The Duke's Wife (The Three Mrs #3) - Jess Michaels Page 0,36

suffused her cheeks, but she managed to squeak out, “Yes. And so we’re…engaged?”

He nodded. “It seems to be so.”

She stood in the middle of the room, shock flowing through her. She could hardly believe it. This time yesterday she had been pondering what to wear to Nathan’s ball, and now…now she would be his duchess. What would that look like? What would it mean?

He smiled as he moved to her. He caught her hand and drew her close, close enough that her skirts brushed his boots. Close enough that she felt his breath stir her cheek before he bent his head and kissed her.

She lifted into him immediately. What else could she do when he was the only solid thing in a world that seemed determined to keep flipping on its head? She clung to him and surrendered as he deepened the kiss, slowed it, reminded her of all he could do to make her quake.

When he drew back, he steadied her on her feet before he let her go. “Don’t overthink it, as I know you are wont to do.”

She glared at him, though she felt no animus at his teasing. “You do know how to ruin a mood.”

He smiled. “I do my best to keep you on your toes that way. We’ll talk a great deal more about the marriage before the wedding comes. But now there are arrangements to make. I promise you, Abigail…I promise…it’s going to be well. I will make it right for you and for me.”

She blinked. For the past six years, nothing had truly been right. Erasmus was undependable even when she’d thought he cared. But this man, this man she had spent so much time actively hating…he said he would fix things. And she wanted to believe him.

Even as she watched him walk out the door without any idea what exactly they would be to each other or how he could possibly make it well.

Chapter 10

Nathan strode out of the parlor, fists gripped at his sides, and out the front door. His carriage was still parked on the drive and he moved toward it, but hadn’t yet given his direction to the driver when he heard his name from the house behind him.

“Gilmore! Gilmore, wait!” Rhys called out.

Nathan ignored him and said a few words to his man. He got into the rig, but Rhys would not be stopped, of course. He hurtled himself in behind him and slammed the door, locking them in together as the carriage began to move.

“God’s teeth,” Nathan ground out. “I don’t need you scolding me again, Leighton.”

Rhys’s brow wrinkled. “I have no intention of scolding you. Did you two work it out?”

“We’re marrying.” Now that he said it out loud to a third party, the truth of it hit him. “We are marrying. Abigail and I are marrying.”

He rolled each word on his tongue, finding them foreign and odd…but not entirely unpleasant.

“I do understand the concept,” Rhys said softly. “You needn’t repeat it.”

“I think I do so that I’ll accept it. This time yesterday I was dealing with twenty last-minute problems with the ball and answering a letter from my sister about her arrival next week. Now…this.”

“I can imagine, though I must point out you did do this to yourself.”

“Thank you. Very helpful,” Nathan said with a glare. “You think I don’t know it? You think I don’t know how complicated this all is? She dislikes me and also likes me against her will. She wants me and pushes me away. It’s all push and pull with us, it always has been.”

“Abigail has been through so much.”

Nathan pursed his lips. Back at the beginning, when he’d first discovered what Erasmus Montgomery was trying to do to his sister, he had researched Abigail, trying to determine if she were as much of a villain as her husband. He knew a great deal about what she’d been through. More than she was aware. She hid her pains…she was rather like him in that way.

“Yes,” he said softly. “I know. I can’t believe I lost control like that last night.”

Rhys settled back against the carriage seat with a smirk. “I can.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Oh come now,” Rhys said with a laugh at his indignation. “We have danced around this topic for a year, mate. Since all this mess began, I have watched you two. Yes, you spit and growl at each other, but I’ve never believed you hate each other. You defended her passionately when Owen briefly