Page 56 of Her Ruse with the Rakish Duke

“But that isn’t fair,” she complained.

“Marriage is never fair for women.” He leaned back, throwing an arm over his head in a languid state. “That is why many women take lovers other than their husbands.”

Daphne shook her head in shock.

“Then you better make sure you never marry. If you do, you will find yourself pleasuring yourself to the memory of my tongue between your legs many a night.”

He really was a crude man. She had just about had enough of him.

She stood to dress and leave but he tried to stop her with a hand on her arm.

“I have hurt you, haven’t I?”

She said nothing but stilled her movements.

“I am sorry, but I cannot let you go blindly into that. I tell you the truth as a friend.”

“If you were to marry, would you do the same?”

He was silent for such a long a while that she thought he wouldn’t answer.

“I would,” he answered. “If I marry a proper Society miss.”

She turned away from him to dress.

“Why are you upset?” he asked, rising from the bed and wrapping a robe about himself.

“Do you need to ask?”

“Would you have preferred I lie?”

“No, but…”

“But?” he raised an eyebrow.

She lifted her hand to hit him, but he stopped her.

“I really do hate that crude tongue of yours.”

“You and I both know that is a lie,” he laughed, spanking her bottom and pulling her against him so she could feel the evidence of his desire poking at her belly. “You nearly ripped my hair out when you had it inside you.”

“That’s only because it is as wicked as the person it is attached to.”

“Come. Let me show you just how wicked my tongue can be.”

ChapterFourteen

“Oh, the duke is coming.” Daphne’s father smiled.

“You should invite him to play on our team, Daphne,” her mother suggested, even though she knew it was most definitely a command. “He looks really smart on his feet so he would be able to help us win.”

She tried not to redden, but since the night he had shown her what passion could look like, she had found it hard to be around him and tamp down her desire. She wondered how she was going to be around him without giving them both away.

“He might have other plans, Mother,” she tried to dissuade them, “I do not want to be a bother.”

“Plans that exclude you? I hope not,” her father stated. “In my day when a man was courting a woman, he would not be parted from her. Not for one minute.”

They laughed at the thought of that.