Duchess by Deception

by Marie Force

  More than anything, he loved to see her smiling and happy. Though she wouldn’t have chosen to be a duchess, she had chosen him, and in so doing, had completed him in a way that no one else ever could. He would be thankful for her and her love for the rest of his life. And when she said the words, “I, Catherine, take you, Derek, to be my husband,” tears stung his eyes, and his heart . . . His heart had never been fuller than it was as she looked him in the eye and took him to be hers.

  Forever.

  * * *

  The festive atmosphere of the wedding breakfast extended well into the afternoon. Derek’s elated staff kept the food and drink flowing as local musicians entertained the partygoers.

  “You were right to invite everyone,” Derek said. Arm in arm, they stood off to the side, watching the festivities.

  “They will always remember the day their dear duke took a wife.”

  “As much as this day has meant to me, I will also always remember the thrill of our first wedding ceremony.”

  “I will, too. Stealing away into the night to marry. What a story we will have to tell our grandchildren.”

  Aubrey Nelson approached them, extending his hand to Derek and kissing Catherine’s cheek. “My sincere congratulations, Your Graces.”

  “Thank you, dear friend,” Derek said.

  “For a while there, we wondered if we’d ever see this day,” Aubrey said with a teasing grin.

  “As did I,” Derek said, drawing Catherine in closer to him. “But then I found Catherine digging a hole on my property and was saved from the particular hell known as the marriage mart.”

  “I sent a cable to my mother in New York to let her know there was hope for me because you had married,” Aubrey said. “She replied that I should invite you all to spend next summer at our home in Newport.”

  Catherine gasped. “Oh, Derek, can we?”

  “We would love to,” Derek said to his friend. “Please tell your mother we gratefully accept her kind invitation and would love to host her and the rest of the Nelson family here at some point.”

  “I will pass that along. She will be thrilled to have a duke and duchess coming to visit. You will make her the toast of Newport society with your mere presence.”

  “Aubrey’s mother is the daughter of an earl,” Derek said to Catherine.

  “She and I have that in common.”

  “Indeed,” Aubrey said.

  “And for you, Mr. Nelson,” Catherine said, “was the Season a success?”

  “If by success you mean I am still unshackled by marriage, then yes, it was a swimming success.”

  Justin joined them in time to overhear Aubrey’s comment and laughed. “It was equally successful for me.”

  “Someday, my friends,” Derek said, smiling at Catherine, “you will meet someone who makes you wonder what was so grand about being single.”

  “I hope that day is a long way off,” Aubrey said.

  “Will we see you back for the Season next year?” Derek asked.

  “God, I hope not. As much as I enjoy spending time with all of you, I hope I’ve seen the inside of my last ballroom.”

  “Your mother may have something to say to that,” Justin said.

  “She may have to retire her dream of me marrying into the English nobility.”

  “Do you plan to stay for the coronation?” Derek asked.

  “You didn’t hear?” Justin said. “The coronation has been postponed. King Edward was stricken with appendicitis of all things.”

  “Isn’t that often fatal?” Catherine asked, alarmed.

  After standing in wait for most of his life, Edward VII had finally succeeded his mother, Queen Victoria, as the monarch only last year. The thought of the popular king dying so soon after ascending to the throne was horrifying.

  “Sir Treves and Lord Lister performed a radical operation that drained the infection from the organ. Our dear king is not out of the woods yet, but he is expected to recover.”

  “That is such a relief,” Catherine said. “Sometimes I feel like our society is advancing so quickly I can barely keep up.”

  “Fortunately, there was something that could be done to save the king, when only a few years ago he surely would’ve died,” Enderly said.

  “Very fortunate indeed,” Catherine said. “Will you be able to join us in Newport next summer, my lord?”

  “You are family now, Your Grace. You must call me Justin.”

  “Only if you call me Catherine.”

  “It would be my pleasure, and I would love to join the house party in Newport. From what I hear, the industrial debutantes are far less desperate than what we are used to here.”

  “Did someone say house party?” Simon asked as he joined them with Madeleine on his arm. Throughout the festivities, they had remained close to Simon’s mother, who’d been wheeled out of the house in a special chair so she could attend the party. She was expected to make a full recovery, but it would be some time before she recovered her full strength.

  “Mr. Nelson has invited us to his family’s home in Newport next summer,” Catherine said.

  “Oh,” Madeleine said, her eyes glittering with excitement. “Would it be terribly rude for me to invite myself and Simon to join you?”

  Aubrey laughed. “Not at all. Of course, you are all invited.”

  “Perhaps while we’re in America,” Catherine said, “we’ll have the chance to meet with the brothers who are intent on building the flying machine!”

  “We will do it all, love,” Derek said, snuggling her in close to him. “But for now, I wish to take my wife off to celebrate.”

  “Only you could find a way to score two wedding nights with the same wife,” Simon said.

  “I am inordinately lucky that the extraordinary Catherine McCabe Eagan, Duchess of Westwood, agreed to marry me not once but twice.”

  “I am the lucky one, my love,” she said, gazing up at him with her heart in her navy-blue eyes.

  “All this talk of love,” Aubrey said, shuddering, to Justin. “It’s making me itchy.”

  “I agree. Whatever it is that’s captivated our friends, I hope we don’t catch it.”

  “You should be so lucky, Enderly,” Simon said, smiling at his wife.

  Derek nodded in agreement. “I predict that before long, you’ll both be eating your words with a fork and a spoon.”

  “With all due respect, Your Grace,” Justin said, “bugger off with your predictions.”

  Derek and Catherine left their friends laughing and went to say their good-byes to the family and friends who had come to share in their special day.

  After they’d made their escape, Catherine was surprised when he led her to the stables rather than the manor house.

  Jack Bancroft stood waiting to help Catherine into the motorcar the men had arrived in that day at the dig site. This time the car had been festooned with streamers.

  “My felicitations, Your Graces,” Bancroft said, bowing to them.

  “Thank you, Mr. Bancroft,” Catherine said, allowing him to help her into the car.

  Derek shook the other man’s hand and said something that made him smile before getting in behind the wheel.

  “Where are we going, husband?” she asked.

  “You shall see shortly, wife.”

  “What did you say to Mr. Bancroft that made him smile?”

  “I thanked him once again for the critical role he played in helping me get to the best day of my life.”

  “He did play a rather critical role. Perhaps we should make him a godfather to our children.”

  “That is a capital idea. He would be thrilled.”

  “Do you have other motorcars?” she asked.

  “This is the first one I’ve owned, but I hope to acquire more before much longer.”

  “Why did we not take the motorcar when we went to Scotland?”

  “Because it would require more petrol than we could carry with us to safely arrive.”

  “Oh, I see. I
hadn’t thought of the petrol that would be required.”

  “Someday, I imagine we will be able to buy petrol at roadside stop-offs.”

  “Perhaps that is a concept we ought to invest in if everyone will soon need it.”

  Derek looked over at her. “That is a brilliant idea, my darling, and further proof that you are the absolute perfect wife for me.”

  “I want to be the perfect wife to you.”

  “You already are. You don’t have to be one single thing other than everything you already are to be perfect for me.”

  She took hold of his hand. “Likewise, my dear.”

  They drove a short distance before she realized where they were going.

  “Oh! Derek! The cottage! Are we going to the cottage?”

  “We are.”

  She clapped her hands in glee. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather go tonight.”

  “I hoped you would feel that way. I would very much like to change the memories of the final moments we spent in a place where we’d been so happy.”

  “I would, too. Thank you for bringing me here.”

  “Mrs. Langingham has filled the icebox with enough to hold us over for several days if we decide to stay.”

  “A few days at the cottage sounds like heaven to me.”

  He pulled up to the cottage that had been lovingly prepared by Mrs. Langingham and turned off the engine.

  “My heart beats with excitement at the sight of our little cottage,” she said.

  “We can use it as a getaway spot any time we need some time alone. My grandmother would thoroughly approve.” He helped Catherine out of the car and allowed her to lead the way inside, where everything was just as they had left it.

  Catherine turned and put her arms around him. “Thank you for thinking of this and for bringing me to our first home.”

  “Thank you for marrying me, not once but twice.”

  “I would marry you thrice if that’s what it took to make you mine.”

  “All you had to do was look at me with those incredible navy eyes to make me yours. I am your servant and your slave. I will do anything within my power to make you happy all the days of your life.”

  “All you have to do to make me happy is love me.”

  “Done.” He kissed her then, content in the knowledge that they had hours and days to spend completely alone, which meant he could take his time to worship every inch of her sweetness. His fingers glided over the back of her dress, encountering the same row of buttons that had confounded him the first time around. “Damnable buttons,” he muttered.

  She laughed at his distress, the same way she had before. Then she turned to present her back to him, and he began the arduous job of unbuttoning the dress. “I will be a grandmother before you complete your task,” she said many minutes later.

  “I once again promise you that a woman is responsible for the design of this dress. No man in his right mind would agree to putting so many buttons on a wedding gown.”

  Catherine dissolved into helpless giggles that became moans when his lips skimmed the back of her neck.

  “I love that moan. I want to hear it every day for the rest of my life.” He pushed the dress down over her arms, and it fell into a pool around her feet.

  “Let me get the dress. It’s too precious to leave on the floor.”

  “I’ve got it.” He held her hand while she stepped out of the dress and then picked it up and laid it over the back of a chair.

  She turned to face him. “Remember when we found the dress in the dowager duchess’s closet, and you said you were certain the duke wouldn’t mind if we borrowed his grandmother’s dress?”

  “Mmm,” he said, his lips now on her neck. “I remember everything.”

  “I like knowing I was married—twice—in your grandmother’s dress.”

  “I like that, too, and she would as well. All she ever wanted for me was for me to find someone who made me happy. I had despaired of that ever happening until I found you.”

  “I too had expected to spend the rest of my life alone after I lost Ian, and then there you were on your great big horse, looking for all the world like a conquering hero come to save the day.”

  Derek laughed at her description. “I don’t know about that.”

  “You saved me, Derek. I was sick and desperate and about to be found by the vilest human being I’d ever met who had a claim on me.” She shuddered thinking about the desperate days and nights before she met Derek.

  “It pains me to think about you alone and afraid and ill. I never want you to be alone or afraid again.”

  “I never want you to be ill again. Ever.”

  “I’ll do my best to stay robustly healthy for you.”

  She curled her arms around his neck. “Now I want you to take me to bed and make me yours in every possible way.”

  With one arm around her waist, Derek lifted her, walked them into the bedroom, quickly divested them of their remaining clothing and followed her into bed and snuggled into her outstretched arms.

  “Right here in your arms is the home of my heart,” she said.

  He kissed her softly. “All the riches in the world could never have bought what you alone have given me.”

  After that, there were no more words. Only soft sighs and deep groans as he kissed and caressed every inch of her, driving her to ecstasy again and again before he finally entered her.

  Derek let his head fall back as he absorbed the intense pleasure. “I love you, Catherine, my perfect duchess.”

  “And I love you, Derek, my duke, my everything.”

  Thank you for reading Duchess by Deception, my first historical romance, which I started in 2010, sold to the team at Kensington Publishing in 2017, finished in 2018 and now it’s on sale to readers in 2019! What a journey! A special thanks to my editor, Martin Biro, for his excitement for this book, as well as the amazing, dynamic Kensington team. I enjoy working with each one of you.

  Thank you to my team: Julie Cupp, CMP, Lisa Cafferty, CPA, Holly Sullivan, Isabel Sullivan, Nikki Colquhoun, Jules Barnard and Jessica Estep, who make it all happen behind the scenes, and to my marvelous beta readers, Anne Woodall and Kara Conrad. I appreciate each of you so much!

  To my fabulous readers, thank you for following me into yet another genre. I hope you enjoyed Derek and Catherine’s story. Coming later this year, find out what happens when the group travels to Newport, Rhode Island, for the summer house party at the Nelson family home.

  Join the Gilded Reader Group at www.facebook.com/groups/GildedSeriesfor news about upcoming books and the Duchess by Deception Reader Group at www.facebook.com/groups/DuchessByDeceptiontodiscussDerekandCatherine’sstorywithspoilersallowed.

  Join my newsletter mailing list at marieforce.com. Follow me on Facebook at facebook.com/MarieForceAuthor, on Twitter @marieforce and on Instagram @marieforceauthor. I love to hear from readers! You can e-mail me at marie@marieforce.com.

  Thanks again for reading!

  xoxo,

  Marie

  Travel to Gansett Island and fall in love with Marie Force’s bestselling and beloved series of contemporary romance novels—available in mass-market paperback for the very first time!

  FALLING FOR LOVE

  Ever since he won an Academy Award for best original screenplay, Grant McCarthy’s personal and professional lives have fallen apart. Worst of all, Abby, the woman he was supposed to marry, is engaged to someone else. And with his father recovering from a serious injury, Grant is back at home on Gansett Island helping run the family marina. He should be focused on winning back the love of his life, but he’s got a new distraction to deal with . . .

  Exasperating, annoyingly sexy Stephanie, who runs the marina restaurant, is working her way under Grant’s skin—and into his bed. And as a major tropical storm cuts off Gansett Island—and the two of them—from the mainland, Grant begins to suspect Stephanie is hiding something big from her past. When he finds out what it is, what will be more important to
him? Winning Abby back or helping Stephanie to right a terrible wrong—and maybe even getting his own life back on track in the process?

  Read ahead for a special look. A Zebra mass-market paperback on sale in May 2019!

  This whole thing was Janey’s fault. If she hadn’t gotten married, Grant wouldn’t have had to watch his woman, wearing a slinky, sexy bridesmaid gown, prance around at the wedding with her new fiancé hanging all over her. If it hadn’t been for Janey and her stupid wedding, Grant wouldn’t have felt the need to make Abby jealous by dancing with Stephanie from the marina.

  Too bad it hadn’t ended there. No, he’d had to make sure Abby was truly jealous by leaving with Stephanie. And now, as the hammer in his head reminded him of how much alcohol it had taken to get through the nuptials, the warm body sleeping next to him was an even bigger reminder of what a disaster last night had been.

  Damn Janey and her damned wedding.

  Grant was trying frantically to remember just how far things had gone with Stephanie. He was pretty sure there’d been some kissing in the cab on the way to his now-married sister’s place. Janey had traded him the use of her house in exchange for pet-sitting duties while she and Joe were on their honeymoon. Since their mother had been driving him crazy with questions about the mess he’d made of his life, it had seemed like a good deal at the time because it would get him out of his parents’ house. But now he was mad with his sister for getting married in the first place, and the sweet deal didn’t seem so sweet anymore.

  He wished he could escape, but he couldn’t exactly leave his one-night stand in his sister’s bed. What to do?

  Then the warm body stirred.

  Grant stayed perfectly still, hoping she wouldn’t look at him or, God forbid, try to talk to him. He’d been with Abby so long he’d never had the chance to indulge in one-night stands. He had no idea what the etiquette was, and with a thousand hammers at work in his head, he had no desire to figure it out.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Stephanie—oh Jesus, she was totally naked—slide from the bed and get busy rounding up her clothes. Still pretending to be asleep, he caught glimpses of small breasts and pretty pink nipples that quickly had the attention of a part of him that didn’t know enough to fake sleep. As his cock rubbed against the sheet, he realized he was naked, too.