One Dance with a Duke (Stud Club #1)

“Spencer, please. I’ve already lost Hugh. I can’t lose Jack, too.”


He came to stand before her. His face was dark with emotion, his posture one of power and strength. His sheer physical nearness roused her body, and she recalled the way he’d tangled his limbs with hers in the stable, kissed her throat, stroked her bare thigh … Despite her anger, she was a breath away from launching herself into his arms and begging him to hold her, kiss her, pleasure her, care for her.

Love her, and understand.

And then he said quietly, “Jack is already lost, Amelia.”

No. Amelia gaped at him, tears burning in her eyes. Marrying Spencer was supposed to mean her brother’s salvation, not his doom. He’d exhaust his fortune for an ill-tempered horse, but he’d write off her brother with a single remark?

“Don’t you say that,” she whispered. “You don’t know him. He and Hugh were just a year apart, and such close friends. It’s like a part of Jack died with him, and he keeps trying to fill that emptiness with gaming and drink. You don’t know how he was, before.”

“And you are blind to the man he is now. I’ve seen this before, in reckless youths with a taste for high stakes and brains starved for good sense. I tell you, he is lost. He may yet find his way back, but only if he discovers the will and strength within himself. Nothing you can do will make him change. You need to snip his leading strings, for both your sakes. No more consoling, no more cajoling. No more money. If you’re not strong enough to cut the ties, I’ll do it for you.”

“Cut the ties? With my own flesh and blood?” She couldn’t believe that this was the same Spencer she’d conversed with in the stables this morning. He knew how important her family was to her. How could he even suggest this? “Of all the arrogant, unfeeling …”

“Ah, yes.” With a humorless laugh, he unfolded his hand. Between them, the brass token glittered in his palm. “I’m the villain. Jack can show up at this house, drowning in gaming debt, having recovered this coin from a low prostitute. He can impugn my honor, threaten my cousin’s reputation, and insult you to your face—”

“You hit him!”

“—and I’m the villain.” He muttered a vicious oath. “I’ve spent a week laboring under wrongheaded suspicions. I’ve exhausted every scrap of patience and consideration, worked day and night to see these accusations proved false. You claimed to believe me, even when my efforts failed. Now Jack appears with the very evidence of my innocence in his pocket, and I’m the deuced villain. Worthless ingrate that he is, he gets your loyalty. He’s the one you defend.”

The wounded look in his eyes … God, she felt it twist in her heart. But what could she say? “He’s my brother.”

“I’m your husband!”

The force in his voice sent her stumbling a half-step in retreat. The predatory gleam in his eyes sent her back another two. Her heart drummed furiously in her chest.

“I am your husband. We exchanged vows, in case you’ve forgotten.” He held up the token between his thumb and forefinger as he advanced. “And that same night, you made me a pledge. Once this token was found, I would have all of you. You would deny me nothing.”

“What do you mean? You’ve just threatened to forcibly separate me from my family. Now you expect me to behave as if nothing has changed? Lie back on the bed like a good, obedient wife?”

“No.” In a rush of strength, he caught her by the waist and swept her backward, until she collided with the wall. “I’ll take you right here, never mind the bed.”

He lifted her slightly, wedging his legs between hers and supporting her weight with his thighs as one hand dropped to burrow beneath her skirts. She gasped for air as he shoved the heavy velvet up to her waist, too stunned to resist. His fingers found her sex, and she was still wet for him from earlier, still tender from the night before. The sensation was overwhelming. Without preliminary, he pushed two fingers inside her, and her inner muscles cinched around their girth.

He stilled, breathing just as heavily as she. “You wanted this.”

Wanted what? To marry him in the first place? To be taken hard and fast against the wall? To witness the hurt in his eyes and feel that sharp edge of retribution, after the way he’d devastated her just now?

“Yes,” she breathed. Yes, she wanted all of this.