her legs and arms around him. His fingers tightened on her arse, his mouth already on her neck. Teeth sank lightly into her shoulder. His rapidly beating heart thumped against her chest, piercing through her thin lawn shirt directly to her own.

“Bedchamber. Now.”

The hair on the back of her neck stood up at the dangerous purr. At the desperation in it.

She had no idea what had happened, but she knew what he needed, and she could give it to him.

“Take me there,” she whispered.

He stormed toward the back hall of her cottage. “Shirt. Off.”

She squeezed her thighs tighter to brace herself and tugged her lawn shirt from the waistband of her trousers. His fingers dug in, holding her steady as she sent it flying over her head behind them. Then her back slammed into the wall, the breath bursting from her in an oomph.

His lips landed on the tops of her breasts. His tongue dipped out, trailing along the top of her stays. She shivered. He shifted her higher, tugging down the fabric with his teeth. A rip sliced through the hall, and cold air hit her breasts. Her nipples tightened, her core pulsing. He was ravenous. She had no idea what had gotten into him, no idea what he was running from.

Open-mouthed hot kisses touched every part of her. Everywhere except—her back arched and a moan tore from her as his lips closed around her. Sucked. Pleasure streaked through her. Her hands shot to his hair.

“No!”

And then he was gone. She stumbled to her feet, barely stopping herself from crashing to the floor. His roared no still echoed through her. Because it hadn’t been just a rebuke. There’d been pure terror laced through it.

He shook his head, his short curls bouncing with the movement. Black eyes, swirling with something unstable, something broken, stared back at her. Someone broken. His skin was ghostly pale, but red painted his cheekbones, his scar a jarring white slicing through.

What happened to you, Duke?

She slowly turned and placed her wrists behind her back.

The sound of shifting fabric had her fists tensing, then a long, slow slide of linen. Her skin prickled a moment before the neckcloth wrapped around her wrists. He pulled the knot tight with a jerk—tighter than usual. She should be nervous. She should be alarmed. And her heart hammering against her sternum would make one think she was. But it wasn’t for her. It was for him. A near-violent need to rid him of the pain and terror that had taken hold of him.

They stood there. Silence. Presence. She could feel every inch of him, even though nary a part of him touched her.

Soft huffs of breath whispered over her nape. Then his forehead fell there, rolling back and forth. A palm slid up her stomach, over her stays to grasp her bare left breast. Squeeze. Her heart fractured. It was like whatever pain he was feeling was being funneled into her.