The Duke’s Desire Read Free Page A

as if he had never met Verity Escombe before.
    As if, ten years ago, she had not seduced and abandoned him.

Chapter Two
    C ompletely shocked, her heart pounding, an excitement she couldn’t subdue battling with dread, Verity’s mind raced back to the last time she had seen the Duke of Deighton.
    Naked, he had sat up in his bed and begged her to tell him what was the matter. Sobbing with remorse for her selfish, lascivious act, she had not answered. She had run away as fast as her trembling legs and bare feet could take her.
    Afterward, desperately hoping she would never see Galen Bromney again, she had hurriedly departed the house where they had both been guests, giving Lord Langley the excuse that she was needed at home.
    Now here he was, looking as handsome and elegant as when she had first set eyes on him ten years ago. His eyes shone with that same mixtureof apparent interest and self-confidence, and his smile still seemed to offer a great compliment.
    And even after all this time, he continued to wear his dark, waving hair rather unfashionably long.
    Before she had met him, she had heard speculation that the notorious Duke of Deighton thought himself some kind of Samson to have such hair, although few men could boast shoulder-length curling locks and yet look so undeniably masculine. Indeed, his hair gave him a hint of the savage, implying that he was capable of primitive passion.
    So she had felt the first time she had laid eyes on him, and so, she realized as heat blossomed within her, did she still.
    As for the duke’s sexual prowess, she knew for a fact it was not exaggerated.
    She looked at her daughter, who was ignorant of any relationship between her mother and this man.
    Jocelyn must remain ignorant, and so must everyone else, unless their lives were to be fodder for gossip and scandal, and her daughter face a future of undeserved notoriety.
    “I am delighted to meet you,” the duke said in that smooth, deep and seductive voice no other man possessed.
    “You must be Mrs. Davis-Jones, if this is your daughter,” he remarked with another little bow.
    “Yes, I am, Your Grace. Come, Jocelyn, we must excuse ourselves and go in for tea,” Verity said, without meeting his gaze.
    “Are you coming in for tea, too?” Jocelyn asked him.
    “No.”
    Verity began to breathe again.
    “I intend to take another turn about the garden before I enter the lion’s den,” he added.
    “There are lions here?” Jocelyn demanded excitedly, obviously expecting to find a menagerie somewhere on the grounds of Eloise’s estate.
    The duke chuckled softly, and Verity noticed the wrinkles around his eyes. “A figure of speech only, I’m afraid.”
    Verity took a firm grip on her daughter’s hand. “Come along, Jocelyn. We mustn’t be late for tea.”
    She felt Jocelyn’s reluctance, yet she ignored it. “We mustn’t keep the others waiting, and I’m sure the duke has…wishes…”
    He smiled as her words trailed off. “She has been very pleasant company.”
    “There’s my ball!” Jocelyn suddenly cried, pulling away from Verity to retrieve her toy from beneath a bush a few feet away.
    Leaving Verity almost alone with the Duke of Deighton—a smiling, seductive, still oh, so desirable Duke of Deighton.
    She rushed after her daughter and again took her by the hand.
    “Goodbye, Your Grace,” she said as she led Jocelyn away with all the dignity she could muster, which was quite considerable.
    “That is more than you said the last time, my sweet,” the Duke of Deighton murmured as he watched them disappear from sight.
     
    “I don’t understand it. We just arrived,” Nancy Knickernell muttered emphatically as she obeyed her mistress’s request to pack their bags.
    Seated at the lovely mahogany vanity table where she was putting the finishing touches to her hair before going below to join Eloise, Lord Bodenham and the other guests before dinner, Verity could see Nancy—and her frustrated expression—in the