Second Son of a Duke

by

Gwen Hayes

Second Son of a Duke

Copyright © 2010 Gwen Hayes

Published by Gwen Hayes at Smashwords

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, any place, events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

One

Theodore Maxmillian Middleton stared at the stranger lying in his bed and knew there wasn’t enough drink in the world to make this situation bearable. He’d kill his brother for this. Tomorrow. Right now, he needed to focus on what the hell he was going to do about her.

Bloody hell. What was he going to do about her?

She stared back at him, stark white and wide-eyed. Good God, she was shaking. He felt like a cad and he hadn’t so much as touched her.

“Lady…” He couldn’t remember her first name. He’d never felt like such a fool. “…Fairchild, we don’t have to do this tonight.”

There it was. That little chin popped up just enough so that she vaguely resembled the chit he’d met more than handful of times in his lifetime, but didn’t know the first thing about.

“It’s Lady Middleton now, though perhaps it’s best if you call me by my Christian name at this point.”

Did he even know her Christian name? Best to just brush right past that, he’d figure it out tomorrow. “Of course. As I was saying—”

“It’s Juliette. As in, I take thee, Juliette Grace Fairchild…” She waved her hand as if to say etcetera. “You should jot it down somewhere in case you are in need of it again.”

Excellent. Married twelve hours and she was already sniping at him. Tomorrow, when he killed his brother, it would be slow and unnecessarily painful. “Yes, well, it’s probably recorded in the family Bible now; I’ll just look it up the next time.”

Juliette crossed her arms in what appeared to be disdain. She likely didn’t realize she framed her bosom to him in that position. Oddly, in all the chaos of the last twelve hours, he hadn’t noticed how ample that bosom was. He didn’t think he should be noticing now. But there it was, encased in a sheath of white linen, taunting him.

His but not his.

Granted, she was his wife, this was their wedding night, and she was in his bed. However, they were virtual strangers. Their marriage was a farce, though, unfortunately, a legal one. He’d assumed that she’d prefer to have her own chambers, and God knows there were enough of them in this house.

“I thought you might wish to wait to practice marital relations. There’s no rush.” There. Wasn’t he a fine man? How many new husbands were so understanding?

“I’d like to get it over with, Lord …I mean, Teddy.”

Come again? He couldn’t see it, but he could swear she’d just hurled a brick at his chest. All the air expelled from his lungs with the crush of it. “Over with?” he repeated.

“With as few theatrics as possible. I’ve had quite enough of them this day.”

“Theatrics?”

She nodded her prim little head, the curtain of blonde bouncing with the movement. “Neither of us is looking forward to it, but putting off the inevitable won’t help. Let’s just dispense with the awkward deed and hope for the best. I can’t bear the thought of dreading it every day until it’s done, so if you don’t mind, I’d like for you to begin now.”

“Now? You’d like me to begin now?”

“For Heaven’s sake, are you going to repeat everything I say as a question?”

Teddy considered himself a fine man with moral character and plenty of mostly virtuous qualities. He’d done nothing to warrant this mess except follow the dictates of a duke, which he was honor bound to do. That the duke was also his brother and belonged in Bedlam did not change the fact that Teddy had little choice in the matter.

But his patience had reached its limit.

He shrugged off his overcoat and began undoing his cravat. “No, I shan’t question you any longer. You’re absolutely right, let’s rid you of your virginity and put this whole mess behind us.” He pulled his shirt from his breeches. “Well, what are you waiting for? Get naked.”

* * *

Juliette gasped. Not just at his vulgar words, but at all the skin he revealed when he threw his shirt to the floor. “Get naked?” she asked.

Teddy smiled; the wicked grin prompted the return of the dimple she’d noticed earlier and caused her to suck in more air. The divot added a boyish charm to his usually serious face, but did nothing to erase the rakish expression of intent. How was it possible for him to look at once a dangerous man as well as an impish boy?

She tried to keep her gaze locked on that dimple, but she couldn’t help but let it roam briefly to the expanse of his naked chest. Goodness. She’d never seen a nearly naked man before. He was beautiful.

She berated herself for that. Men were not beautiful. Men were irresponsible little boys with all the power and …really gloriously tapered waists. Stop it! She squeezed her eyes shut. Now was not the time to let her mind wander. Her husband was about to claim her virginity. And he was doing it all wrong.

His hands lowered to his breeches.

“Wait, please,” she implored.

Teddy stilled his hands. “I thought we were in a hurry to divest ourselves of your maidenhead.”

The shock of his language drained the blood from her face. “There is no need to be so uncivilized. Please snuff the candles. And I’d like to…stay dressed.”

He exhaled a curse and sat on the edge of the bed. “Are you aware of how a man and a woman…that is to say…you understand that we’ll be…hell’s bells, this is coming out all wrong.”

Juliette wished he’d show some decency and cover himself. The way the light in the room attached itself to him was shameless. What did he do to develop those well-defined shoulders? The few times she’d met Teddy, he’d been buried in a book, barely looking up to acknowledge her presence.

“Don’t trouble yourself to explain. I know what I need to know. And I am quite certain that my gown needn’t come completely off …during…for this it to be successful.”

He scraped a hand through his hair, disheveling it and adding to his roguish appearance. And his boyish one. “For God’s sake, Juliette, we’re about to make love, not attend a funeral.”

“Please, it’s how I wish it.” Her voice sounded small. Perhaps that is why he acquiesced on a masculine sigh and crossed the room, snuffing out all the light save the fire in the grate.

Juliette slid down the mattress and pulled the covers to her chin. She recounted figures in her head to ease her nerves. Think about grain. If the price of grain went any lower, they would have to sell…her heart seized as Teddy slid into bed next to her. She tried to breathe normally, show no fear, but then he was leaning over her kissing her hair, her cheek.

“You have glorious hair,” he whispered into her ear. “Like golden silk.” The sensation startled her. She felt as if she were a being tightened from the inside out, and that something was going to have to happen to loosen her to normal.

She’s fairly certain she squeaked.

“Relax,” he murmured, kissing her jaw. “All will be well.”

She didn’t believe him. This shame was not to be borne. Her brother caused this mess. She thought it better to go along with the farce than to bear the stigma of creating a public scandal, but now she had second thoughts. Juliette swallowed hard when Teddy kissed her neck. Something that felt like longing pulled at her heart. How long had she wished someone would tell her all will be well, and then actually make it so? How many years had she been holding everything together on her own, wishing she had someone to share the burden with?

It would be so lovely to believe him. Teddy wasn’t a bad man. The road had curved just as sharply for him this morning as it had for her. Wouldn’t it be grand if she had a partner to face the rest of the curves with? Someone to rely on, to believe in.

But no. She knew in her heart that even good men, men like her brother, were inconsistent and unreliable. It was best to not throw your hopes into the wind. Teddy kissed her mouth, but she didn’t return his attention, and he soon moved back to her neck. As he went lower, she retreated back into her head as much as possible. Ignoring his hands on her breasts, ignoring the hem of her nightgown being pushed up, ignoring the weight of her new husband as he claimed her as his own—though both of them knowing she belonged to no one.

Two

Teddy raised his head from the ledgers when the library doors flew open and his brother, the Duke of Fenwick, strode in. “Why are you not still in bed with your bride?”

“It’s the middle of the afternoon, Derek. Besides, my bride is not at home currently.” She’d gone back to her brother’s estate to supervise the retrieval of her belongings, but Teddy suspected the motive was closer to evasion than errand.

Last night, he’d had the most horrible sex in his life. With the woman he’d promised to spend the rest of his life with. He hardly blamed her for running off. In fact, he envied her the luxury. Unfortunately, he still had a dukedom to keep track of. Not his dukedom, but someone had to do it.

Derek flopped onto the settee. “I’d hoped marrying you off might make you less priggish. I can see I was mistaken.”

“You forced a marriage upon two unwilling people who barely know each other. It’s hardly endearing.”

Derek scoffed and lay back, plopping his dirty boots on the cushion. “She’s not a stranger, Teddy. She’s my best friend’s sister. And a comely one at that.”

“Then why didn’t you marry her?”

“She’s my best friend’s sister.”

“Well, you need to marry someone.” Teddy returned to the ledger in front of him.

“We both know I’ll die in a duel before I beget an heir. You can get a running start with the lovely Lady Juliette, and I’ve trained you properly for when the title falls to you after my untimely demise.”

Trained him properly? Derek didn’t know a thing about being a duke, despite having been one since he was a lad of fifteen. It fell to Teddy, it’s always fallen to Teddy, to follow the investments, the tenants, the livestock, everything. Derek couldn’t keep track of his own gloves. As a second son, Teddy should have situated elsewhere, yet he could not leave his brother or the estates would crumble. People’s livelihood depended on him.

And now he had a wife to consider. And possibly a child, though he hoped not. It wouldn’t bear well for a child to be conceived in what had passed for bed play last night. He’d done his best to make it enjoyable for Juliette, but she seemed resolute in her martyred state. She made it clear she didn’t want to find the marriage bed satisfactory for either of them. She’d done her duty with as much pleasure as emptying a privy.

Not a very auspicious beginning for a new life.

Derek was probably correct. The way he lived his life made it easy to imagine he’d be dead long before Teddy reached the end of his own. The illicit affairs, the excessive drink…if something was lurid, Derek was there wearing peacock colors and already half-sick from over-indulgence. Still, if the duke managed to eek out an existence longer than Teddy, the entitled lands would pass to relatives with no concern for the people that toiled most of their lives for it. On a good day, Derek himself pretended to at least care about their welfare.

Derek tossed a cushion above his head and caught it over and over. It drove Teddy to distraction, but the man could never sit still. “Will you be taking your wife on a wedding trip?”

“The thought hadn’t yet crossed my mind. Why would that be, I wonder? Perhaps because, until yesterday, I didn’t know I’d have a wife?”

Derek laughed. “You’re always telling me I need to take responsibility, to finish projects I start. You should be proud that I managed the feat.”

“The feat?” Teddy repeated. He really needed to stop doing that. Juliette was right; it was annoying.

Derek threw the cushion at Teddy with no warning, no doubt hoping Teddy would toss it back. Which he did not do. Instead he placed on the desk next to account ledgers.

Derek stood up, presumably to retrieve the cushion from Teddy. “Yes, the feat,” he began as he crossed the room. “Peter and I secured a special license, scheduled a minister, and got both of you to the church with time to spare. And all of that, without either of you the wiser.” He reached for the cushion, but Teddy moved it. “You should be impressed. Normally, I’d need you to do all that for me.”

“Yes, a surprise wedding—it’s almost as impressive as attending your own business meetings on time and sober.”

He continued to hold the cushion from his brother’s reach until Derek tackled him, upending the chair with Teddy in it. “I remembered the ring, too,” Derek continued once he’d gotten his wind back. ”And there was a wedding breakfast laid out for you and the guests.”

Teddy grimaced, hoping he wasn’t concussed. “Yes, the guests, that’s right. I’m sure everyone invites the butler and upstairs maids to their wedding breakfast. Get off me, you imbecile.”

Derek snatched the cushion and used his elbow in Teddy’s rib to push himself off the floor. “Don’t forget the flowers. I plunked a pretty penny on those…I think.” He brushed himself off and offered Teddy an arm to help him off the floor. “She’s comely, and you’ve united the two families. It’s a perfect match.”

“She hates me, Derek.”

“No,” Derek scoffed. “She’s an icy chit, I’ll not naysay you that. But she can be right warm when you get past the frost.”

A sudden heat threatened to render Teddy aflame. “Did you--?”

Derek held up his hands in surrender. “God no. She’s like a little sister to me. Interesting reaction. Already a jealous husband, are you?”

Once he could form one, Teddy answered. “You get everything first, Derek. I’d prefer my wife not be included in that.” The thought of Derek touching her stirred an acid in his stomach that he’d rather not think about.

“Teddy, you are my brother and my heir. Your happiness means more to me than my own. I know I’m irresponsible and a reprobate besides, but I’d hardly saddle you with used goods.”

Teddy knew his brother loved him, though that his happiness came first was debatable. All Teddy ever wanted was for Derek to own up to his responsibilities as duke so that Teddy wouldn’t have to.

“Well, I’m off. I’ve an appointment with Cherice that I simply cannot miss.”

Teddy righted his chair. An appointment, indeed. “Please, do tell your mistress I said hullo.”

“Hah!” Derek laughed. “Oh, before I forget, we’re having a dinner party next Friday evening, no wait, the Friday after, to celebrate your wedding. I’ve already made the arrangements.”

He couldn’t help it, Teddy’s eyebrows raised in question. “A dinner party? First a wedding and now a dinner. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’d make an excellent wife to some lucky duke.”

“Hah!”

Three

Juliette found her husband intriguing.

She’d spent the last two weeks examining him very closely during their waking hours, waiting for some sort of sign as to what she needed to watch for or to manage, what she’d have to do to keep yet another person alive and in relatively good health.

So far, he seemed to be self-sufficient. An anomaly. Which had her looking for the four horsemen of the apocalypse instead.

He hadn’t reached for her since their wedding night, for which she was greatly relieved. And also disappointed. The intercourse had been just as awful as she’d been warned about, of course. But she secretly hoped he found her attractive. She tried to tell herself that she just didn’t want a husband with a mistress or lover on the side—one more person she’d have to account for in some way—but really, she just wanted him to want her.

Another anomaly.

Juliette found that Teddy was an interesting breakfast companion. They were the only two in the house who ate breakfast, unless Derek was still awake from the previous night’s carousing. Each day, Teddy held out her chair and poured her chocolate. He would then round the table to his chair and read aloud from the paper. He went to the gossip first, so they could prepare for repercussions from their brothers’ shenanigans. Then he read the headlines and asked her which she wanted to hear about most, and then, oddly, they would discuss the current affairs. He unfailingly asked her opinion. As if hers actually meant something to him.

He seemed warm, intelligent, and if she wasn’t mistaken, reliable.

They attended one ball together. He left her side only to procure refreshments and dance with her mother. When he danced with her, he was polite, refined, and looked far more elegant in his plain black formal wear than the peers around them in flamboyant colors and schemes. They retired early and he awoke with no aches in his head or disagreeable nature. She’d seen him several times with wine or whiskey, but never did she see him foxed.

He had to be hiding something.

Each day, she visited her brother’s estate and went over Peter’s accounts, conferred with the staff, and made detailed lists for everyone else. She returned exhausted and worried that she’d need to take over the duke’s home as well, as she was the only woman in residence. Try as she might, though, she could find no area of concern. It ran itself it seemed.

She waited on tenterhooks for some kind of calamity to befall her. Surely if getting married were supposed to be this easy, everyone would do it much sooner and without all the silly games. And this marriage had been a scheme concocted in the minds of two inebriated men with no thought past what a lark it would be to accomplish the deed. It certainly hadn’t been carefully planned with regards to settlements or fondness between the bride and groom.

It should have been disastrous.

It…wasn’t.

She returned early from Peter’s to get ready for the dinner party. It still made her nervous that things seemed to happen magically with no direction in this house, so she sought out the cook to make sure all was well—only to find her husband in the kitchen. Tasting soup.

“And how do you find it, Lord Middleton?” she asked from the doorway.

He looked up, surprised. “It’s almost perfect, Lady Middleton. I don’t think I’d change a thing.”

She blushed without knowing why. Perhaps it was his warm smile. Or the fact that he looked like a young boy caught with his hand in the sweets. It might have been that the emphasis on his words made her think maybe he was referring to her.

“Would you care to try it?”

It was a dare, she thought. Peter used the same tone whenever he wanted her to do something outrageous. She crossed the room noticing that everyone seemed busy on a task, but it was an organized chaos. The staff knew what they were about and delicious smells layered the air. She stopped next to Teddy. He brought the spoon to her mouth, the same spoon he’d tasted from, his hand cupped under it to catch any spill. It seemed intimate, to sip from the same spoon that touched his lips—like the kisses he’d offered on their wedding night. The kisses she’d refused.

This time, she met his gaze. His fingertips grazed under her chin gently, and she put her mouth to the spoon, trusting that it wouldn’t burn her, trusting that the flavors would complement and be pleasing. Because, she realized, she trusted that he would not offer it to her if it wouldn’t suit. If it would hurt her.

His eyes never left hers as she sipped the creamed broth. The closeness of their bodies, his fingertips under her chin, and the unbroken eye contact overwhelmed her with a rush of unfamiliar emotions. “It’s delicious,” she whispered in a voice that was not her own.

“Your eyes have specks of brown and gold in them. Did you know that?”

She couldn’t answer. She was afraid to even breathe lest it disrupt the lovely moment. She trembled despite the fact that Juliette Grace Fairchild Middleton was not the trembling sort. It was as if, in an instant, he became her entire world.

“If the soup is to your liking, sir, perhaps you’d be good enough to remove yourself from the stove so as I can finish the rest of the meal.”

He turned slightly to smile at the cook and let her know the soup was divine. It took all Juliette’s inner strength not to pull Teddy’s face back to her. She wanted his smiles, she wanted his compliments, and she wanted to trace the lines around his mouth with her finger. The urge to touch him was so powerful she had to fist the material of her dress.

Later that evening, at a very odd dinner part thrown by the duke, they were seated not quite directly across from each other when the sensations overwhelmed her again. He laughed at something someone said. That was all it took, a laugh. Of all the silly things in the world for her to lose her composure over, she never once considered it would be smile lines on a man.

The guests were an eclectic grouping of a few family members, those who well understood the beastly ways of her brother and the duke, and the less bawdy of Peter and Derek’s friends. The conversation was still far too undignified to pass for civilized, and the behavior and volume grew to such an extreme that she thought she might plead a headache long before the men withdrew for cigars.

Then she caught sight of her husband’s calm manner and decided to stay a little while longer. Odd that she never realized how handsome he was before now. She supposed that the few times they’d been in the same room before their marriage, she’d been too busy trying to mitigate whatever damage Peter was about to heap upon all her hard earned order. Mother was never much help, falling into the hole of hysteria at the least provocation. No, it was always Juliette who needed to keep their lives, and their livelihood, running with precision.

When the soup tureen was brought in, she felt the flush heat her cheeks immediately and sought the notice of Teddy. He was, in fact, already looking at her, an inscrutable expression on his face. She smiled to relieve his seriousness and he rewarded her, my how he did reward her. His face opened into a smile so bright she might freckle to look upon it. And then it changed into the most mischievous of grins and he dipped his head, but not his eyes, to eat the creamy soup.

It started as a small flutter in her abdomen. She might have missed it any other time if she had been conversing or immersed in a book. The barely perceptible flutter increased when his lips touched the spoon and she gasped quietly, swallowing hard. With just the tip of his tongue, he swiped the spoon and she thought there might be a flock of sparrows in her middle, flapping their wings and leaving her breathless and out of control. Anticipation filled her. For what she didn’t know.

* * *

Juliette was gorgeous.

The pink skin on her cheeks warmed him from the inside out. He’d made her blush. By his count, at least twice today.

He’d always thought her pretty, of course. Eyes the color of green, green grass with flecks of gold and brown, rosy heart shaped lips, and what looked like yards of golden curls made her, as Derek so eloquently stated, comely. When she blushed, however, his heart fumbled around his chest for a rhythm.

There were worse things in life than being married to a beautiful woman who blushed when you ate soup.

As each course was cleared and another set down, Teddy tried to catch her eye at odd times. It became very important to him that she notice him, that she didn’t forget him. Did he understand his new preoccupation? Of course not.

She was a woman of mystery as far as he was concerned. She revealed herself to him in such tiny expressions, he didn’t dare hope he’d ever really know her. She liked chocolate and more sugar in her tea than anyone he’d ever known. She was an intelligent debater on matters of current events and financial news. And he’d ask Mrs. White to prepare cream soup every evening if Juliette promised to bloom with pink every day for the rest of his life.

And that was all he really knew about her.

The more the wine flowed, the more raucous the clamor the duke’s friends made. Then they began toasting. To nonsense. Ships that were about sail, women they hoped to bed, money they hoped to win at cards, and finally, a toast to the bride and groom from Peter.

May it be a love match.

He met Juliette’s eyes across the table and she offered a watery smile. She was used to her salacious brother, but he didn’t want her to be uncomfortable in her own home. “Gentlemen, shall we adjourn?”

The men filed out to the library, the women to the conservatory, and Teddy to the stairs in the great hall, where he sat and wondered what to do with himself. He didn’t want to go anywhere near the library, of that much he was certain.

Ten minutes later, he was joined by his wife.

She climbed the stairs, and he stood to escort her to their chambers. Perhaps she felt ill. She surprised him by shaking her head and sitting on the step instead. He joined her when she patted the space next to her.

“The boys are in rare form this evening,” she commented.

The obnoxious laughter from the library indicated they were well into their cups. “Yes, I suppose they are,” he added dryly.

“My mother had an agreeable evening.”

“Didn’t your mother faint before dinner?”

“Yes, but just the one time.”

“Capital,” he said. He wasn’t sure what the proper response would be in any case.

“Teddy, do you remember when your brother’s hand had to be stitched two years ago?”

He loosened his cravat a touch. “Yes, of course. He wouldn’t see a damned physician, so I had to remove the sutures myself.”

She turned her knees towards him a fraction, so that they were barely touching his. “I sewed the wound because he wouldn’t see a damned physician the night he cut himself.”

He started at her curse, and then smiled, stealing a sidelong glance. “Your work was exemplary. The stitches were very even.”

“Thank you.” Juliette wrapped her arms under her knees. “I guess I’m telling you this because I see something in you that I hadn’t noticed before.”

“What’s that?”

“Myself.”

“Well then I should have the men lining the block for a crack at a waltz with me.”

She leaned a little, bumping his shoulder playfully. “Not that way, Teddy. I’m talking about family. Our roles. Do you know why I’ve been to my family home every day?”

“I supposed it was to spend time with you mother, or maybe, God forbid, your brother.”

She shook her head. A loosened lock of gold draped over her shoulder. He wanted to touch it so badly he ached. “Yesterday, I was ordering staples and haggling with a man who shears sheep for the best price. Today, I went over the household account books three times because one of Peter’s men is stealing small amounts of money every month, and I finally figured out how he’s been doing it.”

She sounded old and young at the same time.

Juliette continued. “I don’t know how they will manage without me. I’m not saying that out of pride, so I keep going. They really don’t know how to take care of themselves over there. My mother can’t stand to look at anything that might end up on her plate that evening, including raw vegetables. She won’t go near the kitchen staff. She has no idea what rooms need airing and how often the sweep must come to prevent fires. She wouldn’t know a fair price for coal or firewood if I wrote it on the back of her hand. And Peter is no better.”

Very tentatively, Teddy placed an arm around her shoulders. “Peter and Derek are two of a kind.”

She exhaled. “They’ve told everyone we’re a love match because they think it makes for a great story. Our fathers were best friends, they are best friends, and now their siblings have united the families. It’s a children’s story happy ending to them, not a marriage.”

She didn’t flinch from his touch, so he gently eased her towards him until she rested her head on his shoulder.

“They don’t have to deal with the two people who barely know each other trying to make their way. And in sealing our fates together, they stand to lose their gatekeepers.”

He smiled at that. “Gatekeepers is an excellent description.” He wanted her to know he understood. God, did he understand. And that he found her valuable. “I’m impressed by your knowledge of accounts; perhaps you’ll show me how you found the discrepancy sometime, in case I find issue with mine.”

“Certainly, Teddy.”

She smelled like the rose garden after a light rain. The tension in her shoulders gave a little, so he rubbed her arm gently. They must have painted quite a picture, sitting in the middle of the staircase while masculine mayhem erupted in the library below.

“I used to want to run away,” he admitted, surprising them both with he admission.

Four

“Run away?” she asked.

He nodded. “But I can’t go. I can’t go anywhere. He won’t take the reins.”

Juliette lifted her head to look at him, aware of his arm holding her to his body. So serious he was, looking into the distance as if there were nothing there to look forward to. As it turns out, he wasn’t so self-sufficient.

Her husband needed her after all.

When their fathers died in a carriage accident, Derek became an unlikely duke and Peter became an unwilling earl. Nobody stopped to think about what Juliette and Teddy became—adults.

“Teddy,” she whispered. “I’m going to do something for you that no one has ever done before.”

His brows reached for each other in confusion and he swallowed hard. “What’s that?”

Juliette reached her fingers gently to his face, finally touching him. She brushed his thick brown hair on his forehead, and then let herself graze the line around his mouth ever so gently. “I’m going to make you happy.”

His eyebrows reached for each other in confusion and, truthfully, she didn’t really know what that meant anymore than he did. It was an idea that seemed a revelation of her heart, something she’d honestly not had in a very long time.

That night, lying in bed with her husband was more awkward than even the first night. The intimacy without real intimacy was staggering. She knew he’d expected her to move to her own chambers. Every night when he retired, he seemed surprised to see her there. He couldn’t be more surprised than she was though.

At first, staying with him through the night was a test of her mettle. She’d needed to feel like she’d chosen this path, though it was clear to everyone that she never had. Still, the stubborn streak that she’d acquired over the years forced her to control what was not in her control. Marrying Teddy had not been her idea, but she’d thought that by accepting it fully, she’d have a measure of management.

She was wrong.

She tossed and turned, sleep eluding her. Teddy slept mere inches from her, his warmth a tease of yearning. Would if be so bad if…after all, they were married…

She stilled and breathed rhythmically and slowly for a few moments, feigning sleep in case he was awake. And then, she rolled towards him and, God forgive her artifice, mumbled as if she were lost in dream. As if by instinct, Teddy adjusted to her, drawing her closer so that her head was on his chest and settling her comfortably against him. His heartbeat slowed a bit and his breathing returned to normal; her heart raced in return.

Awash in emotions as violent as the crashing waves of the sea battered her. She thought of Teddy’s face at the altar, when they realized what their brothers had planned, of his blank stare when he looked at a future of no choice and nothing for him in it. Then she remembered the dimple when he was raffish, the way he concerned himself with her comfort at all times, and how at this very minute, his body sheltered her from everything but him.

And now she knew where the earlier revelation on the staircase had come from. In a world full of uncertainty and chaos, she’d fallen in love with her husband.

As a young lass, she, like the other young girls, thought love would come with orchestra music and shine like polished gold and gems. Love would be loud and dazzling, overriding her senses with bursts of overstimulation. The events of her heart would be as spectacular as a coronation ball with champagne overflowing and sweet cakes everywhere.

How wrong she’d been.

She settled in further to her husband and let her feelings muddle like a good spiced wine. Love wasn’t a deafening crescendo; it was the steady cadence of deep breaths and a true heart. It wasn’t bursts of colorful silk; it was a play of shadow and light from a warm fire. Love didn’t smell like sweet treats and cologne. She inhaled his skin deeply; it smelled like pine and paper.

Love wasn’t all the things that made her nervous about life—instead, it was all the ideals she yearned for. A steady heart, a solid future, a reliable hand.

And laugh lines.

* * *

Where the devil was his newspaper?

In its place on the silver tray, were a blank page, his quill, and an inkpot.

Juliette entered the breakfast room with a jaunt in her step Teddy hadn’t noticed before. He recalled her warm, soft breath on his chest this morning and wondered if she’d be so animated if she realized how she’d been wrapped around him in her sleep.

Or if she knew what she did in his dreams last night.

He was sure the erotic dreams started with her unusual pledge to make him happy. When a man is holding a beautiful woman in his arms, be it on a staircase or in a bedroom, his happiness tends to be focused on matters the carnal variety. And while he wouldn’t turn down another chance to bed the enigma he’d married, his sense of honor dictated that she come to him more willing the next time. There would be pleasure in their coming together, or they wouldn’t.

Though that was much easier to stick to in a breakfast room than it had been in his bed with the woman curled into his side.

“Good morning, Teddy.”

“Good morning, Juliette.” He poured her chocolate. “I was just about to go off in search of our paper.”

“Actually, I had a hand in misplacing it today.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I’m plotting nefarious deeds.” She sipped gracefully. “I’ll need your help.”

“My help?”

“Oh, Teddy. You’re not going to start that again, are you?” She took pity on his consternation. “I’m nabbing you today, Lord Middleton.”

“I see.”

“No you don’t, but you shall soon enough. That paper is for you to list all the things you were planning on doing this day.”

Her eyes sparkled today. She was really enjoying herself. “I’ll need more paper then.”

“No, sir. You’ll have to get it all on the one. And be quick about it.”

He stared at the paper. “What are you about Juliette?”

“Make your list, Teddy.”

He did his best to condense his day to one sheet as she asked. Juliette took the tray from him and brought it to a footman. “Please see that His Grace is given this list at first sight of an open eye on him.”

This was curious indeed. She returned to the table, and he realized that the rustle of her skirts had become a sound he enjoyed. He’d never thought the mundane would come to mean so much in such a short time.

“Come, husband,” she said, reaching for his hand. “I’ve just handed the reins to the duke.”

A small panic tripped his senses. “Juliette, I appreciate the thought behind the gesture, but those are things only I can do.”

“Nonsense. The carriage is being brought out front as we speak. You needn’t worry about anything but walking out the door.” Her hand still stretched towards him, so he took it and she pulled him from his chair with a childlike glee. “Pity we won’t be here to see the look on his face.”

“Where will we be?” He really couldn’t leave, but he didn’t want to break the spell just yet. Her enthusiasm lifted his spirits.

“I can’t tell you.”

He laughed. He couldn’t help it. Juliette’s presence was like someone had opened the curtains and the sun was shining. “Why not?”

“I’m absconding with you. If you are a party to it, then you won’t be able to plead innocence.” She hadn’t let go of his hand and he was hardly going to mention it.

“If I’m innocent, what does that make you?”

“Scandalous, sir. Positively scandalous.”

She led him towards the door, her soft little hand in his. Teddy suddenly wished he could join her on what he hoped was her first kidnapping adventure. While he’d become aware of her wry sense of humor these last days, he’d never seen her relieved of her serious nature before. It was very becoming.

It was a pity he wouldn’t take advantage of it today.

“Juliette,” he cautioned, as he stopped walking. “I really mustn’t. I’m sorry, but I have work—” He didn’t know what he expected, a pout, maybe a sad face. Instead, she shrugged casually. “Again, I’m terribly sorry…if you’ve gone to any trouble…”

“Teddy, we’ve not had the smoothest beginning, but I think we’ve done quite well despite it. But the truth is, you really don’t know me very well. I’m undeniably obstinate; you really don’t stand a chance here. If I were you, I’d just get into the carriage now and save yourself the trouble.”

Was she goading him?

The pleasure he’d taken in her sunshiny disposition didn’t evaporate, but it did change. Goading him was she? Two could play at the game of getting underneath someone’s skin.

Something happened deep in his gut. A primal urge to muss up perfectly coiffed hair, to wipe off her smug expression, began to overtake him. What was left of his senses bade him to simply let go of her hand and begin his day in the study. Instead, he squeezed her hand and pulled her to him, enjoying the surprise in her features and the quick gasp she drew. Her breasts pressed against him, and the sharp teeth of lust began to make a meal of his normally staid nature.

He couldn’t think. He didn’t want to anyhow. He saw the moment her surprise gave way to stratagem, already trying to reorganize and that would never do. So he kissed her. Surreptitiously to throw her off balance, to give him the upper hand, he thought. But he realized when, Mother of God, she returned his kiss this time, that the tables had turned on his intention, for he’d never felt more off balance in his life.

Somewhere, deep in the recesses of Teddy’s mind, he knew her pliant lips were a symptom of her stubbornness to win this battle and not unequaled lust on her part.

He cared not.

While chocolate was never his choice of beverage, it tasted sinfully delicious on the lips of his wife. The moment he released his hands from her arms, she reached them around his neck and drew him deeper into a kiss that changed everything in his world.

Nothing about Juliette was brazen, yet the simple kiss stirred up every prurient thought he’d had since adolescence. Perhaps it was just the shock of her participating in the kiss, rather than wishing he’d just get it over with—but whatever it was, it set him afire.

His hands roamed over her back and then further until he cupped her bottom and realized he’d groaned aloud with the pleasure of it. What was happening to him, he wondered as he backed her into the sideboard. He’d nearly talked himself into hoisting her onto it when good sense intruded.

Her good sense, not his.

She pulled her lips away and whispered, “Teddy.”

His groin tightened at the sound of his name from her mouth. Since she pulled her mouth away, he went for the small patch of soft skin behind her ear, taking delight in the small shiver that wracked her body. She was as soft as the rose petals she smelled of.

“Teddy,” she repeated, pushing him gently. “We’re in the breakfast room.”

Somehow, her words cut through the murky haze that addled his good sense. He loosened his grip, but couldn’t completely let go. “I’m sorry, Juliette. You must think me a cad.” If his heart would slow so he could hear above the roar of his own pulse, he might actually move aside, but for the moment he needed to prop himself on her. With his head on her chest, of course. He’d never pass a rosebush again without instantly hardening.

She bent her neck and whispered in his ear. “Come to the carriage with me.”

And there it was. Had the kiss been a ruse to get her way? Was she so stubborn that she would pretend passion to get him to go with her? Which was the real Juliette-the ice maiden from his wedding night or the woman he kissed into a sideboard? “Why is it so important to you that I go away with you, Juliette? I can’t just walk away from my responsibilities here.”

She jerked as if he’d hit her. “One afternoon. I’m asking for one afternoon that you let the duke handle his own affairs so that you can handle yours.”

“Mine,” he repeated, at least he didn’t repeat it as a question.

“We’re tied now, Teddy. This marriage began as a whim, but it’s real. We’ve had no time alone, little conversation—”

“I’m sorry,” he interrupted. “You’re right, of course.” He’d spent his whole life watching over Derek’s responsibilities—it was shameful that he’d been neglecting the only one that was truly his now. “I should have arranged a wedding trip, even if it was a short one. It’s commendable that you are willing to treat this marriage with as much respect as you have.”

“I don’t want to be commendable, Teddy. I want to be your wife.”

He nodded. He could see this was important to her. He’d just work harder tomorrow if he had too. And he would have to. Because there was no way Derek would accomplish any of the tasks, and he wasn’t sure he’d want him to at this point. Derek would likely find a way to derail Teddy’s efforts.

And he really wanted to know if she were as stubborn as she claims, then what possessed her to say “I do” at the church?

Five

The silence in the carriage grew uncomfortably thick as the minutes stretched to nearly a half an hour. Juliette stared at her own knees while she wistfully thought of something…anything…to say. She’d been such a fool to think that just because she willed it so, their relationship would change.

Certainly last night they’d created a bridge. And this morning, good heavens this morning, had amazed her and confused her all at once. The fact that Teddy desired her helped her plans for this afternoon perfectly. What she hadn’t counted on so much was her own reaction to his kisses.

Juliette had fallen in love with Teddy. She accepted that. She was grateful that the idea of intimacy with him wasn’t abhorrent for it would make keeping him tied to her much easier. She never for one moment believed that she would want him in return.

Everything her mother had ever told her about the difference between men and women was called into question. A lady submits to the baser instincts of her husband with grace and a charitable heart. She hadn’t been graceful or charitable on their wedding night, but she’d intended to rectify that today. Men are carnal creatures, they cannot help themselves. A wife will need to lock part of herself away, far in her mind, while he takes his pleasure from her body. That had certainly come to pass that night, and she was prepared to do it again. If he needed her body, he could have it, so long as she got him in return. Feigning interest in his passion is encouraged, though a woman will have to hide her instinctual disgust. Well, now there was the thing, wasn’t it?

She let her gaze wander shyly off her own body and onto his. Teddy stared out his window intently, and her pulse bounced erratically at his handsome profile.

She seemed to have misplaced her instinctual disgust.

Juliette felt a strange heaviness between her thighs when she thought of the way it felt to be trapped between his heavy body and the breakfast sideboard. His mouth on hers, his lips seeking for something from her—heat flooded her face even now as she remembered how she’d ached to give it to him, whatever it was.

“Are you all right, Juliette?”

The timber of his voice shook her back to awareness. Embarrassed, she turned away, though the damage had been done. She’d been staring at him. And he caught her. “I’m fine,” she managed, though a bit croaky.

They finally arrived at her brother’s hunting box. She’d sent ahead supplies and a servant to lay a fire and air the cabin with explicit instructions to be gone when they arrived.

The silence had bloomed from uncomfortable to awkward. While Teddy stoked the fire, Juliette set out the luncheon. While her stomach rebelled at the thought of food, the wine held her apt attention. With his back to her, she swilled down half a glass, refilling it before he was any wiser.

He joined her at the little table. They broke the crushing silence with inane bursts of chatter followed by more oppressing quiet. When she could stand it no more, she pushed away from the table briskly. “Excuse me,” she muttered and was half across the room when he managed to grab her.

“Juliette, what is wrong?”

“Nothing.” She pushed a frustrated tear from her eye. “Everything.” He wouldn’t let her pass, so she folded her arms and stared at the floor. “I’m sorry I made you come here, Teddy. I thought…I don’t know what I thought.”

“You thought we should spend some time together alone and here we are. You were right. We need to get to know each other.” He brushed his finger across the trail where another traitorous tear had fallen. “Why are you crying?”

“I don’t know,” she said helplessly. “I thought…I don’t know what I thought.”

Teddy chuckled. “You already said that.”

“Things have been easier between us, Teddy. I had hoped that the camaraderie would carry over, but it doesn’t seem to have.”

He led her to the settee in front of the fire. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have kissed you this morning.”

Her eyes shot to his face and her lungs clutched for air. “Do you mean that?”

“Most marriages begin with a courting stage. You deserve to be wooed. Instead, I stole your virginity and then ravished you in a dining room. I’ve been unthinkably callous.” His warm hand covered hers. “And instead of apologizing or trying to make you feel more comfortable, I brooded the entire journey here. You’ve obviously gone to a lot of trouble, and instead of thanking you, I—”

“I brought you here to seduce you,” she interrupted.

His eyebrows raised in surprise. “Seduce me?” Teddy realized he’d done it again. “Sorry.”

“Yes, seduce you,” she answered. “Except I have no understanding of how, and it seems a little premature now that you’ve said you wished you hadn’t kissed me.”

“I never said I didn’t wish to. I implied that I wrestled with the timing of it. I rather enjoyed kissing you.”

Finally her lungs let go a little and she was able to exhale. “Really?”

“I’ve certainly bungled this whole operation if you couldn’t tell how much I enjoyed kissing you this morning.”

Juliette let a soft laugh escape. “Then seducing you wouldn’t be unwelcomed?”

“Not unwelcomed. Merely unexpected.”

“Would you be averse to telling me how to go about it then?”

* * *

Teddy inhaled sharply and choked on an answer. His wife was ever a surprise. She thwacked him sharply between the shoulder blades until he stopped coughing. “Juliette, you needn’t do a thing to seduce me,” he finally ground out.

“I don’t?”

“Being in the room is really all the seduction you need bring with you.”

She inched away from him a little. “I know that isn’t true. You haven’t reached for me since the first night. I know it was awful, but I don’t know what to do to make it less so.”

“Darling,” he began, leaning back into the space she’d put between them. This was going to be tricky business. “The thing that was missing from our wedding night was not something you did or did not do. As you may have noticed, the act still ran its course.” He brought her hand to his chest, flattening her palm against his heart. “But the act is not all there is to lovemaking.”

She didn’t move her hand, but turned her head away from him to stare into the fire. “I don’t know how to make myself more desirable.”

“You misunderstand. It is not I who needs greater enjoyment, Juliette, it is you.”

Her entire body stiffened. “Teddy, you don’t understand.” He felt the pull of her hand away from his heart, so he held on tighter. “Women don’t, that is to say, you probably don’t realize, but…”

“Juliette, please, just say it.”

She scrunched her eyelids closed. “Women don’t feel the same about the act as men do. We don’t, as a sex, enjoy procreation. I’m quite willing to give myself to you, as is my duty and your right, but it’s not something I’ll enjoy.”

He really had bungled the works, hadn’t he? His poor wife, he’d make it up to her. “Darling, a woman’s first time comes with some pain, but it won’t hurt every time, I swear it.”

She flushed a charming shade of pink. “It’s not just that, Teddy. Women don’t like lovemaking. I should hate to be dishonest with you, but I probably should have not said anything…I should have feigned interest.”

“You will do no such thing!” He didn’t mean to raise his voice, but the effect made her snap her eyes open. “Where did you get such a notion that women don’t enjoy lovemaking?”

“It’s the truth. I’m sorry. But we can still do it together. I understand its importance.”

For the love of all that was holy, he would not have her submit to him as if it were a chore to bear his weight. “Women can and do enjoy lovemaking as much as men. Sometimes more, I can assure you.”

His disagreement brought her back to her own self, he noticed. A little of the humiliated girl disappeared behind the face of a woman who was used to controlling the world around her. She began speaking to him as if he were a child testing her nerves. “Teddy, it’s completely disagreeable business for a woman. It’s something we do to care for men. And, of course, bring children into the world. I should think that, being a sensible man, you would rather know the truth.”

“The truth, Juliette, is that you have been rather misinformed.”

“I think not. You will recall I have experienced lovemaking first hand.”

Teddy recognized that his pride was wounded by her words, but another reaction began to take shape, and not an unwelcome one. It was as if she dared him to prove her wrong, and by God, he would do just that.

“I see. Perhaps you are right. But you’re willing to come to the marriage bed despite your aversion?”

“Of course,” she stated. As if it were a matter of fact. “Our brothers are imbeciles, both of them, but I’m pleased more than I can say that you’re my husband.” She smiled sweetly, almost serenely. “I want to be a good wife to you, Teddy.”

She laid him bare with that.

That this woman felt he deserved her devotion humbled him. He could see that she didn’t know the worth of the prize she offered. It wasn’t her willingness to share his bed that amazed him. He didn’t want her sacrifice.

But my how he cherished her allegiance.

He held her hand in front of him and inspected her fingers. So fragile, yet so strong a woman was. He caressed her hand, webbing the elegant digits and unfolding it palm to palm with his own. A thrum of current passed through their hands, jolting him with the realization that this would be the hand he held for all his days. A very small, dignified hand compared to his oversized paw. She’d probably never understand that the influence she possessed when crooking a finger at him would be ten times more powerful than the brute strength of ten sturdy men.

She’d already made her mark on him, hadn’t she? Juliette had coaxed him away from the always present shade of his brother’s responsibilities today. She’d reminded him that he was still his own man, that he had his own life. And that the world wouldn’t fall apart, he hoped, if he took respite now and then. But what had it done for her today? She still organized the outing. All of the planning, all the details sewn neatly up. She’d merely traded one task for another.

There was something he could give her that no man had and no other man ever would. But to do it, he’d have to convince her to shut down the little General life had forced her to become. It was her mind he worried about. Would she be able to turn off the perpetual list maker? Could she succumb to the demands of her body without ceasing to prioritize and categorize and strategize what came next? He understood her dilemma; he’d lived in her world after all. But an urgency draped over him like a cloak—he needed her to think of him, and only him. He wanted to give her everything—he wanted her to experience the birth of the stars, not look at them to demarcate the constellations from one another.

He believed her when she told him she was obstinate. In order to bring her out of her head, Teddy would have to resort to being very, very wicked.

As dark thoughts traversed Teddy’s mind, his wife watched him warily. She had good reason. He intended to turn her world inside out before the sun set on this day. His need for her became suddenly very acute.

Filled with a purpose of his own choosing, he felt a free man. Freer even than he had been as a bachelor, for the tether of marriage apparently offered more than it restricted. He brought her hand to his mouth, pressing a soft kiss to the center of her palm, watching the play of emotion cross her features as a shiver moved down her spine.

“I am pleased by your compliance and consent to resume relations, Juliette.” He touched his tongue to her wrist next, and then followed with a kiss as her pulse leaped wildly beneath his mouth. “I’m wondering if I may be so bold as to ask for further concessions.”

She swallowed around the lump of hesitation in her throat, but was unable to erase it from her eyes where he read it clearly. “What would those be, sir?”

He regarded her carefully. She trembled and he wished he knew if it were fear or excitement. Maybe it was both. “Complete surrender, Juliette, nothing less. I want you to go along with everything I say.” He skimmed his finger in a figure eight across the soft flesh of her inner arm. “No questions, just an utter yielding to me. “

She sent him a soft smile even as he felt the gooseflesh raising on her arm. “You must know that goes against my very nature.”

“Yes, I know.” The inside of her elbow was especially sensitive to his ministrations.

“Then why do you ask it?”

“Do you trust me?”

The words hung in the air between them as he brought her hand back to his mouth and suckled a fingertip. He half-hoped she’d say no, for he wasn’t sure he was trustworthy. At that very moment, hot bursts of lust seemed to be setting his blood on fire, threatening to consume him. And he had no compunction about bringing her down with him. None.

“It’s not about trust.”

“Isn’t it?” He let go of her hand, she didn’t seem to know what to do with it when it was back in her possession. “I want you to give yourself completely to me. Can you do that?”

“I’m not sure I understand what you are asking. I’ve already told you—”

“You explained that you would lie with me, yes. I’m asking you to let go of everything else. Everything but me. For the next few hours, I want to own you mind, body, and soul.”

Chapter Six

Mind, body, and soul?

The man sitting next to Juliette should have seemed a stranger. The Teddy she knew would never make such improper requests. It was as if he were a different person, a dangerous cad.

An exciting, deliciously iniquitous cad.

Wherever he touched her, he left a path of riotous sensation. She’d been kissed on the hand by many a scoundrel of her brother’s ken, but never before had she felt it shoot arrows of delight to her core.

“And if I say yes, what can I expect from this supplication?” she asked, knowing, of course, that the time for saying no had long since passed. She’d committed herself to this course last night. That her insides were melting didn’t change her intent. This marriage would be a blessing to this man. She would make sure of it.

“I’m going to change your mind about making love, fair Juliette.” Teddy hovered a breath away from her face for a second, so that she knew he was coming, and then his mouth moved over hers, gently and then less so. His hands, capable of so much, held her face as if she were precious. He suckled her bottom lip and a riot of tingles stretched straight to her heart, and then lower still.

She opened her mouth to tell him he was wrong, and Teddy took the opportunity to sweep his tongue between her lips. The kiss kindled the embers he’d left from the breakfast room this morning, and a yearning surged throughout her entire body. She clutched his shoulders in desperation. It seemed he was the only anchor in a room spinning wildly out of control.

Teddy left her mouth to rain hot kisses up her jaw so he could whisper into her ear, “Does that mean yes, Juliette?”

She hadn’t a clue what the question was any longer, so she nodded her head and angled her neck so that he might return to her lips. Instead, he stood and pulled her up as well.

“Turn.”

She did as he asked until she realized he was undoing her stays. “Teddy,” she admonished. “We’re not in the bedroom.”

“You’re not to question me, remember?”

“But—”

“Relax. We’re completely alone.”

It simply wasn’t done.

And now, neither was her dress.

While his nimble, quick fingers had cajoled the ties swiftly, his removal of her gown then became a slow, torturous event. He began with a searing testament of hot breath and warm tongue on her earlobe as his hand caressed the flesh under the neckline. “I’m going to make love to you slowly, darling,” he whispered and the sensation of his words and moist kisses weakened her knees.

She couldn’t grasp a single thought. He pushed the material over her shoulders, kissing the exposed skin on her back as he went. Juliette was going to make a fool of herself; she could barely stand, and yet still he went slowly, as if her skin were ambrosia to be savored.

Lost in sensation, she hardly registered the gown had settled onto her hips until Teddy’s strong hands caressed her breasts. She sucked in a startled breath. “Please.”

“Please what, my love?”

“I’m going to fall.” She was so ashamed. Her leg bones had turned gelatinous. “Please don’t let me fall.”

Teddy pulled her to his chest, allowing her to lean against him while he cupped her breasts from behind. “Oh, but I want you to fall, Juliette. I want to fall with you,” he ground out, his voice husky, graveled in a lust she didn’t understand.

His fingers teased her nipples and she couldn’t help but arch into his chest, the material of his shirt against her bare skin making her even more aware of how wanton her behavior was becoming.

“That’s it,” he bade her, welcoming her to this madness with his roughened voice and lithesome fingers. “Let us fall together, Juliette.”

The juncture between her thighs felt heavy and tingled as if there were corded filaments of desire attaching it to her breasts. She ached with an unknown longing that grew stronger as Teddy continued to manipulate her breasts. It wasn’t proper, this desperation that overtook all sense. And when her skirt worked itself off her hips into a pool around her feet, she stopped caring for proper all together.

His hands were swift to find her bare skin and when one delved between her legs, they both moaned. He stroked her there while his other hand pinched gently around her nipple. “You’re so wet,” he managed, though his voice seemed strained.

She ought to be humiliated by the dampness. Juliette was sure it wasn’t supposed to happen this way, but his fingers in her sex were caressing and coaxing her to an entirely new state of mind. And by God if he didn’t care, then neither would she.

How shocking it should be that he was still fully clothed while he touched her…everywhere. He seemed to be urging her onward, as if he could sense the that she felt she was ascending towards something. She writhed against him, feeling his manhood through his trousers, the sinfulness of it sent her even higher. She clutched at the forearm against her breast.

“Teddy,” she gasped. Something was happening. Something wild and wonderful, and he didn’t slow his movements.

“You’re almost there.”

He sounded pained and just when she was about to ask if he was well, he nipped the soft skin where her neck met her shoulder, and she saw stars. She cried out, vaguely aware he was repeating, “yes, yes, yes” as she tumbled about the universe.

Teddy swooped her boneless body into his arms and carried her to the bedroom. She rested her head on his chest, aware his beat in the same violent rhythm as her own. Settling her on the edge of the bed, he removed her stockings and then stood, undoing his cravat and while watching her.

His fingers shook but his eyes showed no sign of nerves. Instead, they were completely focused on her with a predatory look and no sign of mercy. She imagined it would be his turn now, to take pleasure from her body. She owed him that after the gift he’d given her. The embarrassing, aberrant, wonderful gift.

She’d allow him his pleasure with grace and charity for certain.

Off came his shirt and a pleasant warmth passed over her again. Well, it was a good thing she found him beautiful, wasn’t it? Her mother had been wrong. Intercourse may not be pleasurable, but everything else about her husband certainly was. It was like—having to eat peas in order to get trifle.

“Juliette, you’re smiling.”

She blushed and turned her face away, but he dropped a kiss on her head and sat next to her to remove his boots.

She moved to the top of the bed and rest against the pillows. She would do this. She would even go so far as to allow him to think she enjoyed the act if that was what he wanted so badly.

When he stood again, this time to divest his breeches, the pleasant warmth turned into searing heat. She’d never looked upon a man, that part of him was still such a mystery.

She realized how ridiculous shyness was at this point. She’d been naked for quite awhile already, so she looked her fill of him. He was beautiful there, too. She didn’t know what she expected it to look like, but it didn’t appear unseemly or frightening—just captivating.

“Remember how I told you I was going to make love to you slowly?” he asked.

She nodded, returning her gaze to his face.

“I think I lied.” With that he was on her, pushing her onto her back, his body covering her.

The rush of his bare skin against hers set every nerve in her body vibrating. He was hard where she was soft, his skin unfamiliar yet wonderfully so. Already the flutters started again, the feeling that she was about to begin yet another ascension to the heavens.

* * *

He meant for a slow seduction, really it was his honest intention.

Teddy thought he did quite well holding back in the other room. He’d undressed her, stripped away all her defenses to him, and made her come apart in his arms until she couldn’t walk. It wasn’t until she looked at him with no more fear and an aroused curiosity that he thought he may embarrass himself. He’d been naked before, but never so exposed.

And now, on top of her, every inch of her silky, creamy skin touching him, he was sure he couldn’t bear it. He tried to focus on kissing her, pouring everything into her hot mouth, his longing, his aching need, and the desperateness she engaged in him when she began to use her tongue in the kiss. It was no use; he needed to be inside her. He needed it like he’d never required anything else before.

Teddy reached between them to ready her. His fingers slowly courted the curls at her apex while his mouth finally tasted the rouge tipped breasts he’d been teasing earlier. His heartbeat hastened and sounded loudly in his ears as he parted and stroked her. She dampened his fingers with her passion, her hot and sultry sex responding to him already, or maybe still. Juliette closed her eyes and writhed while he brought her higher and higher.

She looked like a goddess.

He felt like a god.

He replaced his fingers with the tip of his manhood and continued to stroke her until she cried out his name. It was then he entered her slowly, stopping when he felt her natural resistance.

Juliette wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him towards her for a kiss. Naked, skin to skin, he felt as close to heaven as he ever aspired to get.

Until she wrapped her legs around his back and drew his hips into hers, erasing all thought. He was too far gone to slow their fall into the welcoming abyss now.

This…this was heaven.

* * *

Teddy took her to that same wonderful place with his fingers again, and when she felt his manhood glide into her, a new need clawed from the inside. The rush of his skin, the taste of his tongue, and the musky smells of lovemaking surrounded her like a fog.

It was no longer necessary to protect his ego or feign interest. She needed him inside her. He played upon her need, building it higher and higher like a crescendo in a beautiful musical passage.

He grabbed her hands roughly and pinned them to the pillow on either side of her head, lost in the haze as she. He paused, filling her so completely, yet maddeningly still and contemplative. She glanced at their tightly clasped hands and then back at his face, tense with a war he fought with himself for patience. Beads of perspiration pooled at his temples, and she wondered what became of the well-mannered miss she used to be when she wanted to lick his skin.

Though it clearly pained him to remain still, he bent his head and suckled her breast. She arched her back and moaned his name as the stars returned. Her urgency spurred Teddy and he drove into her, hard and fast. There would be no more waiting, no more patience.

Juliette reveled in his loss of control. She found herself repeating his words to him, yes, yes, yes. With a final shudder, he emptied into her, his climax pushing her over the edge once again. And together they fell.

Just like he said they would.

Seven

The numbers in the ledger in front of Teddy blurred into incomprehensible nonsense like they had every day since they’d been back from his wife’s nabbing.

He wished he could blame Juliette, but the third time last night had been solely his idea. It was his own damned fault that he didn’t get enough rest at night to sustain him through a day anymore. He smiled. What a shame that was.

She was a constant surprise to him, his Juliette. It was hard to imagine that he ever cursed his brother for the impromptu wedding.

As if on cue, Derek strode into the library, looking oddly serious. That never happened. Teddy stood immediately. “What’s wrong?”

“Are you happy, Teddy?”

“Yes, of course.”

“I mean really, really happy?”

“Derek, you look unwell.”

His brother went back to the doors, locking them. Without a word, he poured them each a drink. As he handed one to Teddy, his hand shook. “So you don’t hate me for the wedding? You don’t hate her?”

Teddy looked into the amber liquid for an answer, aware that many men looked at the bottom of the glass for theirs. “I love my wife.”

There, it was out. Immediate relief followed the confession. He’d already admitted to himself that the match had made him unreasonably lucky. What he’d been slow to accept was that his heart was more involved than his head. Juliette blessed him with her body every night, her humor and intelligence every day—dare he hope for her heart for all of eternity?

Derek slanted his head at an angle. “Did you just say you love her?”

“Yes. I guess I did just say that.”

“I’m astonished, Teddy. Astonished and very pleased. I was worried…but now I see everything is unfolding the way it was meant to.”

Derek was up to something. What worried Teddy was there was no unabashed giddiness in his current machinations. Derek never did anything without an unsavory amount of glee.

“What the devil is going on?”

His brother drained his glass before he answered. “I’ve been in love for a very long time, Teddy.” Foreboding chilled the marrow of Teddy’s bones. “You’re very fortunate to be able to admit to yours in public.”

“Derek…”

“You know I’ll never marry. You’ve always known I’m a confirmed bachelor, yes?” He directed a knowing gaze at Teddy. In it, a lifetime of things unsaid. Things unheard of.

Teddy wanted to tackle him, make him stop. He didn’t want to hear the words, didn’t need to. His brother was irresponsible, yes…but he loved him. There were suspicions, of course, bandied about the ton, but no one dared accuse Derek because he was a duke. A very rich one.

“I haven’t been with a woman since I was seventeen years old, brother.”

Teddy met his gaze at that. “Cherice?”

“My mistress is kept very well for her only duty…discretion.”

“I don’t want to hear this.” Teddy drained his own glass, the poison burning his throat like he’d like to burn the words coming from Derek’s mouth.

“Peter and I—”

Teddy hurled the glass against the fireplace. “Do not continue!”

Derek clenched his jaw, an unrelenting reminder of how this none of this seemed real. Derek was never serious.

“Tomorrow, we are leaving for an impromptu trip of debauchery to Italy. Along the way, we will meet our untimely demise in a terrible fire. Our bodies will never be found amongst the chard ruins of the inn. All reports will give an accounting that we went as we would have wanted to go, drunk and in the arms of whores we’d acquired that night.”

“What the devil are you saying?”

“I shall miss you, my brother, but I can not tell you where we are really retiring to. I don’t trust that you’d leave well enough alone, and I can’t risk you losing everything you’ve worked for.”

“Well enough alone? Are you mad? You’re faking your own death?”

Walking to the mantel was a man Teddy had never seen before. A tired man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He leaned on one arm to brace himself. “There is no other way. Sodomy is a capital offense.”

“So you’ll just run.” The thought of never knowing where Derek was or if he was well sliced Teddy’s soul.

“We’ve been discreet—but the talk becomes louder.”

“What about Juliette? I won’t let you do this to her.”

“Juliette has been thought of well in advance, I can assure you. The plan to bind the two of you has been in the works for years. We would never have left her unprotected—that you love her is the biggest gift you could have given either of us.”

“Given you?” Damn it, he wished he had another glass to hurl. “Your selfishness has no bounds. This will destroy her.”

“And what would it have done if instead we were found out? Tried and hanged? Would that be easier? At least this way there will be no mar to her reputation, nor yours.”

“Can’t you just…not…?”

“Not love Peter? Surely, brother. Why didn’t I think of that sooner? Think of all these years I’ve wasted living in disgrace, burning with the knowledge that I could never be who I really am.”

Teddy looked away, shame flushing angrily on his cheeks.

“What if someone told you that you should not love Juliette? That you should be able to see her across a room and not ache to be at her side. That she should marry another? Make a life with someone else—anyone else—but not you?”

“I’m sorry.” And he was. He was sorry for the lot of them.

“I don’t expect you to condone my choices. I would hope that you could understand them.”

Teddy understood that he would defy to world to love Juliette. Yes, he understood.

“As it is, the dukedom is safe from rancor. You’ve been running it for years, everyone knows it. The creditors, the tenants, the bankers—they are already far more comfortable with you than they have ever been with me. Juliette will be a wonderful duchess.”

“She needs to know the truth.”

“Nay, Teddy.”

“She is stronger than you know. She deserves the truth, I won’t lie to her.”

Derek looked at him for a long time. “I shall miss you, little brother. More than words can say.”

Teddy didn’t understand a lot of things. It made no sense to him how Derek could have those kinds of feelings for another man; in truth, it went against so much that he believed in, the order that sustained his life. But beyond all that, Derek was his brother. He drove him mad more often than not, but he loved him.

The first step was the hardest. After that, each succeeding footfall that brought him closer to his brother became easier, more urgent. When at last he could reach him, he palmed his shoulder. And then he embraced him, likely for the first time since they were boys. And he remembered what it had been like then, when Derek had been the one he turned to when he was frightened or unsure. Derek who taught him to climb trees and then cleaned his knees when he fell. Derek who held him when he cried after their father’s funeral.

In reality, it had also been Derek who taught him how to keep accounts, how to tell if a man was lying to you in business, how to act like a duke. And when he learned those lessons, it was then that his brother let go.

Losing him was like losing a father all over again.

* * *

She’d always known her brother wasn’t like other men.

It never bothered Juliette; she just never understood why it meant that she must take care of everything all the time. Take care of everyone.

At least she’d had help with the funeral. Laying her brother “to rest” would have been much more difficult if it hadn’t been for Teddy. And now, all was said and done—Mother was living in the far west wing, Peter and Derek were adventuring in parts unknown with new identities and piles and piles of pounds.

And she had Teddy.

He never faltered, not once. And she hoped she offered him the same measure of comfort. She waited for him to come to bed, staring into the fire blazing in their bedroom as if they ever needed help keeping it warm.

“Good evening, your grace.” He surprised her from behind the sofa, placing his sure hands on her shoulders. She tilted her head back for a kiss and as usual, the passion overtook them.

In what seemed only heartbeats of time, she was straddling his lap, the fire warming her back while he stoked the flames inside her. Suddenly, he stilled her hips with his hands and looked up at her. His eyes were darkened with passion, but something else alit them as well.

He brushed the hair from her shoulder to her back and gently placed his hand over her heart. “I fell, Juliette. I can’t tell you exactly when it happened. I should have told you sooner…”

“Now is fine, Teddy. Tell me now.” Now, while we’re naked and you are inside me.

“I love you. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t.”

She placed her hand over his heart, awed by the power of its beat. “I love you, too. I love the way you control everything so meticulously except your passion for me. I love the way you make me feel important, but never overwhelmed. And I love that when I do this…” She moved her hips and his hands squeezed her tightly, reflexively. “When I do that, you can barely control yourself.”

“I can control myself.”

She did it again.

He groaned.

Juliette giggled.

“Alright wife, you’ve had your fun. I’m a duke now and I have certain responsibilities.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes. This is very important.” He lowered his hands to her bottom. “I need an heir. Urgently. We must work on it day and night until we get one. No theatrics.”

“Well then, my lord, let’s just dispense with the awkward deed and hope for the best.”

The End

About the Author

Gwen Hayes lives in the Pacific Northwest with her real life hero, their four children, and the pets that own them. She writes books for teen readers about love, angst, and saving the world. Her debut novel, FALLING UNDER, will be released in March of 2011 by NAL.

For more information about Gwen, please visit her website at www.gwenhayes.com.

Table of Contents

Second Son of a Duke