Scoundrel of My Heart (Once Upon a Dukedom #1) - Lorraine Heath Page 0,86

me?”

“Because a lady shouldn’t give a gentleman a gift such as this”—an expensive, personal item—“nor should a gentleman accept it.”

“You really think a man who owns a place such as this, where people are encouraged to do what they ought not, is any sort of gentleman at all and is going to say no to your gift?”

“Would you have?”

He gave a dark chuckle. “Probably.”

“A man of business should have a timepiece, don’t you think? I noticed you still didn’t.”

Reaching out, she turned it over, and he read the inscription. “‘To seizing dreams.’”

“You helped me gain mine when you wrote Kingsland,” she said quietly. “Now you have yours.”

Only he didn’t. Not if he was honest. He had acquired one dream, certainly, but another would always elude him. Justifiably so.

After picking it up, she scooted forward until her knee nudged against his thigh, and God help him, he felt the touch clear down to his toes. Easing the front of his coat aside, she tucked the timepiece into the pocket of his waistcoat and attached the end of the fob to a buttonhole. All he could do was be amazed by her expression, as though it brought her unbridled joy to perform such a service for him.

“I can’t accept it.”

She patted his chest. “Too late, it’s already yours.” Her gaze landed softly on his. “And it won’t fray like my hair ribbon.”

So she had recognized the marker in his book. Because she was incredibly near, he plowed his hands into her hair, relishing the feel of silk over his skin. “You shouldn’t have come. Not to this place. Not to me.”

“I won’t again. Only tonight. To have one more dream. To give to you as you gave to me.”

“If it’s a dream you want, sweetheart, we’re going to give to each other.” He took possession of her mouth, a mouth that tart words had often escaped, a mouth that could drop him to his knees. She belonged to no one at the moment, but soon she would. She would belong to a duke, and as much as he wanted that for her, it tore him up inside as well.

So he would take what she was offering and strive to ensure she had no regrets. Surely, a duke wouldn’t expect a woman of her age to be completely untouched. Perhaps he’d even appreciate that she came with a bit of experience. If Griff’s club succeeded, maybe fewer women would fear the marriage bed.

While the duke may never love her, Griff wanted to ensure she had one night with a man who did. But that he couldn’t confess to her. No regrets, no remorse, no looking back. No wondering what if.

They would have tonight. Then he would have his club, and she would have her cottage—and they’d have the shared memories.

Laces were undone, hooks untethered, silk and satin, linen and lace tossed aside until she was bared to him. “It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful, how magnificent, you are,” he told her, his voice raw with desire. “You seemed ethereal in the moonlight, but in the glow of this room, I can see all the shades. You’re as fair as I envisioned.” Pale, pink, and perfect. With a thatch of curls that matched her hair.

“I’ve only seen a portion of you, and I want to see all of you.”

With care, he removed the pocket watch she’d given him and positioned it on the table beside her comb. With much less care, he shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it to the floor. His waistcoat, shirt, and trousers followed.

Tentatively, she reached out and touched the healing welt that had formed in his side and would eventually leave a scar in its wake. “This nearly took you from me.”

He cradled her face. “No sadness tonight. No bad memories. The past doesn’t matter. All that matters is now.”

“That’s what this place is, isn’t it? Someplace to escape to, for a bit. Not to be who you are, but for a while to be who you want to be or who you wished you were.”

“I think it is different things to different people. Is that why you go to the cottage? To escape?”

“Sometimes. Sometimes I go to remember.” Flattening herself against him, she wound her arms around his neck. “In the future, when I go, I will think of you.”

She shouldn’t be here, shouldn’t be doing this, but the way he’d looked at her as though he’d never seen anything he wanted more made it