Ten Days with a Duke (12 Dukes of Christmas #11) - Erica Ridley Page 0,46
it felt like to have the iron imprint of a horseshoe slam into his leg or his arm and hear the sickening crack of his bones breaking.
He knew exactly what it felt like to lose Olive because he hadn’t chased after her when he’d had the chance.
“Love is worth it,” he muttered.
He took a deep breath, grabbed the reins, and swung himself up and into Duke’s saddle.
Eli’s muscles froze in shock.
He’d accomplished it. He was in the saddle. And hadn’t yet been thrown.
In fact... Duke’s nose had lowered to the ground, as if sniffing for any stray carrot pieces that might have fallen from loose pockets during the mount.
Eli adjusted his seat and dug in his heels tentatively.
Duke chewed a mouthful of phleum pratense.
Eli held the reins tighter and spurred his boots into the stallion decisively.
Duke took another bite of grass.
“To Olive,” Eli said desperately. “Please. Before Olive—”
His head jerked backward as Duke sprang forward, leaping the tall fence easily and nearly unseating his rider in the process.
Eli hung on tight as the stallion thundered down the worn path, leaving the stables to disappear in a cloud of dirt behind them.
It might be too late to win Olive back, but she deserved to know that everything else had been true. The passion they’d shared was real.
So was his love.
If it didn’t matter, and Eli lost her just like he’d lost everything else he’d ever cared about all in one day—his home, his research project, his dreams for the future—well, at least he was finally making his own choices.
Even if he ended up with nothing, this time he was willing to fight for love.
He held on tight as Duke swerved off the riding path and into the woods. Up ahead was the pavilion.
And just arriving herself... Olive.
Her mouth fell open when she saw him.
“One more thing,” he called out over the wild thundering of his heart. “I forgot to mention that I love you.”
She stared at him wordlessly.
Duke sauntered up almost close enough for Eli to reach out and touch her.
“You don’t just have my heart, Olive Harper. You are my heart. I love you so much, it’s too big to fit in my chest. It bursts from me in soppy smiles and giddy moonstruck looks. My love for you is a vanda ampullacea, perennial and ever-blooming. I would ride a thousand stallions to reach your side. Every scar would be worth it, if it brought me one step closer to you.”
Her eyes were wide and shimmering.
“Then why did you do it?” she asked quietly.
All he could give her was the truth.
“Father wanted revenge. I wanted no part. But in exchange for my role, he agreed to help me save lives. Women like my mother. I thought it was the right choice. That helping many people outweighed hurting one person.” His chest ached. “It was the wrong choice. I was wrong. I could never purposefully wound you. And I don’t deserve your forgiveness, even though I desperately want it.”
Nor did he deserve her love, even though he desperately yearned for that, too.
“Why tell me any of it?” she said. “I already told you I wasn’t going to accept the betrothal. You could’ve returned home with me none the wiser, never to see each other again.”
“I do want to see you again,” he said simply. “I want you to be the first thing I see every morning and the last thing I see every night. I don’t care about the betrothal, Olive. If the only way to be together is on your terms, then I accept them, whatever they are. I would rather have a little piece of you than nothing at all.“
Her brows lifted. “You’d settle for crumbs?”
“I’d think of them as carrot bits.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “Your father must love this plan.”
“He hates it,” Eli admitted. “He said he’d disown me if I chose you over him.”
She frowned. “He’s cruel enough to do it. What did you say?”
“Simple.” He gestured down at the stallion. “I chose you.”
Chapter 16
Olive gripped the reins tighter. “So now you do need my farm.”
“I do not want the farm,” Elijah said with feeling. “I don’t even want to be on this horse.”
That was true enough. When Duke had come flying around the corner, Elijah had looked positively terrified. He was still stiff and white-knuckled, his face a clammy shade of pale gray.
She couldn’t believe he’d come after her, knowing what it had cost him to try.
“Get off the horse.” She slid