The Duke and the Accidental Bride (Duchesses of Convenience #5)

Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight

" A re you really saying no to me?” Isabella laughed softly as she traced a finger on Duncan’s chest. “You were quick to say yes a few moments ago.”

Duncan laughed. “Under very different circumstances.”

“Still...” She leaned over and pressed soft kisses all over his upper body. This had Duncan moaning as sparks of pleasure rolled through his chest and across his body.

“You really want me to say yes, don’t you?”

“Is it that obvious?” she grinned as her teeth grazed over his pec. Then she slowly pulled back, Duncan gasped, and she let go.

“Personally, I am surprised that you’re so eager to go,” Duncan continued, wiggling back slightly so that his nipples were out of reach of Isabella’s mouth. “And so pushy.”

She gasped. “Who did you just call pushy?”

“The person who is pushing me, is who.”

“Fair.” She wiggled up closer, this time resting her head on his chest. Then, her fingers began to trace over his nipple once more. “But I thought it might be fun? And when I mentioned it a few days ago...”

“I never said I wanted to go.”

“But you didn’t say that you did not want to, either.” She pushed herself up on her elbow and raised an eyebrow at him. “Which I naturally took as an acquiescence.”

“Are you going to fight me on this?”

“Only if you make me.”

Duncan grimaced. “Isabella, I really, really am not so sure --”

“It will be fun,” she cut him off. “And besides, I told my sister and mother that we are going so if we do not, that will make me a liar. You wouldn’t make me a liar, would you?”

He groaned. “Why did you tell them we were going before asking me?”

She shrugged. “What are you going to do about it?”

It was a strange thing, and likely Duncan was reading too much into it, but if he didn’t know any better, he might have thought that Isabella was trying to start an argument. Surely not?

They were lying in bed together, naked and dripping in sweat, out of breath and running hot because they had quite literally just finished a very intense session of love making. It had been as blissful as expected, both fighting for control as they gave themselves to the other completely. The pleasure they felt intensifying at the mere thought of their partner feeling the same as they pushed and pressed and tempted one another to reach climax.

And once they were done, Duncan had expected the same as what always happened. He had been looking forward to it! They would lie in bed, wrapped in one another’s arms, laughing and chatting and getting to know the other that little bit better than they had the day before.

This time, things felt different. But again, Duncan wondered if he was imagining it.

The topic of choice was the Stoneside garden party in three days' time. It was an event that Duncan had showed middling interest in, and which he had thought Isabella to be on the same page as him. But most surprisingly, she was now insistent on going, pushing them both to attend as if their lives depended on it.

What was more, the greater Duncan’s protest, the harder than she pushed.

“I’m not going to do anything about it,” Duncan said. “Except announce my extreme disinterest in attending – why bother?” He turned on her, propping himself on his elbow. “Those events are always so boring.”

“So, you are calling me boring?”

He frowned. “I never said that.”

“I will be there, so if you are bored, then I must be the reason for it.”

“No, that is not what I – you are twisting my words.”

“I am interpreting them correctly.” She raised a daring eyebrow at him, as if trying to bait him.

It was confusing to say the least. Which led Duncan to the obvious conclusion that seemed impossible but was all he could think of. She knows the reason that I do not wish to go .

That was the irony here, Duncan wondering why Isabella was pushing so hard when he was purposefully pushing back because he was trying to avoid both the event and telling her why he did not wish to go in the first place.

Times were that he would have held out, pushed back, refused. But he was careful not to start a fight, worried what that might do for where they were in this relationship. He liked this space, and he didn’t want to leave it.

“You really wish to go?” Duncan sighed.

“I do. And we are going...” Still, that eyebrow remained raised.

“Fine,” he said and fell back in bed. “We will go.”

“Re -- really?” she balked and stared at him as if she could not believe it.

He laughed. “Yes, really. That was what you wanted, wasn’t it?”

Isabella frowned and her eyes searched him. A sense of confusion grew in her, the suggestion that she didn’t understand why he was being so kind. Or that she didn’t believe it. There is no way that she knows. I destroyed the letter as soon as I read it. It was unsealed!

“Perfect.” She leaned in and kissed him on the lips before lying back down beside him. “And thank you for saying yes. I...” She hesitated. “I appreciate it.”

“Who would have guessed I could be so understanding,” Duncan chuckled.

Perhaps he was imagining things, and this was just a test to see how he would react? But why would she do such a thing? Things were going so well, and Duncan couldn’t fathom why she might want to sabotage it.

It must have been that letter. The one from Lady St. Vincent. Somehow, she had found out about it.

In said letter, Juliet had told Duncan in no uncertain terms that she was in love with him, and she wished for them to run away together. Knowing how tenuous his relationship with Isabella was, Juliet seemed to think that he was a given and that already he would be packing his bags, desperate to leave with her.

It was absurd! Insane! So unlike the woman that Duncan might have thought it written by another, if he hadn’t recognized the handwriting.

He did not send a response, because he did not think one necessary. However, Juliet had told him also that if she did not hear from him then she would wait to see him at the Stoneside garden party, as if his mere being there was proof that he was of the same mind as she...

It was no wonder he did not wish to go. And it was no wonder why Isabella might be pushing for it. No doubt she wanted to see for herself if these last five days had been real, or if Duncan was exactly who she expected.

Why must everything always be so darn difficult? Why, for once, can it not be easy?

Juliet was apparently in love with him. Isabella was seeming less content than usual. Duncan was happy but knew that happiness to exist on a razor’s edge. All that was to say that the honeymoon period that was this marriage looked as if it was set to end.

What might come next... Duncan was up late into the night worrying about just that.

Their relationship was nowhere near as stable as they pretended.

On the surface, everything seemed perfectly fine. Better than fine. To those who might see them, they would surely describe the couple as happy and in a good place, nothing to worry about, moving in the right direction in all the ways which mattered.

Isabella wanted to believe this. She tried her best to, because she was happy and did not want to go back to the way things were. But as the days wore on and the splendor continued, her sister’s warning echoed in her head.

Surely, I am being ridiculous? Why am I trying to force something to happen that I do not even want? Why can’t I just be happy!

Isabella’s fear was that one day soon, Duncan’s true self would return and this perceived sense of happiness that the two were existing in would cease to be. And that once it did, there would be no going back.

Such a foolish way to think because outside of these darkest thoughts, everything was as good as it had ever been.

“A ride today?” Duncan asked the morning after she had forced him to agree to attending the Stoneside garden party. “I thought we might spend the day out.”

Isabella very nearly said yes without pause. With no plans today, spending it with her husband as they explored the countryside was as much as she could have hoped for. Plus, out in the wilderness, alone, who knew what might happen...

“Hmm?” She bit into her lip instead. “Maybe...”

He laughed. “Did you have something else on?”

“No...” She frowned to herself, knowing that what came to mind was the wrong thing to think, but she unable to keep herself from saying it. “It is just that... well, a whole day together? What if I get bored?”

Duncan blinked. Frowned. Looked at her as if she wasn’t certain whether she was being serious or not. “Of me or the ride?”

“Both?” she shrugged casually. “Pick one.”

Duncan eyed her curiously. For a moment, she thought she saw his lip twitch. For a second, she braced herself because two weeks ago such words spoken would be enough to send him down an anger spiral which would pull her along with it.

“What if I grow bored of you?” he said instead, laughing along. “In fact, perhaps I will take a book. Just in case.”

“So, you do not wish for me to come?”

He winked. “Oh, you might as well. In case I get bored of my book.”

He refused to take the bait. He refused to rise to her argumentative comments. He remained composed and jovial, amused by her rancor, seemingly enjoying it as if he thought she was playing with him!

Maybe he has changed? But if he has, does that mean that I am the problem?

There was something very wrong with Isabella. Happiness had found her, yet she refused to answer its call. She did not want Duncan to turn back into the man he once was, but she also refused to believe that it wasn’t inevitable and thus there was no point admitting that she was happy because the heartbreak that would then come might be too much to handle.

And so it was that the next few days played out on a razor’s edge.

Isabella and Duncan spent those days together. They laughed and joked and made love and existed in a state of happiness that had become the norm for their marriage. Isabella would occasionally pick at him, and he would rebuff it without incident. She would find herself getting a little too comfortable, and then pull away because she felt that she had to. She would imagine the two of them together in years to come and then push those thoughts down and refuse to consider such a thing.

Happiness was there for the taking and despite all the signs screaming for Isabella to snatch it... she simply could not.

Duncan would change soon. He had to! And when he did, Isabella knew that even as prepared for it as she was, it would still hurt. Despite her recent efforts to keep her distance from him, she was beginning to fall for the man whom she once despised.

That scared her more than anything, and if she stopped to wonder why she was the way that she was, why she refused to accept happiness as it was given to her, she might have wanted to start there.