Loved by a Duke (The Heart of a Duke #4)(52)

Her full lips formed a small moue of displeasure and he’d wager all his landholdings that if Danport wasn’t present, she’d have given him quite the dressing down for his highhandedness. As it was, she reclaimed her seat.

He and Danport followed suit. Auric rapped his fingertips on the arm of the narrow shell chair he occupied.

Daisy cleared her throat. “Would you care for—?”

“No.”

“But I didn’t even finish my—”

“You intended to ask whether I required refreshments?”

Danport looked back and forth between them with a deepening frown. He slowly came to his feet. Daisy shifted her attention to the tall, too charming gentleman. “If you’ll excuse me,” he offered, pointedly giving Auric his shoulder. “I have matters to see to.” The coward would run. Yes, Daisy deserved far more than this one. “I shall leave you and His Grace to your visit.”

Daisy hopped to her feet, with Auric reluctantly following suit. “Thank you for the daisies,” she said softly and God, if Auric didn’t want to kiss her into silence and be gone with Danport so he might have her to himself.

She gave him a pointed look. Auric remembered the years of politeness ingrained into him by too many tutors and sketched a bow. “Danport, a pleasure as usual,” he lied.

“Crawford.” The other man’s narrowed eyes indicated he detected that untruth, but with a curt bow, took his leave.

After the earl had gone, Auric glared at the crystal vase. “Daisies?” He knew he was being boorish and rude and surly. But daisies?

Daisy spun to face him. “Yes. What is wrong with that?”

He clenched his teeth to keep from listing all number of things wrong with the earl’s gift. The unoriginal bastard had given her daisies. “Furthermore—”

“You didn’t provide a reason, Auric.”

“Didn’t I?” He shifted as some of the jealous fury left him, leaving in its wake a healthy dose of embarrassment.

“No. You didn’t.” Daisy propped her hands on her hips. “What was that about?” she charged.

He blinked several times. “What was what about?” Though he knew very well the precise that she referred to.

They’d always possessed an uncanny ability to know what the other was thinking. “Oh, you know precisely what that I refer to.” Deuced bothersome, it was.

In several steps, he closed the distance between them. He lowered his head close to hers, detecting the slight audible intake of her breath. “What if I say it is because I despise Danport?” he whispered.

She tipped her head back to meet his eyes; emotion filled the piercing brown irises. “Why?” she demanded.

He gave her the only answer he had—the truth. “I do not know,” he said quietly. Auric cupped her cheek in his hand. “All I know is the sight of Danport near you, beside you, or with you in anyway, eats at me like a poison.” These were not the sentiments of a man who saw in her a mere sister.

She widened her eyes until they formed round moons in her face.

“He doesn’t deserve you, Daisy.”

She trailed her tongue over her lips, wetting them. “And who does?” she asked, unabashedly bold in her questioning.

Her words drew him up short. Certainly not him. He dropped his hand to his side. With something akin to horror Auric took a quick step backward and another. His mind raced out of control like a speeding phaeton. His legs knocked into the rose-inlaid, mahogany table, rattling the tea service from her previous guest’s visit.

“What is it?” she asked, extending a palm toward him.

Auric stood stock still as with dawning horror, he confronted the truth of his emotions. He wanted her.



During one of her parents’ annual summer parties, Daisy, had come upon Auric, alone at the edge of her father’s lake. The victim of a plate of rancid kippers, his face had been gray, a sheen of perspiration had dotted his brow. In this moment, he bore a strong likeness to that young man of long ago.

“Are you all right?” she asked tentatively.

He gave a jerky nod but remained silent.

Daisy took a few steps closer, expecting him to retreat as he had moments ago, but his gaze remained locked on a point beyond her shoulder. For the span of a heartbeat, when he’d cupped her cheek and studied her through his thick, chestnut lashes, she’d dared to believe he was here because he’d looked inside his own heart and found his love for her.

Pain knifed through her. She’d never have his love. “Have you had a plate of kippers?” But she’d always have his friendship. Had she ever truly believed that would be enough? She wanted all of him, in every way and any way a woman could truly possess a man.

“Have I…?” His words trailed off, and then a slow, half-grin turned his lips upward. Ah God, how she wanted more of him. “No, I’ve not had kippers in ten years.”

Nine years. It would be ten this summer. To point out the specifics of the date however would only humble her before him, as the pathetic creature who’d longed for him on the sidelines of life since she’d been just a girl. “Why are you here, Auric?” she asked with a boldness borne of their lifelong connection.

A muscle leapt at the corner of his eye, but still he said nothing.

“You come here day in and day out—”