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

That love wasn’t something he could give. That it was easier to be angry with his father and the brother he’d never really known. Easier to blame them than to think it was something in himself. Something that meant they could never love him. He would never know the answer to that now, though. They were gone. You have to let them go. 


The pain fractured inside him, and for some reason all he could see was Anna in the bathroom the night of the gala. Anna standing tall and fierce. The light that filled her as she’d told him she loved him. The tears on her cheeks and the pain in her eyes as he’d told her he didn’t want it. 


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