Free My Dangerous Duke by Gaelen Foley

horizon.
    Kate was holding out her cold-reddened hands, warning his men back in fury as Rohan strode into their midst, with one goal—to defuse the situation. She needed to be calmed, and she had to be protected, if only from herself.
    She could so easily fall from the precipice, and that spelled certain death. In a most unhurried fashion, Rohan walked past the bristling line of guards, all his focus taking her in.
    “What’s going on, Kate?” he asked softly.
    “Stay back!” she screamed. “I swear I’ll jump if you come any closer, I’ll do it.”
    He obeyed, at least for the moment. He stopped about ten feet away, but stared at her intensely, as if he could slow time and the wind itself to keep her secure.
    “Easy, now. Come away from there, Kate,” he cajoled her as gently as possible.
    “Go to Hell!”
    “No one is going to hurt you, sweet. I just want to help.”
    “Oh, really?” Her voice was shaky, but her incredulous glare was fraught with rage. “Then call off your dogs!”
    “Fall back!” he commanded at once. He looked over his shoulder to make sure his men backed off far enough to satisfy her. He did not want them frightening her any further. He gazed at her again, wondering if Caleb had saddled him with a madwoman. “All right? You’re in control now. We’ll do as you say.”
    She shook her head at him with an angry scoff. “Right!”
    “Kate: Listen to me. Come away from the edge. You mustn’t stand there. These cliffs are very unstable. They crumble all the time without any warning. This rain has probably weakened them more. It’s not safe.”
    “Safe?” she echoed miserably. “I don’t even know what that word means anymore.”
    Training or no, his heart pounded at the prospect of this beautiful girl with the tragic green eyes killing herself right in front of him. He could not allow it to happen. He just wished he had some idea of what demon was driving her.
    Something was obviously very wrong, beyond his earlier assumptions. “Kate. Please.” He clenched his jaw, inching forward ever so slightly, but taking pains not to make any sudden moves. “Tell me what is the matter.”
    “You expect me to trust you?”
    “What is it you want?”
    “I want to go home!” she wailed.
    “Then you shall,” he promised softly. “But come away from there, my dear. It isn’t worth it. Those rocks are icy. You’re soaking wet. Come in and have breakfast—”
    “Don’t toy with me!” she wrenched out. “God, I can’t bear any more cruelty.”
    “What cruelty?” he asked in amazement. “Has someone on my staff been unkind to you?”
    She laughed at him and turned away in disgust, shaking her head.
    His heart leaped into his throat because he thought at that moment she was going to do it—going to jump.
    His glance homed in, swiftly calculating the distance between them—seven or eight feet, now that he had moved closer—but before he could spring, she looked at him again, this time with hopeless tears in her eyes.
    “Please, Your Grace. Just let me go. I swear, I won’t tell anyone. But I’m not going back in that cellar,” she whispered barely audibly. “And I’d rather die than live as any man’s slave.”
    Rohan stared at her in shock. “What cellar?”
    “As if you don’t know!” she screamed at him in sudden fury.
    “Kate—I don’t have the slightest idea what you are talking about!”
    At that moment, a loud crack and rumble split the air.
    She glanced around wildly and started to rush forward, but she was too late—before his horrified eyes, the ledge crumbled under her weight like a trapdoor.
    Before the shriek had even left her lips, he dove forward onto his stomach with a lightninglike move, grabbing her arm as she fell. Flat on his belly at the edge of the broken cliff, he pulled back, counterbalancing his weight, while dimly aware of his men’s wild shouts.
    In that instant, plagues, fires, wars—all the terrible things he had seen in his