He scooped her up. She met his next kiss but then pulled back. “You cannot fathom the pressures and expectations of being duke, Jason—truly, you cannot. You’ve guessed enough to put it off, you’ve dodged and dreaded it, but I fear the reality will be far worse. Learning you are not permitted to marry a girl like me will be only the beginning of your new life.”
“I will do what I want when it comes to who I marry, damn it,” he said. “I am the bloody duke, after all.”
“Did your brothers?” she challenged.
“My brothers did not marry. My oldest brother, August, did not care for women and my middle brother, James, was too overwhelmed with the duties thrust upon him when he inherited.” He made a bitter sound. “Until August died, James’s only vision of the future had been his violin. And then suddenly he was duke, and there was no time for women. He fell ill within three years and was then too sick to consider them. Poor James,” he sighed. “God love him.”
“And this proves my point,” she said. “Two men who would have pursued their own bliss if the dukedom hadn’t disallowed it. Your older brother could have presented himself to the world as a confirmed bachelor, with no illusion of eventually marrying. Your nextbrother could have filled his short life with music instead of . . . estate management. You will discover the same—”
“Make no mistake, sweetheart,” Jason cut in. “August told us all very early on that another Beckett male would be responsible for begetting the heir; he would never marry. And James could have courted any number of potential duchesses, but he didn’t. I actually learned hownotto do it from him.
“But I assure you,” he finished, “there is no officer of protocol at Syon Hall. Has my mother made my eventual marriage a priority? Yes. But she knows better than to coerce me or manage who I choose. She wants me to be happy. We’ve had so much tragedy, so many funerals. She understands what truly matters.”
For this, Isobel had no answer. She stared at his wet hair and face, just inches from her own.
He reached up to trace a finger around her mouth. “You make me happy,” he said. “You make me more than simply ‘happy.’ You... you give me the will to go on.”
“I’m the balm that allows you to tolerate the dukedom,” she guessed, being deliberately obtuse. “If you were doing as you liked, still working as a foreign agent, you would have never settled for me.”
“If I was still working for the Foreign Office,” he said softly, pulling her face to his, “I would marry you, then I would recruit you, and we would travel the world, preventing wars and routing slavers and fighting pirates.”
Again, Isobel’s eyes filled with tears, and she collapsed against him. With slick hands, she felt her way around his chest, savoring each muscle. She wanted to be as close as possible; she wanted to dig to his heart and swipe it, to hold it, to protect it.
“Is that a yes?” he asked, speaking into her hair.
A trail of shimmers revolved in her stomach. She floated in the hot pool and in the green heavens and in love with him. A tiny sliver of hope could just be made out on the horizon of her life. She allowed herself to reach out and jab at it, testing its durability and staying power.
“What was the question?” she asked, speaking to his chest.
He laughed, tickling her ribs with provocative fingers. “Do you love me?” he stated.
She paused in the act of kissing his nipple. She nodded.
He tickled her again, his fingers playful and sensual at the same time. His erection bobbed at the junction of her legs, a delicious, throbbing hardness.
“Will you marry me,” he went on, “and become the Duchess of Northumberland?”
She paused again. The shimmers had crystalized into tiny, sharp pinpoints of hope. She was so very torn. The shimmers of hope could swirl again or slice her to ribbons.
Hecould slice her to ribbons.
Jason went still, waiting for an answer.
When she said nothing, he swore, disentangled himself, and splashed away.
She stared after him, suddenly cold despite the fizzing heat. She treaded water, watching him. His handsome face was shrouded in steam and backlit by green swirls in the sky.
“Answer me,” he demanded.
He grabbed her ankle beneath the water and pulled her to him. She let out a whimper and allowed herself to glide. When she floated against him, she wrapped her legs about his haunches and looped her armsaround his neck. He ground against her and she sighed in pleasure.
“An answer, if you please,” he growled in her ear.
“Yes,” she finally said breathlessly. “Yes, I will do it.Ifyou do not change your mind.Ifyour family will allow it.Ifsociety will allow it and it will not decrease your influence or the stature of the dukedom. I will do it.”
She finished on a sob, and he kissed her, swallowing up the sound.
Isobel’s conscious mind floated away, and she allowed herself to simply sink into the kiss and into him. Sensations built, throbbing between them, and when she could no longer bear the pressure, she reached between them and grabbed his erection.
