Page 7 of Kiss the Duke Goodbye (The Troublesome Trio #3)
CHAPTER 7
WHERE A COUPLE FIND THEIR WAY
C larissa arrived at her cottage just after midnight to find a slumbering duke sprawled across her sofa. In fact, he was close to sliding off the piece and tumbling to the floor.
Laughing softly, she crossed to him with threads of love weaving through her heart. His jacket and greatcoat lay in a wad at his feet, his waistcoat and cravat scattered about. He’d unbuttoned his shirt, exposing the dark wisps of hair trailing to his belly. The bottle of whisky she’d bought last week sat, half-empty, on the table by his side. The chemist she’d purchased it from claimed that Islay, a Scottish island located in the Inner Hebrides, produced the best in the world.
She wanted her duke to have the finest of everything. Love did that to a girl.
Sighing, she went to her knee beside him. Hadn’t he read the note she’d left with Mrs. Newton? The trip to Surrey and back was set to take the entire day, and she hadn’t wanted him to worry. Nor had she wanted him to come along, even if he stayed in the carriage. Dealing with her father as a grown woman rather than an apprehensive child was an undertaking she had to accomplish on her own.
The visit had gone better than she’d anticipated. She’d cut the strings to one life and tied them to another. Walked away from a past that didn’t deserve more contemplation.
“Knox, darling,” she whispered into his ear. She pressed a kiss to his lips and took a joyous breath. He smelled of her expensive Scotch, leather, and the faint scent of vetiver.
He murmured sleepily, reaching around her to draw her close. “I’m dreaming.”
Tickling her nose against his cheek, she smiled. “No, you’re not.”
He blinked, slumber flowing from his eyes. They were wide and oh , so green. Like blades of grass in the spring. She’d never tire of gazing into them. “I thought you’d left me.”
She thrust aside the flicker of irritation with her housekeeper. He’d never gotten her note. Mrs. Newton was only protecting her from a powerful man she assumed was going to bring her employer trouble. Like the rest of the world, the two souls in this room were the only ones who’d ever understand. Cradling his jaw, she turned his lips to hers. The caress was soft, tender, and knowing. “Why would I ever leave you?”
Turning in a fury to his side, he caught her face in his hands and swept her into the most possessive kiss of their relationship. She fell into him, over him, where they tussled, fighting to deepen an embrace that merely ended with them toppling to the floor.
“Heavens, you’re heavy,” she whispered in a gusting gasp.
He shifted to bring her under his long body, nudging a table away irritably with his boot. “You’ve always liked it before,” he said against her lips, trying to dive in where they’d left off before the tumble.
Alas, she knew where this would end up. They were the worst two for maintaining decorum once the kissing started.
She pushed his chest, forcing him back. “Knox, I have to talk to you.”
He paused, that haunted look returning to his face. Her heart ached for the boy who’d been so easily disregarded that the man thought it was an available option. “I don’t know if I want to hear this. If I can.”
Wiggling from beneath him, she hushed him by placing her hand over his mouth, where he promptly gave her a good nip with his teeth. “Ouch, you arrogant beast!”
He rose to his feet, exhaled sharply, and began to pace the room. He made it to the chess set where he fiddled with a pawn, a queen, then a rook. His instruction was ongoing, though his play had not improved.
Settling against the settee, Clarissa let him fidget. For a minute or more before she spoke. “I have a proposal to make.”
Halting, he propped his hip against the escritoire they’d nearly taken down that first night. She would never be able to work there without thinking about him exploring the most intimate parts of her and making them blossom, coming to life . His lessons had been thorough and welcome. For this, too, she thanked him.
He’d captured not only her mind and heart—but her body.
He whipped his hand in a fast circle and gave his bootheel a pop on the carpeted floor. “Out with it. You’re killing me in slow degrees. A thousand cuts, don’t they say?”
Drawing her legs to her chest, she arranged her skirt carefully around her. She didn’t need him going off-course. There was plenty of time for that after they’d decided their future.
Although Knox’s gaze tracked her like he held a bow in his hands and she was the target. He swallowed, shifting his legs to hide a reaction there was no use trying to hide, the darling man. “I’m losing focus, love, I have to admit. Maybe it’s the whisky. Or maybe it’s simply you.”
She smiled, pleased. Lifting her skirt, she gave him a brief, tantalizing view.
He groaned, but took her signal, staying where he was. His shaft, however, was an impressive sight, tenting his trousers.
Out with it, Clarissa , she reminded herself.
Hugging her knees, she propped her chin atop them. Nerves were racing through her belly and zipping out her trembling hands. “I went to visit my father. That’s where I was all day. He’s in the country, in Surrey.”
Knox cursed, impatience he rarely showed roaring to life. Growling, he shoved off the desk. “You went to bloody Surrey without me? To see that blackguard?”
“This was my battle to fight, Knox, not yours.”
His chest fell on a sigh. “Why, Clari? Why did you go to him?”
Clari . She treasured the endearment. He’d said it the first time while they were making love eight short days ago, a moment burned into her memory. “Because I love you more than I’d imagined I could love someone. Because I’m happy, truly happy. Because I want to have your children, I want to be your wife , not your mistress. A situation that would destroy us. And I was getting desperate enough to consider it.”
Clarissa pressed a smile into her knotted fingers at his thunderstruck expression.
By heaven , she’d done the impossible.
She’d silenced Knoxville DeWitt.
His gaze dropped as his lips moved, although the crackle of the hearthfire was the only sound in the room. When he looked back, she was entranced to see his cheeks were flushed, his eyes bright with what she suspected were tears.
“I—” He coughed into his fist, and rocked from boot to boot before he strode across the room. Dropping to his haunches before her, he rolled his bottom lip between his teeth and tried again. “I came here today to ask you the same question. Last night, in the moonlight, you sleeping, with my body and mind sated, I decided I could not, would not, live without you. I’m not willing to let my obligations rule this aspect of my life when it rules so many others. I love you endlessly, beyond measure. There is, in fact, no measure. Then, despite my impulsive planning, blast all independent chits, you end up asking first.”
She grasped his hand, winding her fingers through his. He hung on, tightly enough to let her know he was never letting go. “I had to ask, Knox. Because I won’t have you believing you’ve made a sacrifice for me.”
His gaze narrowed, his grip tensing. “You’re worth any sacrifice, Clari. Don’t you understand that?”
“It was only my pride, darling, which in the end is hardly worth mentioning.”
He let her go, bracing his hands on his knees, but he didn’t leave her. “You asked Pemberly for your dowry.”
She laughed, delighted. “I asked him for a loan . I would never take his money without the promise of returning it in full, with interest. He’s no more than a banker to me, merely one I knew wouldn’t boot me from his office. My threat to expose our relationship was quite enough to get him to agree. I’m quite the handiest blackmailer in the family.”
Knox’s lips parted, his breath streaking through them. “You didn’t.”
“Oh, yes, I did. He deserves that and more.”
Knox rolled his shoulders, his gaze dancing about the room, avoiding hers. “I don’t feel good about this. And I’m a bit terrified of you, truth be told.”
Clarissa slapped his knee, getting irritated herself. “What’s the difference? You were willing to take any number of society settlements without complaint.”
“Of course, but I don’t love those women! While I wish most humbly for your respect, your love.”
Clarissa stilled, appeased. This made sense to her. She must be learning to speak Duke. “Can we think of this, always, as our money? Our life? When you and your brothers’ investments come to fruition, that will be more than my shop will ever make.”
Wiggling his signet ring off, he held it out to her. “When I can, I will do better, but until then, this comes with my heart and my promise to make you incredibly happy until the end of my days. It comes with everything, Clarissa. If you’ll only agree to become my duchess. I have a lifetime of vows I want to make to you.”
She sniffled, letting him place it on her finger. Knox normally wore it on his pinky, so it fit her ring finger rather well. A dab of candle wax on the inside of the band, and it would be perfect. The garnet shimmered in the lamplight, the facets dancing over her skirt. “Duchesses make the finest bonnets, or so I’ve heard.”
He hauled her against him and rolled them to the floor, the amorous devil. “Is that so?”
Curling her fingers in the silken strands above his ear, she guided his lips to hers. “Don’t argue with your intended, Your Grace.”
“I wouldn’t dare, Miss Marlowe. Not after what I know about her extortion expertise.”
He kept his promise to not disagree with her for an entire day.
But he kept the other promise for a lifetime.