The Third Duke's the Charm Read Free Page A

all very romantic, really. He fell in love at first sight. I have always been skeptical that it was even possible, especially for a rake like Charles, but apparently it is.”
    His brother was indeed a rake of the first order. Charming, lighthearted, and easygoing; even if he were not handsome and from a prominent family, women would have succumbed anyway and gladly graced his bed.
    Neutrally, he said, “It is generous of you to help your fiancé run off with another woman.”
    “How could I not help him? He is my dearest friend.” A simple statement for a relationship that really wasn’t simple at all.
    “I know he feels the same about you.” Lucien had always found that unique, and while not incomprehensible, still a bit hard to understand. Not that he’d never had platonic female friends. There were a few—very few—but that any healthy adult male could feel that way about Vivian Lacrosse . . .
    His
admiration for her was anything but platonic.
    “Please understand, my lord,”—a hint of color came into her smooth cheeks—“I was just a bit taken by surprise earlier. It’s very . . . er . . . noble of you to try to save face for me,” she finished lamely.
    He couldn’t help it; he laughed. “I am thirty-two, Vivian, and I don’t think I have ever been called noble before this moment. I always have a reason for whatever I do, and often enough, I’m afraid, I am not prompted by selfless virtue. So let us not address my motivation but the question itself. As you pointed out, I am a practical man.”
    In open confusion, she stared at him.
    “The offer of marriage,” he prompted.
    “Oh.” Her slender fingers convulsively clenched the material of her skirt.
    “There is a solid argument that this would be a good match for us both. We’ve known each other for a long time, our families are quite close, and though I don’t share your passion for botany, I do understand it. After all, my entire life my father has been fascinated by the same hobby.”
    The last was the coup de grace. Her very unfashionable interest in breeding and raising plants was part of the reason she hadn’t been more successful on the marriage mart.
    As a ploy, he gambled it might be successful. He’d never proposed—never even considered it until he learned of his younger brother’s elopement—and if he were proposing to anyone else, he might have used a different tactic. But with Vivian, making it known he didn’t mind her spending time in the greenhouse might just win her favor.
    She had no idea how much he wanted her to agree to be his wife any more than she understood that love at first sight was not a novel concept to him. After all, that was how he’d fallen in love with
her
.

Chapter Two
    The sense of disbelief held Vivian suspended in the moment as if perhaps she might be asleep and having a bizarre dream, would wake up and shake her head at the whimsical nature of the human mind, and then rise for the day as always.
    Yet, Vivian noticed, Lucien Caverleigh seemed quite solid and real, his expression the usual mask of detached sophistication he always wore, and she had no idea whatsoever how to respond to his question. His good looks were legendary in the social circles of the
ton
, and there was no question why.
Dramatic
was the word that came to mind, though she’d never used it to describe any other man she’d ever met before and surely she was acquainted with most of the males in society by now. His features were fine and held classic straight lines and angles, and his mahogany hair was a contrast to those startling blue eyes. There was a faint disdainful curve to his mouth, an arrogance to the line of his jaw, and his shoulders were impressively wide.
Handsome
was applicable, but not quite enough.
    She’d never known anyone with his sort of potent presence. It was palpable, and maybe he wasn’t even aware of it, but women clearly were. He was by far the most sought-after bachelor in England, handsome,