Page 75 of Duke with a Deception
Emma giggled delightedly. “Rackness! Dragons loves to eat rackness.”
“Arachnids,” Verity gently corrected.
“Uh-rack-niss,” Emma repeated.
King bit his lip to keep his own laughter at bay. What a miracle it was to stand in the nursery without suffering a visceral reaction. Emma’s presence gave it new life. Gone was the somber memory of his own miserable years as a lad within these walls. And he found a bittersweet sense of hope in knowing there was new life in the room where his daughter would have grown into a girl.
“A-rach-nids,” Verity tried again, enunciating clearly.
“Uh-rack-niss,” Emma said, looking proud of herself.
Verity shared an amused glance with him and then turned back to the girl. “We will continue our dragon story tomorrow evening. You shall have your tea with Nurse Grace now before the hour grows too late.”
“Yes, Lady Vitty,” Emma said.
The child crossed the room and fetched the doll he had given her, tucking it under her arm. “Annabelle likes to take tea with us.”
“I do hope you are teaching our Annabelle her manners, Miss Emma,” he said.
She grinned, dimples forming in her cheeks. “Of course I am, Yer Grace.”
“Excellent.” He nodded. “I have no doubt that you are doing an excellent job.”
“If she’s rude, I’ll eat ’er biscuits,” Emma confided.
King suspected that Annabelle the doll was rude quite frequently.
“We shall leave you to your tea,” Verity said, smiling.
They bid their evening farewells, and then King offered Verity his arm, escorting her from the nursery.
“I missed you tonight,” she said softly as they moved down the hall.
He covered her hand with his. “I missed you more. Seeing Brandon was a necessary evil, I’m afraid. With all the members of the Wicked Dukes Society now happily married, we find ourselves in desperate need of new hosts for the house parties.”
“Are the house parties so very wicked?” she asked, her tone curious.
Images flitted through his mind of all the decadence and depravity he had witnessed and participated in. He didn’t dare give voice to a single blessed one, for he was no fool. But he was happy to realize he didn’t long for those hedonistic days. He had everything he wanted beneath his own roof.
He cleared his throat. “They have been known to be so, yes.”
An understatement, that. But she needn’t know the truth. Their house parties had been ridiculously sordid. That was what made them so appealing to the members—one week to do whatever one wished without fear of scandal.
“Then I am glad indeed that you no longer shall be attending.” She gave him a mischievous look. “The ladies will be doomed to disappointment, because you are mine now.”
She had no notion just how fully and completely he belonged to her, body and soul. His gut clenched. He couldn’t continue to keep the truth from her. But as he walked at her side, the scent of bergamot and roses filling him with fire, he couldn’t bring himself to form the words.
Not now, whispered a voice inside him.
Not yet.
He would tell her. But he needed to think about how. To find a means of revealing the truth that wouldn’t cause him to lose her. That was, if such a way existed. Because life without her…
No, he couldn’t bear to envision it.
He settled his hand over hers. “I’ve been yours since the moment we met, angel.”
These were the truest words he had ever spoken to another.
