Page 7 of The Cursed Duke (Wayward Dukes' Alliance #19)

What is wrong with you, Steppingford?

Giles shook his head after he ordered tea from the footman who answered his tug on the bell pull. In the adjoining dressing room while his new wife lay rumpled and apparently sated on his four-poster bed, he shucked off his evening breeches, the hosiery, as well as the expensive lawn shirt then moved behind the privacy screen to relieve himself.

At the damned wedding breakfast, when Hannah’s family thought to ridicule her, he’d grown so incensed that he’d thrown her over his shoulder like a Viking. He’d only meant to remove her from them—her past—and give her the freedom and a future she sorely needed, but when he arrived at his suite and tossed her onto his bed, desire had run away with him. The sight of her at sixes and sevens in the middle of the counterpane with her skirting awry and her legs on display had driven him made with longing.

And then he’d claimed her, bedded her like an animal, fucked her almost like a savage. What must she think of him? He snorted as he moved to the water basin, scooped relatively cool water into his hands and then splashed it onto his face and chest. Not that it mattered. He wouldn’t be a member of Club Damnation if he was a good person. It also didn’t matter that before he went away to India he’d been a member of the Wayward Dukes Alliance as well, an organization that helped the less fortunate and generally did good works, but that time in his life seemed a million years ago.

When he’d believed in love and romance and went through life secure because he’d had a woman at his side who adored him.

Until it had all crumbled down around his ears. Now here he was, married to a woman he didn’t know let alone love, and the only reason he’d wed her was due to that tenuous connection between them during that first meeting and the knowledge that she deserved better than what life had given her regarding her family.

As he padded to the clothespress, Giles yanked up one of the doors. He rooted in the drawers and pulled out a favorite pair of tan-colored breeches along with a well-worn, loose-fitting lawn shirt. Of course, once he’d kissed Hannah, felt her curves in his hands, lust had inspired a large portion of his actions, but that was beside the point.

The chit was too young, too inexperienced, too… damned captivating. To say nothing of her tart mouth and the way she expressed her thoughts with sarcasm and curiosity. That further piqued his interest. And that was surprising enough that he wanted to possibly give their union a chance. As he yanked his breeches up his legs, he shook his head. It might make him the biggest nodcock and an object of ridicule for his club members, but ever since he left India, he’d longed for companionship and a reason to keep going… greater than keeping his title alive.

After he’d donned his shirt, Giles returned to the bedchamber. His wife had left the bed and set her bodice to rights, though she’d removed her slippers. As she stood at the window, she pushed open the glass and then breathed deeply of the late summer breeze that immediately wafted into the room.

When he softly cleared his throat, she turned around and regarded him with eyes as blue and fathomless as the deep depths of the sea. “I adore how fresh air feels on my face, how it smells… if you ignore the horse excrement and rubbish in the gutters at times.”

“There is that.” Not that he’d ever thought about the air before. “I can tell you that it’s much worse in India, where there are more people and much more widespread squalor.”

For the space of a few heartbeats, Hannah regarded him, but he couldn’t read the emotions shadowing her eyes. “You are quite fortunate to live in Manchester Square. There are so many trees and shrubberies in this neighborhood, it’s like a veritable forest if you peer at it from the right angle.”

“I like it because it doesn’t feel like living in Mayfair with it being tucked away, and it is quite close to Hyde Park.” He nodded. “I like to ride in the mornings.”

“As do I, but Mama rarely let me do it while in London.” She frowned, and his gaze dropped to her mouth, that damned mouth he wished to employ in so many ways. “At Papa’s country estate, there was a bit more freedom, but although I’m a decent horsewoman, she said endlessly riding wouldn’t see me matched.”

How interesting. “What did she want you to do with your time, then?”

She shrugged. “Embroidery and handiwork, glue shells to trinket boxes, and paint? I can honestly say I don’t enjoy any of those things and they didn’t miraculously bring a man panting to our door.”

Whatever else happened, his new wife had a way of phrasing things that almost demanded that he laugh. When was the last time he’d wanted to do that? One corner of his mouth tipped upward in a grin. “Ah, well then, that will come as a shock to all the hopeful misses out there who are doing those very things as they wait for a husband.”

A discreet knock on the door had him looking toward the adjoining dressing room that also served as a sitting room. Seconds later, the footman came into the space. Giles trailed into the room as the other man put a silver tea service onto a low table in front of a sofa.

“Ring should you need anything else, Your Grace.”

“Thank you.” Once the footman left the room and closed the door behind him, Hannah came into the room, and renewed awareness rippled over Giles’ skin. When she settled on the sofa, he took a chair near her location. “Regarding what happened between you and I…”

She shook her head. “There is nothing to explain. It was your right as my husband and my duty toward you. No harm or foul no matter that we both enjoyed it.”

“You did?”

“Yes.” Her expressive gaze landed fully on him. “Are women—wives—not allowed to enjoy lying with a man?”

“I wouldn’t know, but there are segments of society who believe that carnal relations are not there to be enjoyed, that they are there only to procreate, or—”

“—allow husbands to satiate their urges?” she finished with an arched eyebrow and heavy sarcasm in her voice. “My mother hinted about that.” When she reached for the teapot, he waved her off.

“Yes, well, I want you to know all of that is false. Sex is there to be enjoyed by all parties, regardless of the reasons for coming together.” Leaning forward, Giles took a teacup in hand, poured amber liquid into the vessel, then handed it to her.

Surprise lined her expression. “Thank you.” Once she’d added a splash of cream and a small lump of sugar to her cup and stirred it with a delicate silver spoon, she rested her impossibly blue gaze on him. “If I ask you a question, will you tell me the truth?”

“As much as I can.” Since he took most of his tea without accompaniments, Giles poured himself a cup. After replacing the pot on the tray, he settled back into his chair and rested an ankle on a knee. “What do you wish to know?”

“Why did you go through with the ceremony if it’s more than obvious you don’t wish to have a wife?”

“You certainly have a knack of going for the jugular the first time out, hmm?” While peering at her, he sipped his tea, and she looked back with questions in her eyes. Then he blew out a breath. “No, the last thing I wanted was to be married.”

“Are you against the wedded state or women in particular?”

“Another difficult question.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And the second one you haven’t answered.”

Perhaps that was what he needed. Someone in his life to poke and prod and therefore keep him on his toes. “I once wanted marriage, for I was once in love.” Because he owed her the story, one he’d not told anyone, he took a deep draught of his tea and swallowed it. “Hell, at one time, I was engaged. In India. It was a few years ago. I loved her fiercely, but she was half Indian and half English, which meant she had dubious footholds in both societies. That didn’t matter to me; I merely loved her.”

“Where did you meet her?”

“I’d been in India at that point for seven years.” As he took another sip, he considered his next words carefully. “I’d gone there to settle my father’s estate and business dealings there. That took nearly three years. After that, I wandered the country for a while, visiting tea estates and various forts, immersing myself in English society wherever I went.” And found it oddly lacking. “I met Sita at a ball. There was an immediate connection. I courted her for two years before I finally asked for her hand after speaking with her father, who is a general in the English military.” Damn, that seemed like an eternity ago.

Hannah wrapped her hands around her cup. “What happened?”

“When I proposed, Sita rejected my suit.” Stabs of pain went through his chest to poke into his heart. That ache would probably never fade. “She said she couldn’t leave her parents who were in India. Beyond that, she said she wouldn’t marry me, that the thought of being a duchess and having all those prying eyes on her would drive her to madness. Also, she added that she feared my reputation and title would be damaged in the ton for marrying a half breed, that she refused to do that to me.”

“Oh, Giles, I’m so sorry.” That emotion reflected in her expression. “That must have hit you in the ego as well as the heart.”

“It did a bit.” He nodded then finished his tea, wished it was something much stronger. “It didn’t matter how much I argued and pleaded, she was adamant.” After he set the cup on its saucer and rested them both on the table, he sighed. “I was devastated, of course, kept close to the estate I’d been renting, but in the end, I couldn’t remain in India. There were too many memories, and my work for my father had been concluded. Without Sita, I didn’t want to remain there, and truly, I’d begun to miss England, for my mother is aging. She lives at one of my country estates, and besides, it was blooming hot in the subcontinent.”

“I can’t imagine seeing as how I’ve never been anywhere except my father’s country estate and London.” As she frowned into her teacup, he admired her fingers with their well-kept nails and cuticles, appreciated the wink of the stones from the ring on her finger as well as enjoyed the roundness of her freckle- splashed cheeks. “Yet why did you marry me after what you went through with Sita?”

He still wasn’t certain. “Suffice it to say, I have responsibilities to my title, and above all, I am tired of knocking about the world by myself.” And she was as good as anyone, correct? “I must say, though, that I haven’t been disappointed thus far.”

A blush stained her cheeks. “You must think me vastly inadequate to be your duchess.”

“Hardly, but I fear I might disappoint you eventually.” It was a fact. Though he was a duke, he wasn’t a hero, yet he also wasn’t a villain. “I am a man of vices, of unyielding notions, and I don’t suffer fools gladly.”

She pressed her lips together then took another sip of tea. “What do you want from this union, Giles?”

The sound of his name in her voice caught him by surprise. A shiver tripped down his spine to bedevil his shaft. “Companionship.”

“There is that, but you mentioned responsibilities. Is that…” She huffed. “Is that the only reason you’ve bedded me? To possibly get me with child for an heir?” The slight waver in her voice put knots of loathing in his gut.

“Perhaps.”

“Regardless if I want children right away?”

He shrugged. “Do you wish for children?”

“Yes, and as my mother never fails to remind me, I’m aging rapidly.”

I’m not quite fond of my new mother-in-law. “Bah, but as I told you before, your body is quite delicious, and I enjoy a good fuck.” There was no use in lying, for he would bed her again tonight, because that was the kind of cad he was. He silently dared her to admonish him, for he missed that in his life as well. Sita had wildly objected to his use of profanity as well as his attempts to get beneath her skirts.

“Will you ever offer your heart?” she asked in a hushed voice.

“I rather doubt it.” It was something else he couldn’t lie about.

She nodded. “I see.”

His chest tightened at the trace of sadness and disappointment reflected on her face. “What do you want from this union? Besides love.” He couldn’t give her that, couldn’t give that to anyone.

Not anymore.

“You have already given me freedom of a sort, and to be away from my cloying family has me almost giddy, for who knows what I’ll be able to accomplish.” When she shrugged, it was an elegant gesture, certainly worthy of a duchess. “I would like to order new gowns and other clothing.”

“Of course.”

“In the colors and styles I want.”

“That goes without saying.” God, if he didn’t keep tight control over himself, he might come to adore her penchant for plain speaking and her budding spirit.

And that would lead to trouble, in so many ways.

“I also might enjoy immersing myself in a charity or a cause that would better the lives of people around me.” She kept her gaze on her teacup. “If you sponsor some, I’d be glad to help. And I’m sure you will tell me the tasks I need to do as a duchess, for I would have no idea.” Finally, she raised her attention to his face. “Honestly, though, for this first week while we learn how to live with each other, would you have objection to me riding as much as I can? Your townhouse is close to the park, after all.”

How was it this na?ve woman could continually have interest of some sort shivering through him? “Ride as much as you want, Hannah. There are no rules here.”

When she smiled at him, he gawked, for the gesture transformed her face and lit her eyes. “I appreciate that. Horses, at times, are better company than people.”

“I’m inclined to agree with you about that.” A kernel of hope bloomed in his chest, for equines were something else they had in common. “In fact, I keep a full stable of hunters and thoroughbreds at my country estate. And I adore racing neck or nothing every chance I get, through field or glen, over streams and through woods.”

“I do too! In fact, my favorite article of clothing is my riding habit.” A flush went through her cheeks. “There is something exciting and freeing while on horseback with such power surging beneath me.”

Damn. In his mind’s eye, all he could see was her riding him with bliss in her eyes and her breasts jiggling from her efforts. “I look forward to joining you. In the rides.” As well as other things, for that wasn’t negotiable.

“Will you take me to Tattersalls?” Her eyes twinkled like the jewels he’d likened to earlier.

“I can, for I’m always up for the scandal. However, you’d have to go disguised as a young man.” Perhaps this marriage wouldn’t be as dull or horrid as he thought.

“Hmm.” A frown pulled down the corners of her lips. “I’ll consider it.”

That provoked a laugh from him. “Too scandalous?”

She snorted. “After wedding you and having you carry me out of my own wedding breakfast over your shoulder? I’ll wager dressing in boy’s clothes is the lesser of those evils.”

Was she always this delightful or was it merely from nerves and reaction from the day’s events that had her acting this way? A laugh escaped, which surprised him. “Well, I can induct you into more scandalous things than that if you wish.” And he would given time.

“Oh!” Another blush infused her cheeks. “Let me acclimate to the here and now first.”

“Of course.” With that, he stood. “Come. I’ll give you a quick tour of the house. The duchess suite is at the opposite end of the corridor as this one. Afterward, I’ll order you a bath, let you enjoy it at your leisure.”

“What?” She hastened to her feet and at the same time put her cup and saucer on the table. “Where will you be? It’s not yet noon.”

Did that mean she wished to have him underfoot? How very odd and somewhat flattering. “I’m for my club but will return to take dinner with you. We can talk again at that time. Does that suit you?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you might like a few hours to yourself after everything.” When he held out a hand and she tentatively slipped her fingers into his palm, a shiver ripped up his spine.

“Thank you. I would.”

“Good.” Giles nodded. “Welcome home, Lady Steppingford. I hope you’ll find what you are searching for here.”

“So do I,” she said in a barely audible voice.