Tempting The Ruined Duke (Steamy Historical Regency Romance)

by Olivia Bennet

  And now here she was, pushing him away again. He took an angry step toward her, grinding at his jaw in annoyance.

  “How is your father?” he asked curtly.

  “He is getting better.”

  “Good. Are you taking the air?”

  “Yes.”

  Jeremy took another step closer and his eyes narrowed when she took a step back. “What do you think I’m going to do to you?”

  “What? N-nothing. I don’t know what you mean.”

  He raised a derisive eyebrow. “You don’t?”

  Her shoulders stiffened and straightened. She stopped moving. “Yes, I do not. Now did you have something you wanted to say to me or may I proceed on my walk?”

  “Allow me to walk with you. You should not be out here on your own.”

  “Why not? What do you think will happen?”

  He frowned, wondering at her jeering tone. “You are rather far from the manor house out here. If someone were to come upon you, nobody would know.”

  “Someone like whom? You?”

  Jeremy’s frown deepened and he took a step closer. “Why are you speaking to me like that? What have I done to deserve it?”

  “You mean apart from kissing me without my permission, filling my head with false promises and then going to kiss some tavern wench?” her voice became shriller with every word.

  “You are green with jealousy. It doesn’t suit you.”

  “Ha! Jealousy? I am not jealous. I am simply, understandably, upset.”

  “I did nothing with those women. If you stopped running away for one minute, I could explain.”

  She crossed her arms, just under her bosom which had the unfortunate effect of bringing her twin mounds, their soft creamy smoothness peeking over her square-shaped muslin neckline, to his attention. For a moment, he was completely sidetracked.

  “All right then, explain.” She demanded.

  He had to shake his head slightly in order to refocus on the conversation. Taking a deep breath, he tried to make her see things from his perspective. He took a step closer, reaching out with one hand to clutch at her arm but she jerked it away.

  He sighed. “I was upset…” he said, watching her eyes for reaction, “we had been speaking earlier that day, you remember?”

  She nodded jerkily in answer, her eyes sliding away.

  “I tried to bare my heart to you and you spurned me.”

  “I did no such thing!” she declared hotly, uncrossing her arms, which provided him with some relief even as she gesticulated wildly and almost smacked his face as a result.

  “Well, that is how I took it. You hurt me.”

  “I…did not mean to.” Her voice was a little quieter.

  “Well, you did.”

  She took a deep breath, looking him in the eye. “And that is why you were cavorting with those convenients?”

  “No! I was not doing that. Daniel was.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Oh really, you will blame your friend for your own indiscretions?”

  “Absolutely not. I am merely saying that I was an innocent bystander. Did the girls try to get on my lap? Absolutely. Did I let them? Absolutely not. The only thing I did wrong was not pay sufficient attention to our drinks to stop us from being potted.”

  Louisa snorted. “Well it serves you right. And how come you have not gone after them?”

  “Quite frankly, I do not really recall their looks. And the ale house keeper claims to have no knowledge of them.”

  “Mmm…” she said looking away.

  “You think he is lying?”

  “I do not know. After all, I have no clue of which ale house you speak of. I was at my friend’s home, foolishly crying over you.”

  Jeremy felt his spirits lift. “You were?”

  “Oh, away with you!” Louisa said with annoyance turning away from him. “There is no need to be so self-satisfied about it.”

  He hurried forward, circling her so that he could look in her eyes. “I do assure you that it is relief and not self-satisfaction running through my veins at this moment.”

  Louisa snorted again. “I suppose you said the same thing to them.”

  Jeremy gave into the urge to rake her body with his eyes. Her ample bosom, the softness of her brown hair, tendrils peeking from beneath her cap. Cerulean eyes that reminded him of the sea…there was nothing about her that did not appeal to him.

  “I did look at them,” he admitted, “I looked at their freckled skin and compared it to your smooth, creamy flesh and said to myself, ‘Something is wrong about this.’ and I wondered why I did not want to run my fingers down, from the underside of their jaws…” his hand hovered over the spot without landing on it, and then he drew it downward, never touching her skin with anything but his eyes, “…until the tips of their cleavage.”

  His eyes grew hot as he traced the delicate bump of her breast, always keeping his hand at a distance from her flesh. Her breathing came faster and harder and her bosom rose and fell with greater visibility. His gaze slowly rose, latching onto her lips with an intensity that screamed his hunger to the skies.

  “Lips, soft looking and round and pink while theirs were flat and thin. Hardly perceptible. It was all wrong you see. I was looking for one thing, but finding something else.”

  His eyes rose at last, to lock with hers. “They were not you.”

  Her lips parted and she arched toward him, blue eyes lidded. He made no move to meet her halfway. Simply gazed hungrily upon her personage as if he would eat her alive if he could.

  “Jeremy.”

  His name on her lips was like a jolt to his system and he felt his body harden with lust. His hands itched to latch onto her hips and bring her forward, show her what havoc she had wrought upon him. He did not know how he held back.

  “You called me by my name,” he whispered, blinking slowly, letting himself drown in her cornflower depths.

  She licked her lips, his eyes tracking it even as his mouth watered. “I apologize, Your Grace.”

  “Don’t apologize. I liked it.”

  “You did?” They were standing so close; he could feel the heat emanating from her skin.

  “Yes, I did. May I call you by your given name?” her cheeks were flushed, her bosom heaving.

  “Say it,” she murmured. So close. She was so close to him.

  “Louisa.”

  She gasped, grasping at his arm as if he was the only thing holding her up. Her eyes slowly rose from his lips, to catch his own. “What…are we doing?”

  “We…are having a conversation,” he replied. She was standing with her back to a tree and he lifted his hands to bracket her within the shelter of his arms. He was too close to her. He knew that. But wild horses could not make him step away.

  Even with the obvious tent in his pantaloons that propriety demanded he conceal, he could do nothing but stand there and ogle her unashamedly. In any case, he doubted that his legs could support him and held onto the tree not only for intimacy, but balance too.

  “I must return to my father,” Louisa said at last.

  “Must you?” Jeremy was aware that he whined like a child.

  “I am afraid so. I promised him that I would not let you deceive me with your charm.”

  “Deceive you? I would never.”

  Louisa giggled at his outrage. “Oh really? You’re practically a pirate.” Her breath was warm on his neck.

  “And you would impugn pirates by implying that they are all rakes? I demand an apology.”

  That made her laugh out loud, her bosom bouncing for a different reason. Jeremy cupped his hands against the tree, imagining holding those breasts in his hands, cupping them, squeezing them, putting them in his mouth…

  He drew in a deep breath, and tried to move away from her. “You’re right, you should go.”

  “I should?” if Jeremy didn’t know better he would have said she sounded disappointed.

  “Yes,” he whispered.

  “I-I-I see,” she lifted
up her face, arching her chin, lips slightly parted and looked into his eyes, her own dark and smoky with passion.

  Lord help me. He prayed as his own face became too heavy to hold up, sinking effortlessly downward toward hers as if drawn by a magnet. His hips snapped forward at the last minute, his hardness trailing against her gown. She gasped and jerked to the side, sidling out of the prison of his arms and taking in great gusts of air.

  “Fo-forgive m-me,” she stuttered her face filled with color. “But I have to go.”

  With that she took off toward the dower house. For a moment of madness, Jeremy was tempted to give chase. Then he reined himself in, sinking slowly to the ground beside the tree.

  If he had any doubts toward his feelings, or hers, they were obliterated now. He wondered what her father would do if he marched right into the Dower Cottage this minute and asked for Louisa’s hand in marriage.

  Jeremy was willing to wager that the man would be shocked.

  Is there any other alternative? The question reverberated in his mind – a last ditch effort to spare his family further notoriety. He knew it was useless. He was enamored of Louisa and he needed her. He needed her like the air he breathed and the food he ate. There was nothing for it but to make an offer. Daniel was right.

  Jeremy snorted, trying to imagine his mother’s reaction. She liked Louisa and her father, that was obvious, but she was also a slave to the dictates of the ton.

  Will she view this as a betrayal?

  He had no wish to put his mother under further strain. Her health was already a matter of some delicacy. So he resolved to speak with her first before he made a final decision.

  * * *

  Louisa wondered if she was coming down with something it would explain the heat she was feeling in strange places, certain throbbings of her flesh, the weakness in her knees, the way her breasts cried out for touch.

  It must be some sort of ague.

  She had no idea what came over her before, allowing Jeremy to…loom over her so. It must have been some form of madness! She stumbled toward the dower house, barely able to see where she was going.

  Her face felt heated, her eyes were smarting, she could not face her father like this. Falling through the doorway unsteadily, she made her way to her room and poured a pitcher of cold water into a basin. Stripping down to her skin, she proceeded to wash herself from head to toe. The water was bracing and cleared up some of the cobwebs in her mind, enabling her to think clearly.

  She touched herself slowly, her nipples erect from the cold and thought about what had happened in the clearing. The way her lips tingled when she’d thought Jeremy might kiss her. His eyes hot on her breasts as if he wanted to devour them.

  I wanted him to devour them too.

  It was impossible to continue to lie to herself. She wanted the Duke of Munboro for a lover.

  This is what father was afraid of. The realization hit her like a bolt from the blue. Her mouth twisted with the irony of understanding only when it was already too late.

  She had to decide what she was to do. Even though it was clear that Jeremy wanted her too, she had to decide if she was prepared for the fact that one day, he would have to take a wife. If she agreed to be his lover, that meant she would be agreeing to share him with some other woman, no, a lady, at a future time.

  Am I ready for that?

  Something throbbed, deep within her and she knew that whatever the answer was, she could not go back to ignorance. She had to see this through.

  “Louisa?” her father’s voice startled her out of the fog of revelation she was swirling in.

  “Yes, Father? Coming!” she grabbed a new gown from her wardrobe and put it on, fixed her cap and stared at herself in the looking glass, wondering if anything about her was different.

  Will father notice? She certainly hoped not.

  She put on an apron just for an extra layer of protection and then went to answer her father’s call. Finding him sitting up in bed, looking anxious, she hurried over to him in concern. “Father, what is it?”

  “I was worried. I heard you come in, but you did not come to greet me. And then your chamber door slammed shut. I wondered if something happened on your walk.”

  Louisa swallowed hard, trying to maintain her composure. “No, nothing happened. I simply had a bit of an accident. I fell down and soiled my gown and so I wanted to have a bath and change.”

  “Oh.” His beetled brow lessened, “That is…are you all right?”

  “Yes, yes. It was not a hard fall. Simply embarrassing.”

  Americus smiled fondly, reaching out to squeeze her hand. “It’s not like you to be clumsy. Perhaps you’re the one who needs some bed rest.”

  Louisa did her best to smile. “Perhaps I do. But I promised you that we would sit outside for a while and I do not break my promises.”

  “Hmm, all right then. Help me up then.”

  Louisa dismissed all other concerns, focusing on helping her father to walk the short distance between his bed and the adjoining verandah. She sat him down on the wicker chair and then went to get him some water to drink. Placing a pillow beneath his feet, she arranged him comfortably before taking the seat beside him.

  He smiled as he met her eyes. “You take such good care of me, daughter. Thank you very much for that.”

  Louisa found that she was unable to meet his eyes. “It’s my pleasure, Father.” She patted him on the knee trying not to think that soon, he would have reason to be very disappointed in her.

  Chapter 24

  Matters Come to A Head

  Jeremy knocked softly on his mother’s door.

  “Come in,” she called sounding oddly happy. He opened the door to her sitting room and stuck his head in, smiling as he found her sitting in a patch of fading sunlight, embroidering.

  “May I have a word with you, Mother?”

  “Of course,” she said putting the sewing aside. “Come and sit with me, son. It has been a while since we simply sat together.”

  “That is true,” Jeremy agreed as he took a seat next to her on the sofa. “How are you, Mother? Are you well?”

  “As well as can be expected. The herbs Mrs. Marni gave me have been helpful.”

  “That is good news. I am glad to hear it.”

  She leaned toward him, patting his leg. “And you, Jeremy? How are you?”

  He shrugged one shoulder and gave her a wry smile. “I suppose I am fine. I have been wrangling with some things in my mind.”

  She frowned. “You’re not thinking of leaving again, are you?”

  He shook his head at once. “Not at all, Mother. I simply…well…we live quietly here in the country, don’t we?”

  “We do indeed?” his mother smiled tentatively. “However if you wish to invite your London friends for parties, you know you can do that.”

  “No, no, that is not what I mean, Mother. I simply meant…the doings of the ton, they do not mean much out here, do they?”

  The Dowager Duchess frowned, “Jeremy, what is this about?”

  Jeremy sighed, leaning back on the sofa. “What if I was to make an offer for somebody…unconventional, Mother? Would you be able to accept her as your daughter-in-law?”

  He was surprised at the smile that spread over his mother’s face. “You mean Miss Notley? I wondered when you would make up your mind about her.”

  “Wha…?” Jeremy could only stare at her, flabbergasted, “What do you mean by that, Mother?”

  “Well, it’s obvious that you have been dangling after her for some time now. And I am fairly sure she feels the same way.”

  He goggled at her, completely caught off guard. “What? And how do you know this?”

  “Well, son, just because we are old, does not mean we are blind.”

  “I-I-I did not mean–”

  Her tinkling laughter rang out, “Oh my dear, you are still a young gentleman and there is still much for you to learn about the world. If you have decided that you wish Miss Notley to be yo
ur bride, then you need not worry about me. I shall not stand in your way. Nay, in fact, I shall give you my blessing.”

  “Really, Mother? You would do that?” Jeremy’s voice was hoarse with disbelief.

  “Indeed I would. Why not? I want you to be happy.” She regarded him with eyes starry with tears and he swallowed the lump in his throat, realizing how much his absence had affected her.