The Other Duke (19 page)

She almost laughed. “That is the first time I have ever been defended against his demands and attacks, Rafe.”

His brow furrowed and he shook his head slowly. “How did you survive him? How did you ever survive any of it at all?”

Her lips parted. “I—I—” She swallowed hard. “I always had a tiny hope that I clung to with both hands. Perhaps some part of me knew you were coming, knew that you would save me from the future they had planned for me.”

He cupped her chin with one big hand and tilted her face toward his. “If you need saving, I will always be there.”

His mouth covered hers and she allowed the surrender she had been craving. She lifted her arms around his neck and melted against him, sighing as he traced her lips, then gently dipped his tongue into her mouth and tasted her like she was some kind of fine wine.

After what seemed like far too short a time, he released her and stepped back, his eyes glazed with a desire she matched.

“Serafina,” he said, his voice rough. “I think you should cut him out of your life.”

She blinked, still under the spell of his kiss. It took her a moment to realize of what he spoke.

“My father?” she murmured.

He nodded. “If you can call him that at all. In my mind, a father is a confidante, a teacher, a guide down a tricky path, even a friend. Certainly, at the very least, he should give a damn about the happiness and well-being of his child.”

She shook her head. “Not all of us are as lucky as you were in your father.”

His face grew sad. “Indeed, that is true.”

She slipped her hand into his. “I understand why you might want for me to cut him away, but Rafe, if I do that I will have no family. No one.”

He flinched as if that statement cut him and then he squeezed her hand gently. “That isn’t true. You will share my family.”

Her heart lurched and she stared at him in surprise. “I—”

“I know you don’t want me,” he continued. “But as my wife, you cannot deny them. They’ll love and accept you.”

She leaned back. “Do they know our plans to live apart?”

He hesitated long enough that she knew the answer before he said, “My brother knows. And I just told my sister. But it wouldn’t make a difference, Sera.”

She blushed as she pulled away. “How can you say that? I can only imagine what your mother will think, what
all
of them will truly think when they realize I’m living in my own home. The scandal—”

He cut her off with a burst of laughter. “My darling, I assure you we know of scandal in my family.
This
will not rank in even the top five.”

She pursed her lips. “But they still cannot possibly want me in their lives when the truth comes out.”

He arched a brow, caught her hand and before she could protest, led her from the room. “Why don’t we find out?”

“Rafe,” Serafina whispered as she tugged against his hand.

He ignored her protests and entered the parlor where his family remained.

“I’m sorry to say that Mr. McPhee was stricken by a sudden headache and had to leave us,” he said.

From the expressions on his entire family’s faces, he could see none of them believed that, but for Serafina’s sake no one said a word except for his mother, who stepped forward.

“I’m so sorry to hear that. I will send a note to him later. But at least we’ll get a bit of time together this evening.”

Serafina glanced up at him, her expression filled with pleading that he not reveal what she considered to be their “secret”, but he ignored it. Until she understood true acceptance, he would have no chance to make her fall in love with him and see that a life with him had value.

“Actually, there is something else I would like to discuss. Annabelle and Crispin, you are aware of this, but I think it’s best if we speak about it in the open, as a family.”

His mother tilted her head. “Oh dear. What is it now?”

“Please don’t,” Serafina said softly, her eyes cast down at her slippers and her voice trembling.

“You all know that Sera and I were forced into this arrangement due to circumstances beyond our control.” He cleared his throat. “And because Serafina is a wise woman, she approached me with a proposition that we would marry, that we would provide heirs to the title, but that there was no reason we should be forced to live a lie.”

His mother blinked and her gaze moved to Serafina. His wife had not looked up, and he flinched as a tear escaped her eyes and glided down her cheek.

“What are you saying?” his mother asked softly.

“Serafina will have her own home and her own money and we won’t live together as husband and wife.” He squeezed Serafina’s hand gently and found it to be very cold and stiff. He smiled to reassure her. “I believe she fears this will make you all despise her, that she’ll have no place in this family if you know our desperate little plan. So I leave you all to address this issue.”

Of course it was Crispin who stepped forward first. “I don’t understand why we would like you less, Serafina,” he said, smiling at her. “I cannot condone anyone living in misery if they can choose something else. I will happily claim you as my sister no matter what.”

“As would I,” Annabelle said with a shake of her head. “I think you’ve been forced into a life you didn’t want long enough. If having your own home, living your own life, is what you desire, it only seems fair that you should have your way.”

Serafina stared at the two of them, and he could see the depth of her disbelief. And why wouldn’t she doubt this kindness? She had experienced so little of it throughout her life.

She turned her attention to his mother, who slowly moved across the room to take both her hands.

“Serafina, I married a rogue and I’ve watched my sons…and even occasionally my daughter…involve themselves in tomfoolery you cannot imagine. Rafe lit fire to the Duchess of Waterburg’s favorite gown once. While she was in it. And that is the
least
of our family’s eccentricities.”

As Serafina’s eyes widened, Rafe stepped forward. “Now then, that was an accident and she escaped unscathed.”

“And in her undergarments,” Crispin added almost beneath his breath.

“In the lake,” Annabelle said with a chuckle.

“To be fair,” Rafe said, turning to Serafina. “This was
not
a recent occurrence. I was eight.”

“But this isn’t a childhood transgression,” Serafina said softly, holding his mother’s gaze. “People will talk, you may be asked to make explanations…”

“People have talked since the beginning of time, whether you give them a subject or they make one up.” His mother took Serafina’s hand and lifted it to her chest gently. “And my only explanation will be that this is the decision that makes my son and my daughter-in-law happiest.
Does
this make you happy?”

His mother looked at Rafe and he saw a flicker of concern in her eyes. As if she somehow read his heart without him telling her.

Serafina sighed. “It is what is best, I think, for us both.”

Rafe glanced down at her. Serafina had not said that the separate lives she insisted upon would make her
happy
. Which gave him a slender thread of hope.

“Then it is what you will do and none of us will think less of you for it,” his mother insisted before she pulled Serafina in for a brief embrace.

She stiffened at first, but then wrapped her arms around his mother and hugged her back. When they parted, both women were wiping away tears.

“Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to hear more about the duchess’s dress,” Serafina said with a laugh.

“Oh, it is the best story,” Rafe’s mother said, drawing her to the settee.

Crispin followed, calling out, “Don’t forget that it started when he and I released the hunting dogs on Papa’s orders.”

“How could I forget?” his mother sighed.

Rafe moved to follow them, but Annabelle caught his arm and held him in place.

“What are you doing?” his sister asked softly, so the rest couldn’t hear.

“What do you mean?”

“You told me you loved the girl,” Annabelle said. “And then you make the announcement to the world that you will not live together. How is that wooing?”

He looked across the room at his wife, tucked onto the settee between his mother and brother, her mouth gaping and her eyes filled with laughter at the stories of his reckless childhood. She was lit up from within and he loved her more than he ever had.

“You told me to give her what she has always wanted. Well, she has never had the choice to live as she chooses. She’s never had any kind of freedom whatsoever. I think, if I give her those things, she will be more receptive to me than if I demand she do exactly what she claims she doesn’t want.”

Annabelle wrinkled her brow. “That is taking a risk.”

“It is. But if she truly doesn’t want a life with me, I’ll have no choice to let her go rather than force her into something she doesn’t desire.”

His sister blinked. “You do truly love her.”

He nodded. “I do.”

“Well, then I hope it won’t come to loving her enough to let her go.”

She squeezed his arm and moved to the settee to add her part to the story. Rafe sighed.

“So do I.”

Serafina glanced up from her book and caught her breath as Rafe walked into the sitting room. Her husband truly was the most beautiful man she had ever known. He was like a light when he entered any room, making it a better place.

And if it were just his physical appearance she was attracted to, perhaps it wouldn’t have made her stomach twist. But it wasn’t. The more she knew him, the more she realized that his heart and his soul matched his external appearance.

But she didn’t want to care for him. She didn’t
want
to care for anyone. In the end, that wouldn’t lead to happiness, but to despair and disappointment and a life she would have no control over.

“You look as though you are a cat that just found a way to open the birdcage,” she said, setting her book aside and praying her tone sounded even and unaffected by his appearance.

He smiled, but there was a nervousness to the expression. In fact, it was the same nervousness he had been exhibiting since their gathering with his family a few days before.

What had changed since then to make him so…
odd
around her?

“I have something for you,” he said.

She swallowed hard. “Something?”

“A gift. It’s in your dressing room—will you come with me?”

She stood slowly and gave him a look. “Are you attempting to seduce me, Your Grace?”

She teased, but the fact was that the physical connection between them was something she had come to truly crave. He so often found her midday or midmorning or at midnight or any time he pleased—and spirited her away for passion. She loved every minute of it. That, at least, she could admit.

He grinned. “That is a wonderful idea, Your Grace, but perhaps we can save it for
after
the gift.”

He held out a hand, and she took it. The entire way up the stairs, she watched him. She’d never seen him like this before, almost vibrating with excitement he was trying hard to hide. Whatever his gift was, it meant something to him. And he thought it was going to mean something to her.

Suddenly she felt exposed, nervous, and as they reached her dressing room door, she hesitated.

“You don’t have to give me gifts, you know,” she whispered, catching his eye. “It isn’t part of our bargain.”

Some of the light in his eyes dimmed at her statement and tension tightened his jaw for a brief moment. Then he shrugged one shoulder and opened her door.

“I do it because I like to do it.”

She turned toward the dressing room and caught her breath at what she saw. A dress form had been placed in the middle of the room, and on it was the most beautiful dress she had ever seen. It was a ball gown cut to flatter her slender frame and to accentuate the attributes she knew Rafe liked most.

But beyond all those things was something else that made the gown special. Or at least special to her. It was made in a beautiful buttercup yellow fabric decorated with sunnier hand-stitched flowers along the sheer overlay.

She turned toward him, mouth slightly open in shock.

“You said your mother told you not to wear yellow,” he said softly. “And I think it is far past time for her voice, for your father’s voice, for Cyril’s voice, to leave your mind. For you to do as you’d like without any fears of recrimination.”

She felt her lip begin to tremble with emotion and she spun away so she wouldn’t reveal too much about how much his gift meant to her.

“It is beautiful,” she managed to squeak without bursting into tears.

She felt his fingers close around her shoulder, felt his warmth at her back, beckoning her to lean into him, to trust him, to surrender more than just her body to him. And she wanted so much to do that.

But her fear palpitated, filling her ears with the rush of blood, making her hands shake at her sides. Giving herself entirely to any other person was such a terrifying thought.

Sucking in a breath, she pulled away from him and moved further into the room to examine the dress. It was more and more beautiful the closer she came. When she touched it, the silk glided through her fingers like water.

“How can I repay you?” she asked, turning toward him, braver now that there was distance between them.

He frowned. “It wasn’t given in the hopes of some kind of quid pro quo,” he said. “If you wear it and enjoy it, that will be enough for me.”

“Rafe—” she whispered.

“Please don’t say whatever is on your lips.”

She stopped. “What do you mean?”

“Just listen,” he continued. “You’ve made it clear what you want, and I would not deny you that. But I hope you won’t deny
me
any attempts to change your mind.”

Her eyes went wide as the shock of that sentence froze her in her spot. “Why would you want to change my mind?” she finally asked, her voice shaking.

He moved toward her slowly. “You are a very smart woman. I’m certain you will figure that out on your own.”

He stopped in front of her and reached out to cup her chin. Slowly, he tilted her face toward his, searching her eyes as if he could see into her soul. She wanted to turn away, to shut him out, but the draw of him was too powerful. She found herself leaning up into him, willing his mouth to lower to hers.

He followed her silent demand, pressing a kiss to her lips that seemed to make the room hotter and the air around them thicker in an instant. She gripped his arms, fisting his jacket in her fingers. She wanted him.

But she also wanted the physical connection they shared to somehow mute his unexpected attempt to create some deeper emotional bond. Something that frightened her and made her want to run.

If he sensed her desperation, he didn’t seem unhappy about it. He groaned her name against her lips and put his arms around her, cupping her backside with both hands and pressing her against the hard ridge of the erection that already pushed against his trouser front.

She moaned at the feel of his tempting cock and all it promised to give. Her fear faded, her anxiety faded, until all that was left was him, was her, and was what was about to occur between them.

“Hurry,” she whispered as she stroked one hand between them to press against the needy length of his cock.

He grunted with pleasure, but his smile was wicked as he looked down at her. “Why hurry? I have all day.”

She gasped, but her words were cut off as he dropped his mouth to her again and guided her back through the dressing room into his bedchamber.

Once inside the room, once he had closed and locked all the doors to keep out any intruder who might interrupt their pleasure, he stalked toward her. He held her gaze steady as he undressed her, taking his time with every button, every hook, every piece of fabric.

When she tried to help, he pushed her hands aside. When she tried to speak, he silenced her with kisses until finally she stood naked before him.

A month ago, this state would have terrified her. But now she almost preened as he raked his hot gaze over her flesh. She knew what the look of her did to him now. She
liked
how she could control a man who was otherwise uncontrollable.

More than that, she liked that they were equals in their pleasure. And she could give as good as she got.

“You have finished with me,” she whispered. “Why don’t you take your turn?”

“You think I’m finished?” he growled as he ignored her request and instead cupped her backside again.

This time his hot fingers pressed into her bare flesh and the corresponding ricochets of pleasure were almost too much to bear.

“Rafe!” she cried out.

He all but tossed her onto the bed, looming over her with promise glittering in his bright blue eyes.

“Oh yes, love, you will say my name. Scream my name. Sigh my name. Because I’m not going to hurry. I’m going to take my time with you as you deserve and as
I
desire.”

She stared up at him, thrilling at his words, her body aching for him even before he’d truly touched her. She didn’t have to wait long. He climbed onto the bed with her, his warm hands covering her naked ankles, then making a slow slide up her calves, her knees. She shivered beneath his touch, her back arching almost against her will as he stroked skin over skin.

When he reached her thighs, he gently pushed, urging her to open to him, to reveal her sex, to show him that she was already wet and ready for him.

She did so without hesitation, without even a hint of the embarrassment or fear she had once felt when his eyes burned on her or his hands stoked over her. Now she felt nothing but a desire that curled in her stomach, tingled through every inch of her flesh, awakened each and every nerve ending she possessed.

In this, at least, she belonged to him, and she loved every heated moment they shared.

He spread her wide and stared down at her with a wicked half-grin on his handsome face.

“So many things I can do to you,” he murmured, as much to himself as to her.

She shivered. “What will you do?”

He cocked an eyebrow and slowly lifted his gaze to her face. “Taste you until you quake and beg, then make love to you until we are both weak.”

His statement was direct and it hit her in the gut, but it was the look in his eyes that truly froze her in her spot. He was speaking of seduction and pleasure, but there in his stare she saw something else. Something warm, something gentle, something tinged with the emotions she did not ever wish to feel.

When he dipped his head, she could no longer see the evidence, but her nervousness remained.
Could
he feel something for her?

She had no time to ponder it further because Rafe tore all rational thought from her mind when he pressed his mouth to her weeping, sensitive sex. Electric sensation immediately rippled through her body and she cried out with the instant pleasure that seemed to light her on fire.

“So responsive,” he murmured, his words vibrating against her tender flesh and making her clench her sex against nothingness.

“Please,” she whispered, her voice hardly carrying because her breath was gone.

He grinned up at her. “Please you? Oh, I intend to do just that.”

He brushed his lips over her a second time, feather-light teasing that did little to release her from the prison of his touch. She gripped fists against the coverlet, reaching for something she couldn’t receive without his help.

He smiled again, and then he darted out his tongue and traced her sex from bottom to top, stopping at the throbbing bundle of nerves that gave her so much pleasure.

“Do you know what this is called?” he asked before he stroked the flat of his tongue over her, and she yelped when a jolt of pleasure arced through her entire body.

“N-no,” she murmured.

“Your clitoris,” he explained, stroking it again. “If I stimulate it enough, you’ll orgasm.”

“Please do it,” she all but wailed.

“I will,” he reassured her with another chuckle and a lick that teased rather than relieved. “But first…”

He trailed off as he brushed his fingers over her. He peeled her open, revealing her fully and then, without preamble, he gently pushed two thick fingers deep within her core. She clenched around the invasion, loving how she stretched to accommodate him.

“Inside of you,” he whispered, his mouth still a fraction of an inch away from her aching clitoris, “is another place where I can make you come. Right…” He maneuvered his fingers and gently curled them.

She almost levitated off the pillows as a deep pleasure seemed to bloom inside of her, not fully in release but something close to that sensation.

“Right there,” he said with a smile. “So what do you think would happen if I touched you in both places at once?”

She stared at him, unable to keep the wild need from her voice as she murmured, “Show me.”

His pupils dilated with her breathy request, and she saw a shift in him from teasing lover to a man driven to possess her in the most primal way possible. Power swelled in her to know that she could inspire his need even as he teased and taunted her so sweetly.