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

Pulling away too sharply, Anna shook her head slightly, his bland, utterly unmoved expression only serving to exacerbate her palpable tension. “Can I go home now?” 


“Of course, we can.” Cedric replied. 


Anna shot him an angry look, knowing he'd said ‘we’ to piss her off, and it was working. Her lips were set in a taut line, her breasts rising and falling as if they had a life of their own as the unleashed fury that held her together ripped out of control. “You know, maybe you think I should be grateful that you are here. That I should thank you for showing up, but I don't. In fact you should know that acting like this just makes me wish more than ever that I'd never signed that contract. I would love to turn back the clock and wipe out every last piece of memory of the time we shared.” 


61