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Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

L ouise shuddered against the Duke as he nipped the base of her jaw, her mouth falling open helplessly.

The shocking feeling of his hand between her legs had been so surprising that she could hardly believe it had happened. His body was hot against hers as he continued to kiss down her neck. She could have remained in his arms forever, but as his hand began to slide down her body again, her fingers tightened on his shoulders, and with an enormous effort, she pushed him away.

Drawing in deep, gasping breaths, she attempted to control her desire. She had not even known she possessed such a desperate need until that moment.

“This should not have happened,” she said quickly, sliding away from him, using the desk to support her weight and attempting to smooth down her skirts as she did so.

Christian straightened, watching her retreat with a quizzical expression. Somehow, despite what they had just done, he looked, for the most part, flawless. She felt a rush of embarrassment and desire in equal measure when she saw the redness around his mouth from her frenzied kisses.

How could I allow him to touch me that way? He sees me as nothing but a means to an end.

“And why not?” he drawled, turning his back to the desk and leaning against it. His broad shoulders bulged as he crossed his arms over his chest—the picture of aristocratic affront.

Why can’t I keep my eyes off this man?

“Remember, Duchess, you have limited time. In seven days—or is it six now?—I shall claim you for my own.”

Louise scowled at him as she attempted to fix the mess he had made of her hair. The ribbons that had tied the long strands in place were behind him on the desk, and she eyed them warily, not wishing to get any closer to him to retrieve them.

“It looks better loose,” Christian noted, his heated gaze running down the length of her hair over her breasts and back up again.

He twisted his torso around, his fingers plucking the ribbons off the desk before holding them out to her expectantly. A foreign rush of nerves shot through her at the idea of being close to him again.

There was tension in the air, just as there had been during their first meeting. She felt drawn to him, like the needle of a compass—pulled by some higher power, always returning to the same place. It was a dangerous and unfamiliar feeling.

But Louise was not a coward. She took a small step forward, snatching the ribbons from his fingers and clutching them tightly in her fist. He gave her a coy smile that set her blood on fire again, and she swiftly made for the door, eager to be out of his company and cool her heated blood.

However, Christian stepped forward before she could do so and gently took her arm, stopping her in her tracks.

“What did you promise Marcus?”

Confused, she looked up into his green eyes, which held an emotion she was not used to seeing from him—uncertainty.

“What do you mean?”

“I think, as your husband and his brother, I deserve to know. You were speaking about it with my mother in the gardens. What were you referring to?”

Louise hesitated as an irrepressible need to reassure him rose in her chest. It was strange to see Christian unsure of anything. Since their first introduction, he had been the epitome of an arrogant aristocrat, ordering everyone around him to do his bidding with practiced ease.

She sighed. “It was something I wished to do.”

Christian slowly let go of her arm, his expression oddly blank. “Something you wished to do?”

“To complete, that is,” she huffed, irritated by how flustered she became around him. “I have a love of plants. I have been interested in them all my life. They are my true passion, and I have bored Marcus to tears with my talk of the encyclopedia. I intend to catalog and document all the different species in this country.”

She glanced up at him, wondering how he might view a woman wishing to do such a thing, but he simply looked baffled.

“I believe it will take me about a year to finish writing it, but if I am with child and later a mother, I will have no chance to do so.”

“To be up to your knees in the dirt?” Christian asked pointedly, his eyes traveling down to her skirts, which were still soaked from the dewy earth in the gardens.

Louise felt her cheeks redden yet again and nodded, not wishing to reveal how much she adored being outdoors and exploring nature.

The Duke took a small step forward, towering over her, his bright eyes searing and filled with promise. “You know, wife, there are things that we can do that will not result in a child. Do you not wish to find out what they might be?”

His voice was low and seductive once more as his hand came up to curl around her waist. The pulse of heat she felt between her legs was a white-hot spark that threatened to travel through the rest of her body. It electrified her senses one by one until all she could feel was him.

With a shuddering gasp, she stepped away, shaking her head as the rest of her hair slipped and cascaded down her back.

“I am sorry. This is the only part of my future that I can control, and I intend to do it until I am ready to say otherwise.”

Christian’s face shuttered at those words, and he clasped his hands behind his back, all the heat in his eyes fading as though it had never been.

“I see. You’re sure that is the only reason?”

“What other reason would there be?”

Does he believe I do not want him? The evidence to the contrary is fairly damning.

“I’m going to ask one last time. Was there more between you and my brother than you have admitted to me?” he asked, his voice cold and distant.

Louise had not stomped her foot since she was five, but she did so now, clenching her fists and glaring at him furiously.

“I have told you, Your G—” At his hard stare, she stopped and cleared her throat. “I have told you before, more than once. There was nothing between me and Marcus but friendship,” she snapped.

Immediately, his posture relaxed, and he bounced on the balls of his feet, looking pleased with himself.

“Good, because I will not allow you to lust after other men, just as I will not lust after other women.”

Louise faltered. She was still desperate to leave the room and be free of his influence for a few minutes, but there was something about his insistence on fidelity that surprised her.

She would hardly wish for Christian to become an adulterer, but the finality in his voice and his repetitive broaching of the subject were odd.

“Why are you so set on that?” she asked eventually, curiosity getting the better of her. “Many marriages are arranged for convenience’s sake. Lovers are commonplace, are they not?”

Something shifted in his expression at that question. A light left his eyes as he pressed his lips together, his jaw clenching several times before he shrugged a shoulder as though brushing the topic aside.

“I have my parents to thank for that.”

Louise closed her eyes briefly at her stupidity, biting her lip so hard she almost broke the skin.

What an idiotic thing to ask him when I know full well that he and Marcus were born out of wedlock.

She nodded, unsure what else she could say without apologizing profusely for her ignorance. As she moved to the door, feeling embarrassed, he raised his hand, stopping her again. This time, when she looked at him, his face was devoid of emotion.

“Tell me,” he asked quietly, “did Marcus ever tell you that he had a lover? Or a lady that he admired and was close to?”

Louise thought back to the last few occasions she had seen Marcus at her home. He tended to be in high spirits as a rule, but she did recall that he had not been so cheerful during his final visit to the house before his disappearance. But he had never mentioned anything about a woman he cared for. They had never even broached that subject.

“No,” she said finally. “No, he never mentioned anything of that sort. I remember him saying that he wished to fall in love, but not that he had done so.” Hope bloomed in her chest. “Do you think he could be alive?”

Christian was all hard lines once more, the softness of the moment he had held her in his arms quite gone.

“That is what I wish to find out, and I intend to do it.” He fixed her with a forceful gaze. “When I am no longer distracted, that is.”

Louise understood that he was dismissing her, and with a new blush staining her cheeks, she left the room and made her way back to her bedchamber.

She reached the top of the steps and closed the door behind her, before leaning against it, feeling off balance and astounded by her body’s reaction.

She never would have believed that any man could make her feel that way. And with such brief touches, he had lit a fire beneath her skin.

She looked down at the ribbon in her hand and smoothed her fingers over it, fooling herself that she could still feel the warmth of his skin against hers.

She rang the bell for her maid and then went to sit at her dressing table, wondering what Christian’s investigation into his brother’s disappearance had uncovered.

I wonder whether he will tell me what he finds out . After all, he did call this marriage a partnership, a means to finding Marcus—Surely, I should be privy to his discoveries.

After a short while, her maid entered the room. Her innocent questions about how Louise’s hair had come loose made a blush rise in Louise’s cheeks, and she had to make up some vague excuse before the maid set to work.

Once she was presentable again, Louise went downstairs under the guise of going to the gardens, but, in reality, she was curious about Christian’s whereabouts. When she asked the servants, however, she discovered that he had returned to his club and was not expected to come back until that evening.

Irritated that he had left her to her own devices once again, Louise decided that she would make good use of her time and catalog some of the flowers in the gardens.

March was one of her favorite times of year because all of the best blooms were still to come. She went back to her bedchamber and collected her sketchbook, before heading back down to the gardens, which were lush and green, bathed in gentle spring sunlight.

It truly was a magnificent space, and she felt a fluttery anticipation at the thought of shaping it into her own vision.

She spent a happy few hours drawing some of the roses and speaking to the gardener about what might work at various places among the empty beds—of which there were plenty.

It occurred to her, as she stood looking out at the perfect lawns down the narrow line of the gardens, that a year was going to pass by awfully quickly, and she had a great deal of work left to do.

When she returned to the house and changed for supper, she was surprised to find that it was only herself and the Dowager Duchess in attendance.

“Is the Duke not joining us?” she asked, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

The Dowager Duchess shook her head as their plates were placed before them. The older woman ate like a bird; she had a very tiny portion before her, but she was eyeing it with obvious relish.

“I do not think so, my dear. He tends to stay at his club more often than not. Although,” she added with a hint of admonishment, “he did not have you to come home to before.”

She gave Louise a small smile as they both picked up their knives and forks and began to eat.

I doubt that my presence will make him hurry home .

Louise sat silently across from her mother-in-law as the fire crackled in the grate, the walls flanked by motionless servants. The silence was oppressively loud.

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