“We arebreakingour hearts, for every day together reveals just how perfect we are for each other, and yet you want to doom us to remain apart. I want you to know one thing, Fiona…”
“Only one? What is it?”
“Your marrying another man willnevercompel me to look elsewhere for a bride. As far as I am concerned, I have found the woman I want. I am looking at her right now. All you would be doing is binding yourself to some clot you do not love.”
“I don’t believe you. You would have no choice but to move on if ever I married.” She tipped her chin in the air and walked out.
He closed his eyes and shuddered.
Lord, he needed a miracle. How many nights of coupling would it take to bring this about?
They spent the morning taking a long ride through the countryside, both of them needing to work out their unsettled feelings and frustrations. In the afternoon, they took a long walk along the beach.
As the sun began its slow descent on the horizon, Rob knew it was time to return to the house and prepare themselves for dining at Lord Milbury’s home.
Fiona mentioned the stately manor had previously been called Wembly Walk by the old owner, Lord Wembly. Milbury had renamed it Milbury Hill upon acquiring the property.
Well, things changed. Didn’t they? Time moved on.
However, Rob knew his feelings for Fiona never would.
Was this not the crux of the problem? He truly believed they were destined in the stars. She even described her shattering pleasure asstarlight.
It all had significance.
How much easier it would be for both of them if their hearts were able to move on, but how could they ever move on when doing so would cause a profound celestial break?
He turned to look at Fiona as she glided down the stairs in a gown of silvery green that had a matching wrap she’d draped casually over her arm.
She looked stunning, as always. Not in an ice princess way, either. Her smile exuded warmth and her eyes sparkled. She had dimples, too. Deep ones that had always fascinated him. Her hair was lush and silken to the touch, styled in an elegant chignon that exposed her slender neck.
He’d been careful not to leave a mark on her tender skin as he’d nibbled it last night. Quite stupid of him. He ought to have given the spot below her earlobe a light bite, behaved likea baboon and left a small irritation on the soft flesh where every other man could see it and know she had been marked by him.
She is mine. Keep your distance.
“Ready?” he asked, meeting her at the foot of the steps to escort her to his ducal carriage.
She nodded. “I wonder what he’s done to the place? Poor Lord Wembly became too infirm to manage the estate on his own and allowed it to become severely run-down. It must have been close to a ruin by the time he passed on.”
“Did he have no heir to help him out?”
“Oh, yes. He had several nephews just waiting for him to take his last breath, all of them worthless. The one who inherited Wembly Walk wasted no time in selling the beautiful property to Milbury.”
“You just called it a ruin. How beautiful could it have been?”
“Itwasbeautiful, Rob. Even with a crumbling house. The land was the asset—good farmland and a magnificent view of the sea.”
The ride was short enough that Rob could have driven the two of them over in one of Fiona’s rigs. But he was being a brute about it and wanted Milbury to remember that he was the duke and the marquess was below him in rank.
Truly a jealous baboon thing to do.
But so what?
The boys rushed out to greet him and Fiona as soon as their carriage drew up under the portico. Rob’s ill humor faded, for these boys had a charming innocence about them, even if they were little devils and—gad, they were now discreetly leering at Fiona.
She did look exquisite. However, he would have to punch their father if he looked at her in the same way his boys did.
Fiona subtly kicked him.
