The Duke was standing in the middle of the room, his hands in his pockets, his head tilted to one side. It was a relaxed, casual pose, and yet the way he looked at her was anything but casual. The deep midnight of his eyes burned and he radiated a subtle, sensual energy that made the air around him crackle. 

He looked like a man who’d never heard the word ‘no’ in all his life. Unluckily for him, ‘no’ was the only word she had.

“There's no reason why I should stay,” Anna clasped her shaking hands together in an effort to still them. “I’m not marrying you.”

His gaze flickered, his mouth curving slightly, and she had the disturbing thought that far from putting him off, her insistence was only inciting him further.
“But you haven’t heard my proposal yet,” he said mildly. “Isn’t that why you’re here?”

“I don’t need to hear it. I already know that my answer will be no.”

“Of course. But you can hardly tell your father that you heard me out when you haven’t, in fact, heard me out…. Anna.” 



A LADY FOR A DUKE

Cedric stared at his own reflection in the windows opposite him, the tiger’s smile vanishing, the intensity of his disappointment surprising him. Did you really expect her to agree to everything?. 


Yes. Yes, he had. She was passionate and she wanted him, that had been obvious to him the moment he’d first spotted her watching him swimming in the lake. He didn’t think he’d been wrong. He knew when a woman desired him. So what was the problem? 


Good question. One you could ask yourself. 


Denial had never bothered him before, not that it happened very often, but still. So her refusal shouldn’t be an issue. And yet it was. And he had a sneaking suspicion he knew why. That it was about how she’d made him feel out there beside the lake and in the sitting room of Haerton, the fire of her passion lighting him up, chasing away the ghosts of his past. Making him feel alive. 


16