Now, the soft sounds of her sobbing brought him back to the moment and he held her closer still. His heart pounded as if it wished to break free from his chest. In the aftermath of such a traumatic event, he remained stunned that he’d curbed the wolf’s desire to kill with merely a word, a heartfelt plea from this woman. Things were changing and he had no idea how to stop the slide. “Alice?” Donovan pulled slightly away, put a finger beneath her chin and tilted it up so their gazes connected. At such close quarters, she would see the very real concern in his face. I hope that’s all she sees. “Are you hurt, injured? Did that man,” he forced a swallow into his dry throat, “touch you, molest you in any way?” For if he did, the blacksmith’s time on this Earth was limited.
“No. He tried, but I fought.” Silvery tracks of tears marred her cheeks as she stared at him. Her impossibly long eyelashes spiked with moisture and gave her a dewy-eyed innocence he couldn’t ignore. “I’m mostly shaken.” The delicate tendons of her neck worked with a swallow. “First Fanny’s horrible words, then Joe’s attack, and now knowing beyond doubt there’s a wolf in Shalford, so close I almost touched it.” Awe resonated in her voice, and that both pleased and frightened him.
“Shh.” He gathered her close once more, holding her head to his shoulder, and rocked her in his arms. “It’s all right now. It’s over.” The urge to protect her and keep her always safe grew strong, nearly overwhelming with its need. He continued to murmur soothing words while stroking his hands up and down her back. “You’ll never know worry when I am near.” That was God’s honest truth, for he would stand guard over her for as long as it took until she fell for him and the curse broke.
If he hadn’t come when he did…
Inside his head, his wolf rolled his eyes. You would have lost her and would need to start over with a seduction on someone else.
Yes. No. Anxiety clawed at his belly. Confusion twirled through his mind. It’s more than wanting the curse broken. Alice’s life was in danger and I—
Canine laughter barked into his mind. Careful, Donovan. You might find you’re beginning to care for her, and then what will happen to your plans?
He didn’t wish to contemplate the ramifications of such a thing. Not now, not when being free from the curse was so close.
“Donovan?” Alice lifted her head and sought out his gaze. Stark desire and something softer he didn’t dare hope to identify clouded the depths of her gray eyes.
“Yes?” He could barely force out the word from his tight throat.
“Thank you for coming at the exact moment I needed you. You truly are the hero I’ve longed for.” The softly uttered words skittered through his consciousness and bounced against the wall he’d built around his heart. Thread-fine cracks appeared in that barrier.
I’m the farthest thing from a hero. When she waited for a reply, he stroked his fingertips along the side of her face. Her sigh went straight to his soul. “Perhaps you and I share a connection that transcends time.” Gah! What gammon that is, and he, who was quite proficient at lying to women, hated the words he’d spoken.
“I’m glad you feel it too.” And her lips curved with a brilliant smile that had him cursing his own name.
“Aw, damnation,” he whispered seconds before he covered her lips with his. He kissed her for his own peace of mind, to remind himself that he had no business mucking about in soft feelings and the messiness of emotions, for he’d allowed this woman into his life for one reason and one reason only: breaking the curse.
In no way did he wish for her to mean anything more to him. That wasn’t the plan, and he’d do well to remember it. A man with attachments made himself a target for others who wished him ill, and love was a finicky emotion at best—easy to fall in and easier still to fall out.
Yet when Alice kissed him back with an eagerness that had his length hardening, his thoughts scattered. Perhaps there were two reasons he’d allowed her into his life, and one of them demanded he bed her now in order to stake his claim and mark her as his, make her believe he cared for her enough to grasp that elusive happily ever after.
And break the damn curse. There’d be plenty of time after he was fully human to hate himself for what he’d done without the ever-present consciousness of his wolf in his head.
“Ah, Alice, what am I to do with you?” Donovan moved over her mouth with enough insistent pressure she could have no doubt as to his intent. He nibbled the corners and when he drew the tip of his tongue along the seam of her lips, asking, suggesting, Alice gasped and he easily slipped that organ inside to fence with hers.
Her eyes popped wide open from the new level of intimacy. Then with a sweet sigh, she slowly closed them, held him tighter about his neck and proceeded to mimic his every movement. Silk slid along satin, warmth tangled with heat, and soon enough passion befuddled his brain, his thinking, his body.
I want this woman.
Take her. She’s ours. She belongs to us, his wolf agreed with gaping jaws that resembled the most primal of grins.
Breaking the kiss to sweep Alice into his arms, he chuckled at her mewl of protest. “Trust me, this is only a brief delay,” he murmured, and then he proceeded to carry her into the wooded area, being sure to avoid the section where he’d parked his carriage. It wouldn’t do to have his sister bear witness to this moment.
Once in a spot sufficiently hidden from all, Donovan set her on her feet, nestled her between a wide tree trunk and his chest, and renewed his claim to her petal-soft lips. “Please tell me you want the same thing I do,” he whispered against her mouth as he ran his palms up her sides to cup her breasts through the lightweight wool of her dress. His engorged length pressed against the front of his breeches, aching to penetrate her heat.
“I’ve never felt the things I do right now.” Alice moaned, but she opened her eyes and looked at him with those gray depths drugged with passion, her kiss-swollen lips slightly parted and her face flushed pink, and she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. With a tiny start, she planted her palms on his chest and held him away from her. “But doing this now, being here with you isn’t proper. It’s not right.” Regret clouded her eyes and she caressed her fingers down one side of his neck that added further fire to the infernos blazing inside him. “As much as I care for you, Donovan, I refuse to be yet another conquest.”
The words were the equivalent of ice water thrown in his face. “You won’t be.”
“Hush, Your Grace.” Alice gently rested her fingertips against his lips. Her sweet breath skated over his jaw and cheek, for she remained close to him. Though she smiled, her eyes reflected sadness. “I will. Once I give you what you want—what we both want—you’ll leave me and Shalford. I’ll never see you again.” Her voice wavered on the last word.
Hot embarrassment crept up the back of his neck. “No.”
His wolf chose that moment to argue with him, of course. Ah, but wasn’t that your first plan, human? To bed her and leave her wanting?
It was, but then things matured and I need her to break the curse. Which, when volleyed about with the beast in his head, didn’t sound any better than the other.
“Oh, my gallant duke, you may be many things but you are not a very good liar,” Alice rejoined, and her dulcet tones brought him out of his thoughts.
And only served to plunge him back down the cliff of self-loathing, for he was first and foremost a liar, a rake of darkness, and his every action with her had been borne from that vein. Yet time ran short, and if he were to break the curse—perhaps with the next full moon—he had no choice.
“Alice, I—”
“Shh, it’s quite all right.” Her smile faded, and he died a thousand deaths that he put such grief into her expression. “What you and I have already shared… I never imagined I’d ever drive a man to passion.” Her self-depreciating laugh shredded him. “I’m thankful for what you made me feel, but if we share intimacy, you won’t value it the same as I will, and for that reason, I must refuse.”
Do something, human! She is going to walk out of our lives. Inside his head, his wolf paced in high anxiety.
The wolf wanted Alice for a much different reason than Donovan needed her for, but the result would be the same if she demanded that he leave her in peace. In light of what had happened between her and the blacksmith, the last thing he wanted to do was remove from Shalford without securing her protection.
She belongs with me no matter what.
With the fear that she’d go away without helping to lift the curse coursing down his spine, Donovan dropped to his knees before her. He caught one of her hands in his. “There is only one solution to our mutual problem.”
Her hand shook, and he attempted to quell the tremors by holding her fingers between both of his hands. “I’m listening.”
His pulse pounded loud in his ears, thundered through his temples. The last time he’d uttered the words sitting on the tip of his tongue, his whole world had gone wrong. He cleared his throat and silently berated himself for apparently losing his mind over this one woman. “Marry me.”
“I beg your pardon?” Her tinkling laughter rang through the noisy woodland sounds and blended so well she could have been a bird. She cupped his cheek with her free hand, and he fought the urge to nuzzle into her touch. “We are not in love, Your Grace. At least, you are not in love with me.”
Why would she not make use of his given name any longer? He wanted to hear that word on her lips. “Such an emotion is not required to wed.” When she frowned, he rushed on, determined to try again and win her, at least physically. “Despite that, I feel we will suit. You are brave, strong, intelligent, beautiful—everything a duchess should be.”
She snorted. “Except possessed of sight.”
“That matters not to me, my sweet country flower.” It was one of the only truths he’d said to her thus far. “Your integrity and bravery will more than make up for your eyes.” Another truth, and he couldn’t wait to see her installed as his duchess, clad in rich fabrics and glittering jewels, playing as his hostess. “I want to look after you, Alice, to protect you and keep you from harm, remove you from this village and the begrudging charity you’ve been shown, give you everything good in life that you should have had all along.” That wasn’t a lie either.
What the hell is wrong with me?
“Oh, Donovan.” Tears welled in her eyes. They rolled down her cheeks with her next blink and one splashed upon his upturned face. She wiped it away with the sweep of her thumb. “I don’t know what to say.” He’d be a nodcock not to catch the stars of infatuation in her eyes or the twinkle of the silver flecks in her irises that only happened when she was gripped with high emotion.
That was all to the good, so he pressed his suit as he squeezed her fingers. “Be my duchess. I promise you will want for nothing.”
“Except your love.” She blew out a breath that ruffled the baby-fine curls on her forehead. “I’m not certain I can—”
“Who knows?” he interrupted her. “We have only just met. Love might indeed come once we understand each other better.” He forced out the lie from between stiff lips, knowing all along such a thing wouldn’t happen. A duke—or even a wolf—was dead if he became vulnerable as a man would once love came to call.
Such a thing happened to his father, and his mother died because of it.
“What is there to understand? You and I are from different worlds, and I’m not certain those were ever meant to mesh.” Another tear fell. “No matter how much I might care for you already,” she said in a soft whisper he had to strain to hear.
Had it occurred so easily he hadn’t been aware she’d fallen? His heart gave a mighty thud, perhaps it even stopped but then started again with a lurch. Inside his head, his wolf whined and Donovan persisted. “Marry me, Alice. Make me the happiest of men.”
With a chance of breaking the curse.
And her heart, his wolf was quick to remind him. Now his beast whined for a whole different reason, and Donovan blocked the sound from his mind.
“I’m confident we can work through any obstacles facing us,” he added on in a whisper. “Together.”
Finally, she nodded. Her hand shook in his. “Yes.” A laugh full of surprise escaped her. “Oh, yes. I can hardly believe this is happening. I’d dreamed of a husband for so long…” The proverbial knife twisted deep in his gut as Alice dropped to her knees in front of him, leaning close to peer into his face. “I promise to be everything you’ll ever need.” She clutched at his hand as if it were a lifeline. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Donovan froze in shock. He hated himself for the way he manipulated her, ignored his wolf’s urging to reveal all before it was too late. He couldn’t do it, not now when his connection with Alice was so tenuous. Pushing aside his thoughts, he removed the signet ring from his pinky finger and slid it onto the fourth finger of her left hand. It was slightly large and spun a bit as she held it up. He forced down a swallow. Seeing his ring on her slim digit sent clouds of confusion swirling through his brain. “I will replace this trinket with a more appropriate ring once the ceremony is complete.”
“It matters not, for I’ll have the man at that point.” She traced his face with the fingers of both hands, searching for what in his expression he couldn’t say, but his heart pounded faster all the same. He forced himself to smile and appear happy with his proposal. “I’ll strive to please you, my lord.”
The heat she imparted as she continued to touch his face and the absolute trust reflected in her eyes plowed into him like a blow. He swallowed, ignored the insistent throbbing of his member and the clenching of his stomach at his deception. “Please yourself,” he forced out in a ragged whisper. “You’ve already made me proud.” Another truth. The way she stood up to him in the church, coupled with how she’d fought against the blacksmith’s attack kept knocking him on his arse.
I’m not worthy of her for so many reasons.
“You are the most romantic man I’ve ever known.” She leaned into him and pressed her lips to his.
Donovan was lost as the heady sensations of lust and desire rose up to meet him. He wrapped her into his arms, plied her with deep, drugging kisses designed to cement her agreement and keep her bundled into feelings so she wouldn’t suspect his betrayal, that even now threatened to poison him. He had everything he’d set out to win—the promise of enjoying her body as well as securing her love.
So why didn’t the victory feel as sweet as he’d hoped?
When their breathing grew labored and need demanded he lay her down on the mossy forest floor, he put space between them. Her murmured protest nearly undid him, so he scrambled to his feet and pulled her up with him.
“I’ll petition for a special license as soon as I return to London.” Good heavens, I’m truly about to wed this creature.
Alice linked her arm with his. Pleasure flushed her cheeks and sparkled in her eyes. “May we marry here in Shalford?”
The request brought him up short. “We can, but why?”
A smile curved her kiss-reddened lips. “It is petty, I know, but I want to shut up all those tabbies with this victory of mine. Let them talk from the truth this time.”
“Ah, my girl, you are a marvel.” He gave into a genuine grin while his wolf howled with amusement into his mind. “You may have anything you wish. I live to serve.”
And he’d give her everything she could ever desire if she would stay long enough to break the damned curse.
They walked back to the village proper hand in hand. He let her chatter on about the upcoming nuptials while the lump of self-loathing in his belly grew. At her door, he saw her into her room with the caveat that she remain vigilant.
“I promise to return as soon as that license is procured. Do what you need to prepare.” And because she looked so fetching in high color and with possibilities sparkling in her eyes, he drew her close, kissing her on the forehead. “Think of me until I return.”
Donovan couldn’t leave the village
fast enough, but the enormity of what had transpired didn’t lessen by the time he gained his carriage. What the deuce have I done?
His wolf laughed and laughed, kept howling with amusement. You have come to care for the woman.
I have not. I’m doing her a kindness. Rescued her, really. I’m merely nervous of how she’ll be received as my wife in that viper’s nest of society.
The beast snorted. You will break her heart.
His own heart suffered a twinge. It’s inevitable, but there’s nothing I can do about that. In a bad humor, he swung himself up into his curricle beside his sister.
“What kept you so long? I was ready to come searching for you.” She frowned. “Where is Alice? I thought you wished to take her to dinner?”
Dear God, he hadn’t the patience to argue with his sibling just now. “She’s safely in her room after I was obliged to rescue her from an attacker.” He took up his reins and slapped them against the horse’s back with more firmness than he’d intended.
“What else has happened? You are keeping something from me. I can see it in your face. You’re… shocked.”
Of course his sister was too observant for her own good. He blew out a breath in frustration. “I’ve apparently lost my mind and asked Alice to marry me.”
Elizabeth laughed and laughed, much like his wolf had done. She kept on and the sound crashed around him, and she doubled over on the bench next to him so great was her mirth. When she finally came up for air, she turned to him and grinned with false sincerity, while wiping tears from her eyes. “You are truly in the drink now, brother, and I, for one, cannot wait to see the results of this Drury Lane production.” She snickered. “I hope she makes your life hell for this little stunt.”
“My life is already hell most times.” He kept his gaze straight ahead. “Unless you offer support, do shut up.”
Devil Take the Duke (Lords of the Night Book 1) Page 11