Free The Duke's Gamble by Elyse Huntington

did you set my father up to lose to you?”
    Oh God. The pressure in his chest was immense. Perspiration broke out on his forehead and palms and blood roared in his ears. He was going to lose her. And he deserved his fate. He was a liar and a cheat and she was going to leave him. Forever. Even knowing that, he couldn’t lie to her. “Yes,” he said hoarsely. “But Bella, I—”
    “Stop.” She was pale before, but now she was white, her grey eyes dilated with shock. “I can’t believe this. I am here because you cheated on purpose? How could you?”
    The betrayal in her eyes flayed him open and the resulting pain ripped through him so viciously that his knees threatened to buckle.  
    Bella looked as broken as he felt. “Even after you brought me here, I somehow managed to convince myself that you were still an honourable man, that there must have been some … some unfathomable reason why you entered into such a horrible agreement with my father. I thought you cared for me. But it was all just lust.”
    Castor finally found his voice. “No.” When she gave him a disbelieving look, he drove a shaking hand through his hair. “Yes, I desired you. I wanted you for my own. And I shouldn’t have done what I did. But I do care for you, Bella. Please.” He swallowed, extending his hand to her. “Please give me another chance. I lo-love you.”  
    When she took a step back, he felt his hopes shatter, splintering like the wooden hull of a boat smashing into unforgiving rocks. Bella shook her head, her chin trembling. “I don’t believe you. You’re only saying that because I found out the truth and you want me to return so that you can continue this … this arrangement. I am leaving, and I will not return.”
    He watched helplessly as she picked up her gown. “Bella. I beg you. Please. Don’t go.” He heard the desperation in his voice. He had never said please, never apologised, never begged, until he met her. “ Please, ” he said again.
    She walked to the door, then paused before turning around. The grey eyes that met his shone with unshed tears. “Goodbye Castor.”

Weeks passed, then a month, then two. Castor was in agony. For the first time in his life, he did not know what to do. He had started writing at least a score of letters, ordered his horse at least a dozen times. But he never went through with either course, deathly afraid that she would tell him how much she hated him or that he would see the hatred in his eyes. Desperation finally made him send her a package a month after she left, hoping that his gift would somehow prompt her to write. Yet she never did.
    Castor cursed, throwing a sheaf of papers onto his desk in frustration. The numbers on the ledger before him made no sense at all, and it was driving him to lunacy. Even simple tasks such as dictating letters to his secretary seemed impossible as he would find himself drifting off in the middle of a sentence when he thought of something Bella had said or done. Denton tried to hide it but Castor could tell that his secretary thought his master had clearly lost his wits. Never before had he felt such restlessness or found it so difficult to concentrate on his business affairs. It was even worse when he was alone. He would fantasise that she was with him, telling him about some interesting bit from a book she was reading, or imagine that he was making love to her in a thousand and one different ways. The ache in his chest was an old friend now, as faithful a companion as the gaping emptiness inside him.
    He had to see her. He could persuade her to return to him. He would buy her more books, thousands of books, more books than she could read if she lived up to a hundred. And she enjoyed sharing his bed. He knew that. He would seduce her, spend hours and hours pleasuring her until they were both too exhausted to continue. And the next day, he would do it all over again.
    He had to see her before the financial monolith he had built crumbled