(betts) ⚜’s Reviews > My Darling Duke > Status Update

Alexander faced him. “I gather you enjoy Miss Danvers’s company. You have my permission to pursue her if that is what you are after.”
Shock bloomed on Eugene’s face, but there was also want and need there.

“You will break me,” she murmured, holding his gaze, wanting him to scoff and deny.
A dark knowledge lingered within his brilliant stare. A finger trailed along her cheek, sorrow…and something unfathomable whispering through his stark gaze. “You will recover,” he said softly, his tone ruthless and implacable.
Kitty flinched.

She sniffed derisively, but mortification burned the tips of her ears. “I suppose you believe you could do better?”
“Ah…an invitation? I accept, Miss Danvers. I accept.” Chuckling, he drew her near and kissed her.
She bit his lip, hard, and with a muttered curse, he released her.
“Impudent hellion!”

“There is another matter that we must discuss.”
Her entire body quaked when he slowly, oh so slowly tugged at the laces of her stay. “And that is?”
“There is only one bed.”

“Your Grace, how delightful to see you again.”
“I do not believe it for a moment.”
“Believe what, Your Grace?”
“This sweet, contrite, submissive act, my impudent minx.”

The void was not filled.
His mind did not reach toward the abyss where he could submerge himself in another exotic world and be free. For his desire to collect suddenly burned with a furious need to add another object to his growing trove of treasure.
Miss Katherine “Kitty” Danvers.