Page 68 of Rejected

“I am,” Justin took her hand and kissed the back of it lightly. “I won’t.”

Jo watched him walk into his room.What rot, she thought. She did think he was in earnest, but she did not trust him for a second.

Justin had never been able to keep a promise in his life.

Epilogue two

“Dominic has gotten a new governess,” Laurie said over the breakfast table, reading a letter from Jo’s brother. It was a month after that night of Justin’s return from the war. “For his ward, apparently.”

Spring was around the corner—it always reminded Jo of the night at the ball.

The night of what Laurie called ‘the first proposal’, then adding, with one of his devilish grins ‘the first of many’. Jo still could not think of that night without a twinge of regret and shame, but she was enjoying herself too much in this new life with Teddy to dwell on past mistakes too much.

Which was new for her.

“Who is Dominic again?” she asked. “Is he the one with the broken heart, the bitter one? Or is he the haughty one? The one who advised you and Justin to be cruel and unforgiving when you were haunting the same clubs in London together, years ago?”

“He is all that,” Laurie smirked. “And a duke as well. The Duke of Ashton.”

“Lord help us,” Jo said.

“Justin writes that it is going to be, and I quote, ‘quite a joke’.”

“That poor governess. I can’t see how she can feel anything but hatred for the man the minute she sets eyes on him.”

“Ah, you forget how good-looking the scoundrel is,” Laurie said. “And now he’s got a dukedom, well…”

“What? She’ll set her cap at him? A governess? That is preposterous—ridiculous.”

“So are governesses, I hear.”

“Not this one.” Jo had a sip of her tea, smacking her lips with satisfaction at the warmth that flooded her. “If Justin is taking the trouble of writing you about her, something is different with this one. Then again, she might not. Your idiot of a friend hired her, after all.”

“He is not my friend anymore,” Laurie lifted an eyebrow at her. “Haven’t seen the fellow for ages.” He stood.

“Well, let us hope she doesn’t get too upset by him.”

“Let us hope she getshimupset.” He was standing by her chair now. Then, he was kneeling at her feet. “’Tis good for a man to get upset by a woman every now and then,” he said, his voice turning to liquid honey. His eyes glittered. Jo let her napkin drop to the floor. Neither of them even saw it. “Might end up being good for the kind of scoundrel the duke is. The kind of idiot I use to be too, once upon a time.”

They looked at each other and laughed softly, the kind of laughter that comes easily with familiarity and love. Outside the window, thunder rumbled. The first of the spring rains was about to water the hardened earth.

“I might have ended up arrogant like him, you know,” Laurie said, still on his knees. His hands slowly came around her thighs, then her waist, then her hair. “If you hadn’t humbled me. If you hadn’t rejected me. Have I told you that? Did me a world of good.”

“You liar,” Jo whispered. “It destroyed you.”

“Oh, it definitely did,” Laurie murmured against her lips. “Destroy me again, please?”

And Jo leaned down and obliged.