Page 73 of The Duke of Deceit

“We’ve taken over the drawing room, it seems,” Jess mumbled as she looked around at all the art supplies and sheets of paper strewn across the rug. “We found these supplies in the old playroom in the attic, and the light in this room was too good to pass up. I hope you don’t mind.”

The sight of her with Phillip warmed his chest.Mind?“Not at all.”

Her eyes brightened as she looked at Phillip, lost in concentration, and commented to Lucien, “He really is quite good.”

“Just wait until he fills the house with pictures of all the chickens,” Lucien warned beneath his breath. “I’ll place the blame on you.”

She smiled, her cheeks still a very pretty pink. Having her here felt natural. The most improbable woman in the most impossible situation…yet he simply couldn’t help himself.

“Did you both have breakfast already?” He latched onto an idea for a few minutes alone with Jess before they had to leave for London, with her ensconced in a carriage and him on horseback following several yards behind. There would be no chance to talk then.

Phillip nodded. “Mrs. Porter made wheat cakes with jam and syrup.”

“That sounds delicious. Did you two leave any for me?” When Phillip didn’t answer, too absorbed in his drawing to pay attention to his brother, Lucien asked, “Phillip, would you please go into the kitchen and ask Mrs. Porter if she’d put together breakfast for me in the dining room? You can help her make it.” When he didn’t answer, Lucien tempted him with, “You can show her your drawing.”

Thatcaught his attention, and he scrambled to his feet, rolled up his drawing, and rushed past Lucien and out of the room, calling for Mrs. Porter before he’d even reached the hallway.

Lucien met Jess’s gaze across the room.You have no idea how lovely you are.“You two seem to get along well.”Or how much I want nothing more at this moment than to sweep you into my arms and carry you right back to bed.“You’ve won him over.”

“He’s a wonderful man.” She sat back on her heels and began to pick up the pencils and chalk spilled across the rug. “Very friendly, curious, willing to try anything because he doesn’t worry about failing…” She collected the sheets of paper. “I hopeyou were serious about providing art lessons. I think he would thrive creatively if he had the opportunity to—”

“Marry me.”

She froze in mid-reach for a pencil. For a moment, she remained still as a statue. Then she pulled in a steadying breath and moved on to pick it up.

“Why would you want to marry me?” she asked, her voice trembling. She didn’t look up at him.

Of all the replies she could have given, he certainly hadn’t expected that. So he gave her the unvarnished truth. “Because you know the real me and don’t care how soiled my soul truly is. Or isn’t. Because you know all my secrets now.” As if on cue, Phillip’s laughter roared through the house from the kitchen and reached them in the morning quiet. “Because you love me and I love you, and I can’t think of a better reason to want to spend the rest of my life with someone.”

Not looking up at him, she deliberately put the pencil into a box with the others. “Are you only saying those things because of last night?” Her hands shook as she focused her attention on putting the colors in rainbow order. “You don’t need to feel obligated toward me. I take full responsibility for what happened, and I don’t expect you to offer marriage simply because I came to your room. I know the risks, and I fully accept them.” She paused, her hand stilling on the pencils and her voice becoming impossibly low, “Besides, I know you can’t marry me.”

Lucien blinked.Can’t marry her?Hell, she was the only woman he could. “Of course—”

“I’m barely hanging on to the edges of society by my fingernails, which is why I could call on a bachelor at home in the first place. I’m so far down the social ladder that no one cares what I do. I shouldn’t even be where I am, not the daughter of a drunken wastrel who has no prospects of any kind to look forward to except perhaps becoming some dowager’scompanion. I’m no one important.” She added softly, “Certainly not important enough to become a duchess. I know you have to marry the daughter of a peer or a wealthy heiress. That’s what dukes do. And I’m neither.”

An icy realization slammed into him.Thatwas why she’d always been so self-deprecating whenever he’d attempted to compliment her. Society—and her worthless bastard of a father—had beaten into her the misguided belief that she would never be good enough. In truth, she was better than the whole lot of them put together. Her dedication to her sister and her patience with Phillip proved it.

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a normal duke.” He crossed his arms. “No one forces me to do anything, especially when it comes to choosing a wife. I don’t want a peer’s daughter. I want the woman who is right for me, no matter where she ranks in society.” He paused to drive home his words. “I wantyou, Jess, and I have no intention of living my life without you.”

She finally lifted her gaze to meet his, and the tears he saw in her eyes nearly undid him.

Ignoring the stab of anguish for her in his chest, he came forward and sat beside her on the rug. “As for that other nonsense, youareimportant, and certainly very important to me. Damn what society thinks.”

“You say that now, but—”

“I say that always.”

Her shoulders deflated like a balloon against his arguments, and her only response was a silent shake of her head.

He took a red pencil from the box and a small sheet of paper, then drew a heart shape. He handed it to her.

“My heart is yours now,” he murmured. “Please don’t tear it.”

Jess’s hands trembled as she stared down at it, and her breathing came ragged and slow. She hadn’t answered his proposal, yet a faint smile she refused to let fully blossom tuggedat her lips. He could see her fighting the urge to surrender and say yes. The relief that he was winning her over caused his heart to somersault against his breastbone.

“Marry me, Jess.” He caressed her cheek. “Make an honest man of me.”

She turned her face away to hide her embarrassment over last night, and a new flush pinked her cheeks. “You truly want to marry me?” she whispered, a bit bewildered. “After everything I’ve done to you?”