Page 98 of It's All About the Duke
She met his gaze. She wasn’t quite sure she believed him. “You did?”
“I told you I would.”
“I guess you finally found the time,” she answered, feeling miffed that if he had read it, it had taken him this long.
“I admit that, when I first saw the book, I thought it drivel.”
Well, that was about as blunt as a person could get.
“And then I decided I wanted to read it and think on the things you alleged in your book before I got back to you about it. I wanted to talk with others about it. I wanted to know if a man was, indeed, a rake if he touched a lady inappropriately as you suggested in your book. I wanted to know if a man was, indeed, a rake if he had a card game with his friends rather than a ride in the park with the lady he was interested in, and many of the other things that you state.”
Had he really done that? Talked with others about what she’d written?
“Whom did you ask? Your friends? The rakes?”
“Various people, including friends who are now happily married and no longer rakes, Lady Sara and Lady Vera, Esmeralda, Loretta, and Eugenia.”
Eugenia, too?
Marlena was suspicious of him. What was he getting at? She didn’t even know why he was telling her this. That he’d read it was enough.
But pride made her ask, “What was your conclusion?”
He smiled. “You were very brave to write the book, Marlena. I hope every lady reads it and knows how a gentleman should treat her and that she will stay away from rakes like me.”
The sun was warming her back and sparkling in the duke’s eyes. He was chasing away the gray clouds in the skies and in her heart. “You have never been a rake to me. You have always been a gentleman.”
“Even the last time we were together in your bedroom, here in your house? You know I planned it for us to be alone together.”
“I was never unwilling at any time. I knew exactly what I wanted, and I wasn’t disappointed.”
“May we go back to a conversation we were having that day?”
No, she didn’t want to. She was liking the way she was feeling now. Not how she was felt when he was angry and she had to say good-bye to him.
“That depends on which conversation it was.”
He smiled and laid her book on the bench behind him. He gently moved his hands around her waist and pulled her up close. Marlena felt herself leaning into him, and he moved still closer to her.
“I believe I had said I love you and I want to marry you, but you never gave me an answer.”
“I believe we had some very strong unresolved issues between us that seemed unsurmountable.”
“We did.” He moved his face closer to hers. “But your friends, the ones you would not betray, came to your rescue. I’m glad they did. They took all the blame.”
“That doesn’t absolve me. When I said my love for you was pure, I meant it, but my life is not guilt-free. I have written gossip, true or not, about people I’ve never met. I am not blameless, Rath.”
The corners of his lips lifted. “Neither am I. I am a rake. I liked what I read from Miss Honora Truth between the pages of your book. You have done a good service for ladies, but I’ve decided I want Marlena between the sheets, not Miss Truth between the pages.” He pulled her tighter to his chest and looked deeply, seriously into her eyes. “I want you to marry me, Marlena. Help me be the gentleman my father always wanted me to be.”
Marlena’s heart swelled. She had thought she’d no chance at happiness if Rath was out of her life. Now she had him, the man she loved asking her to marry him. The man she would honor above all else.
She could hardly breathe, let alone speak, but somehow she managed to whisper a yes. And then a stronger, louder, and happier, “Yes!”
Rath pulled her tighter. “You know I would have had to force you if you hadn’t said yes.”
“Because you are a rake.”
He shook his head. “Because I know I can’t live without you. And—” He hesitated.
