No Duke Will Do - Eva Devon Page 0,7
fool to turn it down.
“Teach me,” she said. “I am happy to be guided by you.”
“Happy to be guided by me?” he repeated, the words dripping off his tongue like heated honey. “Be careful what you say. I might guide you down a very dangerous path, indeed.”
“I’m already on a dangerous path,” she pointed out firmly. “You cannot take me down one worse than the one I am upon.”
Dear Lord, she hated that it was true, but her father had gotten worse with each day. Her mother was at a breaking point for it. Her father had dared to bring opium and mistresses into their own home.
Mary spent half of her nights, locked away in her room, a pillow over her ears, desperate not to hear the goings-on, the shouting, the fighting, the crying of her mother.
The absolute audacity of her father to force them into his dark world. She needed to find a way out of it and into the light; otherwise, she was going to be absolutely destroyed as a person.
So she drew upon some hidden part of herself and said, “I am willing to take the risk.”
He gazed down at her, those eyes of his looking as if he could bare her soul.
It was terrifying, indeed.
She’d never had anyone look at her like that, not in her entire life.
He looked as if he could peel away all of the fears she had, and see inside her and glimpse her true self.
She did not even know her true self.
She’d been battling too many things to get to know it. Every time she tried to show it, her father beat it back, beat it down, but she was done with that now.
Now, she would have to do everything she could to stay afloat in her gilded, rotting world. She’d stay alive and away from a miserable future.
If Richard Heath could help her do that, well, she would give herself into his keeping.
“I think you should go now,” he said once more.
“Now?” she startled, surprised. “I thought you were going to help me.”
“I am going to help you, but here, in my office?” He shook his dark head. “This is dangerous, what we’re doing, Lady Mary. If anyone knew that you were here. . .”
“Would it matter?” she protested, realizing she did not wish to leave the devil’s company. “My father has already—”
“Yes, it would matter,” he pointed out quickly. “You would be ruined. So we must come up with a plan.”
“A plan?” she repeated, trying to understand the rapidity of his thoughts.
“Yes, one doesn’t throw themselves willy-nilly into battle,” he explained. “One must come up with a plan.”
“Is that what you have done? Planned?” she queried, wondering what had caused him to reach such summits.
“Oh, yes,” he said, that low voice of his a soft growl. “I could never have reached where I am without careful calculation.”
She believed it, too.
He was not wild and passionate like she’d thought he was going to be. He was not vibrating with danger as she had assumed a man from the East End might be. Something else entirely emanated from him.
There was a cool, calm calculation to him that she liked and wished she could have herself.
A realization dawned on his strong face. “You don’t wish to go, do you?”
“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” she confessed. “And I admit, I am reticent to give it up. What if you change your mind?”
“I shan’t change my mind,” he assured. “I won’t see you crushed under your father’s keeping.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Are you to be my savior, then?”
“No, Lady Mary,” he replied. “You’re going to save yourself. But first, you must go home.”
Save herself.
It was the most novel thing she’d ever heard, and yet, he was right. Wasn’t that what she was doing in any case? Wasn’t that why she had shown up upon his doorstep?
“If you wish me to go, I will, but. . .”
“But what?” he asked, attentive.
“You are such a mystery.”
She held his hand more firmly.
She allowed herself to stay close to him, shocked that she would wish to do such a thing, but she did. She felt as if she was drawing strength from him just by being in such close vicinity. She cocked her head back, studying his face, studying those lips she had been about to kiss, and suddenly, she wished she were kissing them, that they were upon hers.
“Would you. . . would you kiss me?” she asked.
Something ignited in his eyes. “Why in God’s name