The Reluctant Duke (20 page)

‘You didn’t like me…’

‘Oh, I liked you,’ he assured her huskily. ‘I spent most of that morning imagining making love with you. On the desk. On the floor. Up against the wall.’ He gave a shake of his head. ‘It was totally out of character! And I was so damned jealous of the easy way you and Andrew Proctor laughed and joked together!’ he recalled grimly.

‘Really?’ Lexie breathed softly.

‘Oh, yes,’ Lucan confirmed self-derisively. ‘Gideon found it most amusing, watching me squirm!’

‘Your brother
knew
you felt that way?’

‘He guessed, yes. You challenged me, Lexie—drew me to you in a way I had never known before.’ He grimaced. ‘I knew, feeling that intensity of desire for you, that taking you to Mulberry Hall with me was a bad idea. I just couldn’t seem to help myself. Being alone there with you was torturous. But at the same time I felt alive, experienced more emotions than I had ever allowed myself to feel before.’

‘And you don’t hate your father any more?’

‘I’m not sure I ever hated him.’ He sighed. ‘I was disappointed in him. Felt hurt that he had left us. But, damn it, if he loved his Sian as much as I love you, then I can only feel sorry for the pain and misery he must have felt when he lost her! The joy he must have known when he found her again and they both realised what had happened in the past, that they still loved each other!’ he added huskily. ‘You asked why I had spoken to your grandmother, been to see my mother, why the two of them are at Mulberry Hall at this very moment coming to some sort of truce?’

Lexie swallowed hard before moistening stiff, barely moving lips. ‘And why are they…?’

Lucan’s smile was self-derisive. ‘Because I didn’t want there to be any barriers standing between the two of us while I attempt to persuade you into falling in love with me. Because I want to marry you. To that end, I’m going to haunt you, Lexie,’ he told her intensely. ‘I’m going to make sure there’s no room for any misunderstandings between the two of us. Going to make such a nuisance of myself that you won’t be able to turn around and not find me there!’

Lexie could never imagine Lucan’s love being a nuisance to
any
woman. Certainly never to her!

Lucan loved her.

Lucan wanted to marry her.

‘I don’t—You—’ Now she sounded like a gibbering
idiot. Probably because she felt like a gibbering idiot! Her heart had felt as if it were breaking these past five days, and now Lucan was offering her paradise.

Lucan’s expression was concerned as he reached out and took both her hands in his. ‘I
do
love you, Lexie. To distraction. But I don’t want that to scare you—’

‘I’m not scared, Lucan.’ Her fingers tightened about his. ‘I’m stunned. In awe. But I’m not scared,’ she assured him emotionally.

‘In awe? ‘ he repeated uncertainly.

It was an uncertainty that Lexie couldn’t bear a moment longer; the Lucan she loved was arrogant, self-assured, never uncertain!

‘I already love you, Lucan,’ she told him joyfully. ‘I fell in love with you while we were at Mulberry Hall, too. Against all the odds. Against my better judgement.’ She deliberately quoted his own words back at him. ‘I
love
you, Lucan!’ She glowed up at him.

Lucan felt as if he’d had all the breath knocked out of his lungs. As if he couldn’t form a coherent thought in his head. All he could do was stare at Lexie in wonder. In total, absolute wonder that this beautiful woman, the woman he loved and adored, had just said that she loved him, too.

She smiled up at him teasingly. ‘I never thought I would see the day!’

‘What day? ‘ Lucan managed to breathe shakily.

‘When I would succeed in rendering the arrogantly self-assured Lucan St Claire speechless!’ she came back cheekily. ‘Tell me—is this going to happen every time I tell you I love you?’

She was back. The outspoken little minx that Lucan had fallen head over heels in love with was most definitely back!

‘No,’ he growled huskily as he took her firmly in his
arms.
‘This
is what’s going to happen every time you tell me you love me!’

He lowered his head and his mouth captured hers as he proceeded to show Lexie exactly how much he loved her. How much he would
always
love her.

One month later

‘Why are you smiling in that cat-that-got-the-cream way?’ Lexie prompted Lucan suspiciously as he chuckled softly.

It was their wedding day. A day when both of their families had gathered together at Mulberry Hall to celebrate their love for each other. A day Lexie had been longing for since the moment Lucan had told her he loved her as much as she loved him.

Lucan grinned down at her as the two of them danced together at their wedding reception in the ballroom at Mulberry Hall. He was so much more relaxed now than the cold and unemotional man Lexie had met five weeks ago. The love he felt for her shone unabashedly in the dark glow of his eyes.

He shook his head. ‘Gideon has been secretly laughing at me for the last five weeks because of how much I love you, and I was just savouring the moment—because, looking at his face, I believe he has just learned the joke’s now on him!’

Lexie glanced across to where her new brother-in-law stood in the corner of the room, glowering accusingly at Lucan.’ What have you done, Lucan? ‘ She looked up at her husband reprovingly.

‘Never mind what I’ve done.’ Lucan tapped her playfully on the nose. ‘Just concentrate on what the two of
us are going to be doing later.’ He grinned down at her wolfishly.

Lexie felt herself melt inside at the heat of desire she could clearly see glowing in his eyes. ‘You’ve become a very wicked man, Lucan St Claire,’ she murmured indulgently.

‘My Duchess has had a very bad influence on me,’ he came back throatily.

His Duchess.

Lexie was now, incredibly, the Duchess of Stourbridge.

But most important of all, she was the woman Lucan loved to distraction.

And he was the man Lexie loved with all her heart.

It was a deep love for each other that she had absolutely no doubt would endure and last for a lifetime.