Free The Duke's Gamble by Elyse Huntington Page B

sure so that she could not mistake the conviction in his tone.
    “ Castor. ” Bella gripped his coat in her hands and rose on her toes, pressing her mouth hard against his.  
    Their kiss was wild and desperate and messy, full of the love and need neither could fully express. Their kiss was glorious.
    It was a long time before they broke apart, and even then, Castor kept his arms around her. In fact, he was sure that he would never let her go again.
    She smiled. “I received your gift.”
    Castor’s chest felt tight. “Did you like it?”
    She looked incredulously at him. “Two entire crates of books? I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Of course I loved it!”
    He couldn’t hold back his smile at her enthusiasm. “I thought you might. I saw the state of the books you brought with you.”  
    “It was the most incredible gift I have ever received.” She tilted her head back slightly so that she could look at him. “I do hope you have some extra space in your library, though, for I brought them back here with me.”
    Startled, he looked at her. “What did you do that for?”
    “Well, seeing as though I plan to be here for the foreseeable future, I thought I could read them.”
    Castor was at a loss for words. He stared at the beautiful woman in his arms. “Foreseeable future?”
    “Yes.” She slipped her arms around his neck and pressed her body against his. “That is, until you ask me to leave.”
    “Why the hell would I ask you to leave?”
    Her eyes darkened. “One day, you will need an heir and …” Her voice shook before she recovered. “And then I will have to go.”
    “No,” he said forcefully.
    “Castor, I am willing to be your mistress but I cannot stay with you knowing you have a wife. That you are … with her.” The deep distress in her grey eyes made him tighten his arms around her. She loved him, she must, to look like that.
    “The only wife I am taking is standing right here in my arms. If she will have me.”
    Bella blinked. She started to shake her head. “Don’t tease, Castor. I cannot bear it.”
    “Darling, I would not tease you about something like this.”
    “You wish to marry me?”
    “I have wanted you to be my wife since I saw you five years ago.”
    Her brow furrowed. “At the Anstruthers,” she said slowly. “My first season. But why did you not approach me then?”
    “I was betrothed to someone at the time. And I would have broken with her to have you but it was an arrangement that had been made from the time we were both children.”
    Bella swallowed. “You married her?”
    “No. She and her family caught consumption and died when they were in France. By the time I came out of mourning, you were back in the country caring for your mother.”
    “You knew about my mother’s illness?”
    “I made it my mission to know everything about you and your father.”
    She gave him a questioning look. “Would you truly do it all again to win me?”
    His heart turned over. “I would relive the day I lost my family if it meant I could have you in my arms for the rest of my life,” he said hoarsely.
    Tears filled her eyes. “I love you.”
    His heart contracting, he replied, “And I love you.”
    Bella stroked his cheek tenderly, then tilted her head to one side, looking curiously at him.
    “Why did you not come and court me instead of constructing this elaborate plan?”
    Castor arched a brow, feeling the tension leave him. She was going to stay. “You wound me if you consider the card game elaborate.”
    Bella rolled her eyes. “Oh, how could I have forgotten for even a moment your incredible intelligence.” She squealed when he rewarded her impudent remark by tickling her sides.  
    “There were two reasons why I conceived of this plan. Efficiency and pride. I did not want to risk the injury to my pride and feelings if I had courted you and yet you decided not to marry me. My plan was the quickest way of getting you into my bed. But I knew that even with