Read Online To Catch A Duke by Bethany Sefchick - Free Book Online

voice whispered
inside of him that it might not be such a terrible thing to stay here with her
forever.
    "I am not
beautiful."   Her lips were moist
and pink, he noted, and they looked very kissable.   "But I could be pretty.   To the right man, anyway.   I
could also be a good wife.   But I will
never get that chance.   And I have come
to accept that as my fate."   A soft
smile touched those lush, desirable lips.   "And despite your belief that you can mold the ton to your
will with enough force and fear, you cannot make a man love me.   No one can.   So no, I will not marry.   But I
can enjoy what I have been given at this moment.   And that, Benjamin, I shall do.   With you by my side."
    "Julia, I..."   For the first time, the notorious Duke of
Radcliffe was at a loss for words.   What
he wanted, he could not have.   What he
longed to do - namely kiss her - he knew he could not.   Instead, he simply allowed himself to be in
the moment and wondered what came next.

Chapter Four
     
    That night at the Clauson's ball,
Julia was beginning to doubt the wisdom of her actions that afternoon.   She'd practically dared Benjamin to find her
a husband, even though she'd never precisely said the words.   However she knew he was thinking about
it.   Quite a bit from the look of
things.   He was back to brooding,
something she hadn't seen him do since the summer before at Seldon Park when
he'd been trying to figure out a way to maximize the harvest while not
overtaxing his tenants.
    Then there was the matter of their
"almost kiss."   They hadn't
kissed in the carriage, of course.   She'd come back to her senses before she'd allowed it and pulled away
from his touch, no matter how much she'd longed to remain in that moment with
him.   The touch, she reminded herself
now, rather crossly, that she'd initiated by placing his hand on her face,
practically begging him to caress her.   Still, when they'd been together in the carriage, something had passed
between them.   An awareness that hadn't
been there before.   The knowledge,
however tentative, that she was a woman and he was man.
    Julia had, of course, always been
aware of Benjamin as a man.   Or at least
she had been ever since she'd outgrown the notion that boys had cooties and
were good for something other than climbing trees with.   But for his part?   She doubted that until this afternoon, he'd truly considered that
she was a woman well out of the schoolroom and firmly on the shelf.   Except that now, she'd done the very thing
she'd vowed not to do so many years before.   Somehow, a little piece of hope had escaped the confines of her heart
and sprung free.   It was there, deep
inside of her, and, whether he was aware of it or not, some part of Benjamin
could see it.
    She had unwittingly changed the
rules of their friendship.   This would
not end well.   For either of them, but
mostly for her.
    "Is something wrong, Lady
Julia?   Why do you frown so?   A beautiful lady like you should be smiling
on an evening such as this."   The
voice that interrupted her musings was now familiar and still completely
unwelcome.
    She glanced up to see Lord Landover
striding towards her, his deep purple waistcoat almost garish in color, so unlike
the sedate hunter green Benjamin had chosen for the evening.   Knowing she should walk away, but also
knowing that it would be rude, she offered a curtsey and then looked for the
quickest escape route but found none.
    "My lord, what a
surprise.   I did not know you would be
here tonight."   That much was
true.   If she had, she would not have
come.   Though he'd not said more than a
handful of words to her in the park, she did not like or trust him.
    "I always know where the most
beautiful of ladies will be each night and make it a point to be in their
vicinity."   His gaze strayed to her
scars, she noticed, which included following them down to where they
disappeared beneath the bodice of her pale silver gown.