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

Chapter 32

Chapter Thirty-Two

D uncan was busy doing a final walk through the manor when he heard it. The front doors flying open. His name being called. A sense of hope wrapping itself around his heart like a hand; there to either squeeze the life from him or to restart what had been close to death.

He had been so close to leaving too.

The carriage was already packed with most of his things – those that he would need to begin his trip. He had also left detailed instructions with the staff on how they were to proceed once he was gone; what to pack, what to leave as is, and most importantly to do as Isabella instructed them for this was her home now.

The letter he had written to her sat on the table in his office, signed and sealed, there for her to find whenever she chose to return.

All in all, it was done and finished. That just left this final walk through the house, a few moments of regret taken, and then Duncan would leave and never look back...

“Duncan!” the voice cried from downstairs. “Duncan! Are you here!”

That was when the hope seized him. He recognized the voice well enough, for he would know it in his dreams. But the tenor of it... the tone... she called his name, but he could not tell if it was in anger or joy.

“Duncan! Duncan, are you here!”

Duncan very nearly snuck away. Fear seized him and he wondered if he might be better leaving through the back and then taking the carriage before she saw him. Anything to avoid a confrontation that he did not think his heart could handle.

But he steeled himself and forced his feet to walk down the hallway. She called him still from the foyer, so Duncan was careful to stay back and then sneak toward the banister so that he might be able to see Isabella before she saw him.

She stood in the middle of the foyer, hands clutched to her chest as she spun about and called his name. Now that he was nearer, there was no mistaking the tone in her voice. And if not that, the look he could see on her face and in her eyes as she searched were of such joyous beauty that Duncan very nearly threw himself over the staircase to reach her sooner.

But he did no such thing.

In fact, he stayed watching her a moment longer. The sun was coming through the doorway, shining its brilliance behind her. This made her glow, angelic and radiant, like a dream turned reality. Duncan had always been physically attracted to Isabella, that was not the question. But as he watched her, he realized that he had never admitted to himself just how beautiful she was.

“Duncan!” Isabella looked up and saw him watching her. “What are you doing up there?”

“Watching you,” he admitted. “What... what are you doing down there?”

“Being watched,” she shot back with a smirk. “And looking for you.”

“You’ve found me.”

She raised an eyebrow. “But are you going to come to me? Or do I need to come to you?”

Duncan almost laughed to hear the humor in her voice. Impossible to fathom, as he was certain she would be angry with him. Unless this was a trick of some kind? A final chance for her to anger him and ruin him that little bit further because it was the least that he deserved.

For that reason, he stayed where he was.

“Isabella...” His hands gripped the banister as he looked down at her. “What happened with your sister --”

“Was my fault,” Isabella cut him off.

“What? No! It was –”

“Do not say it was you,” she warned him. “You saved her. If you were not there…”

“It should have never gotten that far to begin with.” All of this was written in the letter, and he would have preferred that she read it there. But she was here now, and she wanted answers. She deserved answers. “I put your sister’s life in danger, Isabella. Me! I was the one who --”

“Do you love me?” she cut him off.

Duncan balked. “Wh -- what?”

Isabella walked to the steps and took the first one. “Do you love me?”

“Isabella...” He grimaced. “That is not... regardless of how I feel, what happened was my fault. Lady St. Vincent was there because of me. She was there because I --”

“Do you love me?” she said again, trepidation in her voice. “Answer the question, because it is the only one that I care about.” Another step taken. “I must know. I do not care how guilty you feel. I do not care if you think this is your fault. All I care about…” Another step, halfway up the staircase now. “Is if you love me or not.”

Duncan began to sweat. Isabella was halfway toward him, and he was caught between going to her and turning to flee. Not because he was scared of her, but because he was scared of what might happen when he told her the truth. If he confessed and she laughed in his face...

“And if I do?” he said carefully.

“Do you?” She took another step, and then another.

“What... what would you think if I did?”

“That depends on whether you do or not.” Another step, and then two more.

“I am dangerous, Isabella. That is all which matters.”

“Not as dangerous as I am.”

He shook his head. “No, I am the one who –”

“Saved my sister.”

“Put her in danger.”

“Because of me. She was only there because of a fight that she and I had. To prove me wrong, even if there was nothing to prove. Now…” She took the final step, onto the landing, less than five feet from where Duncan was standing. “Tell me the truth, do you love me?” She raised both eyebrows and stared at him, unblinking, commanding, filled with a determined force that only someone like Isabella could ever truly hold.

Again, Duncan almost laughed.

This right here was so them. Even in confessions of love, they still could not help but argue. Two heads butting and he wondered what might happen if he was to refuse her answer further. How far he could push it.

His heart began to race, and his excitement began to build because he could see in her eyes the answer which she wanted. One which, he was beginning to see, was returned fully.

“And what if I did?” he shot back with a smile and a raised eyebrow of his own.

“Then I would have a right to know.”

“As I would have a right to know if you felt the same?”

She hesitated and he saw the smile flash behind her eyes; enough that it gave him hope because now he understood the true reason that she was here.

“Maybe,” she said, smirking slightly. “But that all depends.”

“On what?”

“On whether or not you love me.” She raised both eyebrows again, a smile crept up her face, and her body shook. Caught between looking like she wanted to slap him or kiss him, Duncan could not guess which it might be. “Now, stop being so annoying and just tell me!”

Again, he wanted to bait her.

Again, he wanted to tease her.

Again, he wanted to fall back into their old games.

But all that did was confirm how silly this all was. They both knew the answer. They both accepted what it meant. But neither was willing to say it first; the two most stubborn people in the whole world and they had reached an impasse because of it.

Knowing that this would be just one of many battles that Duncan was sure to lose from this day forward, he swallowed his pride, stepped forward, took Isabella by the hands and looked deeply into her eyes before speaking.

“Isabella...” He squeezed her hands; they were sweaty, trembling in his grip. “You are the most frustrating, stubborn, fury-inducing person who I have ever met.”

“Speak for yourself.”

“I should hate you,” he continued, smile growing. “I should wish to never see you again. I should... I should hate the way you anger me, infuriate me, send me crazy with how you bicker and argue seemingly for the sake of upsetting me.”

“And yet...” She licked her lips.

“And yet, you don’t. And the only reason that I can think is because...” Still holding her hands, he raised them to his chest. “It is because I love you, Isabella. I have loved you for longer than I care to admit. Longer than any reasonable person should take to realize it. Longer than...” He shook his head. “Longer than any sane man should take to confess how much they love you.”

“Oh...” Isabella grimaced, and she gently pulled her hands away.

Duncan’s stomach dropped. “Oh...?”

“This is a touch awkward but...” She sucked through her teeth. “And that was all very lovely to hear. Thank you.”

“You are welcome?”

“But I was thinking that perhaps we should just be friends?”

Duncan’s mouth ran dry. His stomach, having dropped already, was burrowing beneath the earth. The hand that wrapped around his heart was squeezing as if trying to kill him. While the room turned because his reality was shattering in ways that he did not think possible but now found himself in the middle of --

And then he saw the look in her eyes.

It was devilish. Wicked. Pure evil, in how much she was enjoying the misery flooding Duncan’s soul. That look in her eyes was joined by a most sinister smirk and that was when Duncan knew.

“You think you are funny?” he said dryly.

“I am hilarious.”

“You know what, I have just changed my mind. I take it all back.”

“It’s too late for that now!” she cried.

“It’s never too late. Now, if you do not mind...” He shooed her away and pretended to turn around.

She grabbed him by the arm, and he looked down at her hand. He curled his lip and growled. “I suggest that you let me go immediately.”

“And if I refuse?”

“You would not be wise to.”

“When have I ever done anything that might be considered wise?” The grip tightened.

“From the moment that I met you?” He turned into her, stepped forward, wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into him. “Not once.”

“Like, for example, falling in love with you?” she said as her tone softened and she melted into him, her own hands finding their way around his waist.

“The most foolish thing you have ever done,” Duncan grinned.

“Strange then that I do not regret it.”

Duncan laughed. “Well... let us see if I can change your mind.”

He was finished flirting. He was finished playing games. He had Isabella in his grip. Complete and utter control, so that if he wanted, he could do with her whatever he liked.

It almost felt as if the opposite was true. As if she was the one who had him in her power, that she had her talons sunk deep into his skin, and if she so wished it she could make him do just about anything that she wished for.

I suppose that’s love for you, isn’t it?

Duncan leaned forward and kissed Isabella fully on the lips, and she kissed him right back. The sparks that flew between them in that moment was the final proof that they needed: this was love. A love that was as dominating as it was powerful as it was all consuming.

The beast inside of Duncan roared, happy to be tamed this one time because if there was anybody in this world whom Duncan was happy to be under their thrall, it was Isabella.