Page 71 of Raising the Duke’s Unexpected Twins

“Quite right.” Leonard chuckled. “Listen, I’ll say it again. Your father was a blackguard, but it doesn’t mean you have to be. You already aren’t, and I don’t think it’s like a tumor that will suddenly appear inside of you.”

Nicholas thought over those words, but he still wasn’t ready to return home. “One never knows. My father was a good man, so the staff says, before my mother died.”

“So, what excuse did you give your wife to when you rushed off to the club so early?”

Nicholas sank back in his chair, a little embarrassed. He had never left a woman’s boudoir in such a clumsy fashion. He felt like an inexperienced youth stumbling over his words as he’d tried to politely leave the room before she began to hold tight to him again and kiss him as if her heart was in it. It pulled too much at his heart strings, and it felt safer to hear them snapped as he left her.

“What? What is it?” Leonard frowned, staring at him, and then a surprised look crossed his face. “Do not tell me…did you leave her in your bed this morning to come scamper here to your bloody business?”

Nicholas groaned and nodded. “To be fair, I left her in her bed.”

“And was she awake?”

He swallowed. “Yes.”

“Good God, man, even I have more tact than that. Slipping out in the night while they still sleep is the best way to go, not when they are awake and it is the light of day. How did she look?”

Crushed. Disappointed. Humiliated.

“A little embarrassed. Surprised I think, after our night together.”

She also looked like home.

For a moment as he’d stood before her, he’d considered rushing back into her arms and not leaving her bed for the whole day long.

“Christ, man, was it the first time you were together?”

Nicholas nodded again, and this time, it was Leonard who groaned. “Since when have you turned into a bumbling fool? I am the younger one, and I always looked up to you and David to teach me your rakish ways. Now it is I who must be the teacher?” He laughed. “If only David could see you now. He would laugh in your face.”

Nicholas sullenly sipped at his drink. “David would think me an utter fool, that is true, but it is because of him that I am in this mess. His will made it so that it was the most honorable thing to do, to marry her and to take the children on.”

“Honorable. See? You’ve got one out of three then, if you’re looking to take on a few traits to be what your wife deserves.”

Nicholas threw Leonard a dark look. “It was for the sake of my friend. To pay homage to the past. He had been kind to me and a dear friend. It’s the least I can do.”

He told himself that, and yet now that he’d been with Cordelia, it felt like nothing would be the same again. These were uncharted waters, and he had no idea how to navigate them.

Leonard made a ‘come here’ gesture with his fingers. “Now, tell me, what did you tell her in order to escape her dastardly bedroom of dangers?”

He sighed. “I told her the club was doing renovations and that our investors were here ready to check on the progress.”

Leonard burst into laughter. “That was quick thinking. Hmm…perhaps you are not such a lost cause as a rakish role model after all.”

“I don’t want to be –”

“What? A rakish role model? A fool? An honorable man?”

“Now, you’re just growing irritating,” Nicholas replied. “I don’t think I can be a rakish role model anymore. Or am a very good rake.”

“And whyever not?” Leonard asked sweetly, his one brow lifting.

Because I don’t want anyone else.

The truth of that slammed so hard into his chest that he nearly lost his breath. Instead, his fingers tensed around his glass as he let the feeling settle.

“I couldn’t do that to Cordelia. She would be humiliated, and I could never humiliate her. She doesn’t deserve it.”

“So, your solution is to simply pine for your wife but not actually do anything about it because you’re afraid to stop the pining and just fall in love?”