Page 20 of Bound to the Heartless Duke (Regency Beasts #4)

I t had become an increasingly irritating pattern. One that Lily was determined to break, if not avoid altogether. But no matter where she went in the manor, Magnus was there—or worse, leaving, with that maddening smirk curving his lips like he’d anticipated her arrival down to the very second.

Something about him seemed different. That flicker of vulnerability she had spotted on the hill had been nowhere to be found since that moment.

She saw him that morning near the stables, where she had intended to fetch a letter Summer had left in the post satchel.

Magnus had been leaning against the fence, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, conversing with the stablehand. Upon seeing her, he had tipped his head (perhaps mockingly) and asked if she needed help locating “her betrothed’s love notes.” However, she had walked off without a reply.

The second time she saw him was near the back parlor, where she needed a quiet moment with a book. However, Magnus, being Magnus, had apparently felt the same need for silence and decided to lounge there with a glass of brandy while flipping through some political journal.

When she walked past him, he had lowered the journal with careful slowness and asked dryly, “Do you ever think about him when you’re alone with your thoughts? Mr. Bailey, I mean.”

She remembered how she had shot him a glare; she couldn’t understand his obsession with her and Mr. Bailey.

The third time she saw him was in the drawing room. She had drawn to a halt in the doorway. And there he was again, stretched out on her favorite chair by the window, a book balanced carelessly in his hand.

“I’m beginning to think you’re following me,” she said, unable to help herself.

Magnus looked up without blinking. “Ah, so you’ve finally noticed.” He smirked.

She stepped into the room, folding her arms tightly across her chest like armor. “What do you want?”

He closed the book with deliberate calm and placed it on the side table. “I’ve been watching you.”

“Well, that much is clear,” she scoffed, but her voice cracked slightly.

“And I’ve been thinking…”

He stood up and approached her slowly, with a casualness that made her heart stutter, skipping like a stone over water.

“This little arrangement with Mr. Bailey won’t last,” he declared matter-of-factly.

Lily blinked in disbelief. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” His voice was calm, but there was tension beneath it, something wound tight like a spring.

“Just because you don’t think he’s suitable, doesn’t mean I agree,” she huffed, lifting her chin stubbornly, her fingers curling around her elbows like she needed something to anchor her.

“I know you don’t agree,” he said, his hands tucked behind his back, though his posture was anything but relaxed. “You laughed when he compared his coat buttons to Grecian coins.”

“They did look like coins,” Lily muttered.

Magnus gave a faint smile. “Don’t lie, Lily. You were trying not to double over with laughter.”

She exhaled sharply through her nose. “What is your point, Magnus?”

He stepped closer, his dark gaze narrowing. “My point is that you’ll tire of the farce. And when you do, when you realize that marrying a man who refers to himself in the third person is a terrible fate, I’d like to offer you an alternative.”

“An alternative,” she echoed, furrowing her brow in confusion.

He paused, deliberately prolonging the silence. “Yes.”

“Surprising. Who?”

His voice dropped slightly. “Me.”

For a beat too long, Lily forgot how to breathe. Her chest felt too tight, her throat too dry. Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline.

Eventually, when she remembered how teasing he could be, she let out a laugh. Yet, it lacked conviction.

“You are not funny.”

“I’m not joking.”

She paused to stare at him in disbelief. She wasn’t sure what to do with him.

“You are…offering to marry me?”

He nodded once, solemn as a vicar. “Seems a better option than Bailey, doesn’t it? I may gamble, drink, and lack basic civility?—”

“And own a gaming hell.”

“Yes, that too.” He nodded.

She stared at him for a long moment, waiting for his serious expression to crack with his usual smirk. But it didn’t.

“But I don’t call myself Ronald the Remarkable , so that’s something,” he added.

Her lips twitched despite herself—a small crack in the wall she’d built.

“You’re not serious.” She simply refused to believe him.

“I am.” He stepped toward her like a man who had decided something and would not be swayed. “And don’t pretend the idea hasn’t occurred to you.”

“It hasn’t.”

“Liar.”

Her lashes fluttered briefly. “I am not a liar.”

“You are,” he said, his voice lower now, teasing but laced with something else. Something charged, almost aching. “Because you’re standing here, clearly bothered. Not because you find Bailey distasteful—which you do—but because I’m right.”

“Your confidence in your delusion is very much infuriating,” she snapped, before turning away from him and to the fire, as if the flames would help her situation.

But Magnus followed after her. Of course, he did.

“I don’t need your help,” she insisted, though her voice shook slightly.

If he meant what he said, then he probably wanted to gamble with her as well. He definitely wasn’t doing it because he?—

“Oh, you certainly do. I’ve seen the guest list Nathan has drafted. Each suitor is worse than the last.”

“And yet none as bad as you,” she fired back, spinning back to face him. “Do you honestly think I would marry the man who took my home?”

He raised an eyebrow, unbothered. “You’d rather listen to the man who lost it?”

She froze at that, her breath caught somewhere between fury and pain. The silence stretched out longer than she wanted. But it was long enough for what she needed.

“That was cruel.” Her voice dropped to a whisper.

“That was honest .” Magnus tilted his head, his voice softer now but no less firm. “You don’t hear lies from me, Lily. Remember?”

Silence settled between them again. But this time, it was charged.

“I know what you think of me,” Lily said finally, her voice low and raw. “That I’m just another foolish girl looking to be saved.”

“No,” Magnus assured, stepping close enough that she had to tilt her head back to meet his gaze. “I think you’re the first woman who’s ever seen through every facade I wear and still insists on pretending she feels nothing.”

His words hung between them, dangerous and intoxicating. Something unsaid pulsed there, just beneath the surface.

Lily swallowed hard, her heart hammering against her ribcage like it wanted to burst out. “You’re unbearable.”

“And yet you’re still here.”

He was too close now. Far too close. And her heart had begun to do that thing again where it began to beat too fast, threatening to spill out of her chest.

Lily took a deep breath, but it did little to calm her. Every nerve felt stretched and tight.

And when she was still struggling to gather herself, he said the most ridiculous words. The most infuriatingly certain words in a calm and unhurried manner.

“You will be mine in no time.”

Once again, she was transfixed as she was when she looked into his lovely green eyes.

Today they were especially enchanting, reminding her of her favourite hideout in the country, a lovely meadow with a sleepy willow tree she napped under.

He was unfairly handsome, the duke and his shapely lips called her attention.

. Her chest rose and fell quickly beneath her bodice, every breath betraying her.

“You—” She broke off, her fingers curling into her skirt. “I would never want you.Not in that way. Not in any way.”

He smiled mockingly at her, eyes saying exactly what he thought.

Her mouth opened, ready to argue, to deny it again, but the words wouldn’t come.

Magnus leaned in, finally closing the gap between them. “You don’t tell your friends I own a gaming hell and pretend that fact doesn’t interest you. You glare at me like I’m the devil and blush like I’m your sin.”

“Stop it,” she whispered.

It sounded more like a plea, because she knew the things his voice did to her; she knew how easily his words could stir her desire.

“You want me to stop?” He raised his hand and brushed his rough knuckles over her cheekbone. “Or do you want me to make good on my offer?”

She turned her head away, hiding her expression, but his hand followed, gently turning her gaze back to his.

“I could marry you,” he rasped, his voice laced with an edge she had never heard before. “I could give you my name, take you to London, give you everything you were raised to have. Give you back the manor. And in return…” His eyes darkened, locked on her lips. “You’d let me touch you like this.”

His thumb swept along her lower lip in a slow and reverent motion, and she almost stopped breathing.

“You’re vile,” she breathed.

“And yet,” he said, his hand sliding down to the side of her neck, feeling the flutter of her pulse there, “you haven’t moved away.”

She couldn’t.

Lily hated that he knew that. But more than anything, she hated how his nearness felt terrible and perfect all at once.

“You said you’d never want me,” he murmured, his hand sliding down to the small of her back. “Then tell me that now. Look me in the eye and say it again.”

She looked up, ready to lie, to scream it if she had to. But the words didn’t come. They were stuck in her throat.

She watched his face draw closer to her own as if in slow motion.

Until his lips captured hers in a kiss.

It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t slow. It was greedy and unapologetic and full of every argument they’d ever had. He claimed her mouth like a man possessed. His strong hands dropped to wrap around her waist before pulling her against him.

Lily gasped; she couldn’t help it. Magnus seized the opportunity to deepen the kiss, pushing his tongue into her mouth with a fervor that nearly made her knees buckle.

She tried to resist him, but eventually, she surrendered, lifting her hands to his chest to steady herself.

His jacket hit the floor first, followed by his waistcoat, disposed of without a care as he pressed her back against the wall, his mouth never leaving hers.

The tension had broken, their argument forgotten, but not the heat. If anything, it had increased like a storm, finally given permission to roar.

Lily whimpered as his hands slid around her thighs, lifting her off the floor in one effortless motion. Instinctively, her legs wrapped around his waist, her skirts bunched between them as he pinned her to the wall, every inch of his stronger body flush against her.

Pressed against him, she felt the heat of his chest. His shirt was unbuttoned and pushed aside, and her palms slid up to touch his warm skin. She moaned softly as her fingers traced the ridges of his abdomen.

“Tell me to stop,” he muttered against her lips, his voice raw. “Say the word, Lily, and I will.”

But she didn’t.

Instead, her hands continued tracing the muscles of his back as her lips moved against his, trying to mirror the intensity of his caresses..

He responded hungrily, his mouth moving to her neck.

He kissed just beneath her ear, then along her throat, and lower still.

Her head tipped back, helpless against the tremors wracking her body.

It left her breathless how his touch on her skin filled her with heat that threatened to consume her.

His teeth nipped her at a spot on her neck that had her gasping, alternataing with his tongue to cool the sting.

He slowed down for a moment, breathing hard against her skin.“This is madness,” he whispered.

She blinked, her breath catching.

And in that instant of hesitation, the barest second of clarity, she knew he was right.

It was madness.

Because this wasn’t just an attraction. It wasn’t just relief or loneliness or proximity.

It was him.

And he was everything she shouldn’t want.

With a shaky exhale, she pulled back slightly, enough to catch her breath.

Magnus paused, too. His grip on her loosened, but he didn’t release her. His gaze was searching, stormy, as if waiting for her to retreat, to regret it all. To call it a mistake, like she did the previous time.

But she didn’t.

Her fingers curled against his bare chest, and she rested her forehead against his.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she whispered.

His thumb stroked her hip. “Neither do I.”

Silence lingered between them, save for the rise and fall of their chests. Heavy and heated.

His voice dropped again, softer this time. “Say something, Lily.”

She shook her head, her eyes closed. “If I say anything, it’ll make it real.”

A long pause. “Maybe it already is.”

She opened her eyes. His mesmerizing ones were still on her, bare, vulnerable in a way that did something to her soul.

“I don’t want to be yours,” she breathed. “And I don’t want you to be mine.”

Lie. She knew all of it was a lie.

“But you are,” he murmured.

He kissed her again. Only this time, it was slower, gentler, yearning.

She didn’t kiss him back, just allowed her whole being to absorb his kiss.

Lily was about to close her eyes and fall deeper into the kiss when a voice sounded down the hall.

“Lily?”

It was Nathan.

They both froze right there, with her back pressed against the wall, her legs wrapped around his waist, her hands stroking his naked chest.

But then Magnus’s grip tightened on her, as though he didn’t want to care if Nathan saw them in such a position. But Lily was already slipping down, her skirts falling back into place.

“Lily, are you upstairs?” Nathan’s voice called again, getting closer.

Lily pressed a finger to Magnus’s lips. “Don’t.”

Magnus took a moment to look down at her, and for a second, she saw the flicker of hurt in his eyes. However, he silently grabbed his shirt and coat before stepping away.

When Nathan appeared seconds later, Lily stood near the window, pretending to fuss with the drapes.

“There you are,” her brother said, frowning. “You weren’t in your room.”

“I needed air,” she explained, not turning.

Magnus, now fully dressed, offered a tight nod. “Just passing by.”

Nathan glanced between them, suspicion flickering in his eyes, but he didn’t comment.

“Come, Lily,” he said, eventually. “Bailey sent a letter. He’s calling tomorrow.”

Lily gave a faint smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Lovely.”

Nathan nodded stiffly and left.

The moment the door shut behind him, Lily turned to Magnus. “Don’t make this worse.”

He smiled faintly. “It’s already too late for that.”