Her Favorite Duke (The 1797 Club #2)(32)

He sat up slightly and it forced her to move. “Didn’t do anything wrong?” he repeated. “Can you be serious?”

She swallowed as she sat up, as well. “I only meant—”

“I followed you when I should have gotten your brother or your fiancé to do so,” he said. “I did it because I wanted you. And yes, being trapped in the cottage was not my fault specifically, but I kissed you, Meg. Because I wanted you. I have coveted you for years. Coveted what my friend had, and now I’ve taken it.”

Her lips parted and there was a flash of anger in her eyes. “Simon, I’m not a prize that can be passed from man to man. You didn’t steal a horse or a ring from Graham. You can’t steal a person.”

He turned his head. “Perhaps not, but here we are, aren’t we?”

She pushed from the bed and walked away, grabbing for her discarded robe and flinging it around her shoulders. As she tied it, he tried to push away his disappointment that she would want to cover herself.

She stared at him. “If you hate yourself, hate me, so much for what you’ve done, then why come here? Why make love to me? Why want me to have pleasure?”

He frowned as he got up. He saw her gaze flit to his cock and felt life begin to flow back into it. With a grunt of self-loathing, he turned away and grabbed his trousers, pulling them on before he said, “I don’t hate you. But I came here tonight because…because…”

He stopped. He’d been trying very hard not to analyze why he came to her door. He’d been thinking about her all day. All night. And somehow he’d just arrived there, knowing what he would do. Knowing what he wanted and would take because there was no longer someone standing in his way.

But why? That was something much darker.

“Why?” she repeated.

He gritted his teeth. “So that no one else could take you away. So that nothing could stop what is going to happen.”

She was silent, her expression stunned by the confession he hadn’t wanted to make to himself, let alone to her. The confession that he was little better than a thief who had come last night…and tonight.

“I have altered both our worlds, Meg,” he said softly. “And in the process I have destroyed a great many people I care for. All because I wanted you and was willing to do anything to have you. That is why I hate myself. That is why I don’t deserve happiness. Not while I have made so many others suffer for my selfishness.”

He moved toward the door.

“You’re leaving?” she asked.

He froze, hand at the door, and sighed. “We are not married yet, Meg. I-I don’t belong here.” With great difficulty, he left the room, left her. And as he shut the door and leaned on it in the hallway, he whispered, “I never did.”





Meg stifled a yawn and forced a smile as Emma poured her a cup of tea. “Thank you.”

“Unless you want something stronger,” Emma said, sitting down beside her and resting a hand gently on her stomach. Meg’s smile grew more real as she did, for she knew that Emma’s pregnancy was a great joy to her brother and his wife.

At least there was that, though she couldn’t imagine all this strain was good for Emma or the child.

“I’m fine. You should worry about you,” Meg said, reaching out to cover her hand and smiling as she felt Emma’s tiny belly beneath. No one except those who had been told would know yet.

“I’m not worried about me, I’m wonderful,” Emma reassured her. “But since your mother has not yet joined us for the planning for this final ball, I wonder if there’s anything you’d like to discuss with me. Is there any way I can help?”

Meg got up and paced away. She couldn’t help but think of the previous night. Of Simon’s body against hers, inside of hers, of all the pleasure she had experienced.

Just before he walked out the door.

She sent a side glance at Emma and found her friend waiting, quiet but expectant. She opened her mouth, but couldn’t find the words.

She blushed. “Will I be allowed to join the others tonight?”

Emma got to her feet with a gasp. “Dearest, you aren’t imprisoned. Great Lord, James and I only thought you might need a break from prying eyes and loud whispers. I know you haven’t had much of one with all the visitors to your door—”

Meg jolted at that statement and the memories of Simon at her door. But Emma was unaware and continued talking.

“—but of course you will join the group for supper tonight. And we’ll all lift our chins and have a brave face. Isn’t that what you told me not that long ago when I was confronting a humiliating experience?”

Meg smiled. “Your father trying to arrange a terrible marriage for you and James’s interference aren’t exactly the same things as what Simon and I have done.” She sighed. “Perhaps Simon is right that we deserve punishment. I’ve hurt our family, after all.”

Emma shook her head. “Neither of you deserves punishment. And this final ball is to prove that our family supports the union, Meg. Which we do. James and I fully support you.”

Meg blinked back the tears that suddenly stung her eyes. Of course James and Emma supported her. James had always been willing to do anything to protect her, including the engagement to Graham that had started this mess all those years ago. And Emma was patently incapable of doing anything but be sympathetic and loving. It didn’t change that both of them were being swept up in the wake of this scandal, even if Emma refused to acknowledge that fact.