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

Wow. Someone went all out. And because she hated seeing good food go to waste, she was sure she would eat way more than she should. She would have to ask Cedric or the cook or whoever to take it easy on her portions or she was going to wind up gaining one hundred pounds. With a body like hers, eight pounds of baby would be pushing the capacity. 


On the table beside the tray lay a large white envelope with her name scrawled across the front. She picked it up and grazed her fingers over the letters, wondering if Cedric had written it. She bit off a piece of bacon, grabbed the envelope and ripped it open. Inside she found a set of keys that did not belong to her car and a shiny new Visa card. The attached note read: 


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