Devil in Duke's Clothing (Royal Pains Book 1) by Nina Mason Read Free Book Online

piss from.”
    “I did wash, Maggie. Though I must confess, I did not expect you to fellate me. Not the first time I bed you, leastwise.”
    She regarded his erection like a villain, which might have dampened his libido were he not so eager to be inside her. The deflowering part of the program he could do without, but there was no way around it.
    He’d had plenty of whores, but never a virgin, primarily because he could not see the attraction of depriving a lass of her maidenhead for no better reason than to be the first to do so. Women were not mountains to be climbed and flagged.
    Many of the brothels he frequented in London and Edinburgh auctioned off to their regulars the chance to claim the hymens of new recruits—usually before a crowd of onlookers. He’d never seen the virtue of this custom. Why pay extra for a lass who would neither participate nor enjoy herself?
    “Is something amiss?”
    Her question brought him back to the moment. While lost in thought, his erection had flagged.  
    “No, no. My mind drifted for a moment, but all is well.”
    She pushed up on her elbow, looking pensive. “May I ask you something, Robert?”
    “Aye, of course. Ask whatever you wish to know.”
    “How soon do wish to start a family and how large a family do you have in mind?”
    “Not too large and not too soon.” Her pubic curls were silken and springy. “We are young. You are barely eighteen and I am only thirty. There is ample time to enjoy each other before we bring children into the equation. Besides, childbirth will put you at risk, and I do not think I could bear to lose you.”
    “True, but what if the plague or pox should carry you off before you conceive an heir?”
    “That would be a grave misfortune indeed, but should I die without issue, Hugh would succeed me as duke and do what he must to carry on the bloodline.”
    “Since you brought up Hugh…did you send him away because of me?”
    “Aye, but not for the reasons you might suppose.”
    “Why, then?”
    “Well, to put it delicately, Hugh would have pressed you betwixt the pages of a book whilst still a bud, whereas I felt you deserved to bloom.”
    Her brow furrowed. “I do not take your meaning.”
    He brushed her cheek and looked into her eyes, overwhelmed by affection and yearning. “Let me try to explain it another way. In the engravings you looked through, did you happen to notice any depicting two men together?”
    “I confess that I did.” The creases in her forehead deepened. “And they puzzled me exceedingly.”
    “Some men prefer to lie with those of their own gender, Rosebud. They’re what’s called homosexual .”
    Her eyes widened and her face paled. “And Hugh is such a one?”
    He brushed a thumb across her lips, as plump as a child’s and petal soft. “Did you never wonder why he made no move to make love to you?”
    “I confess I did wonder, but convinced myself he was only behaving honorably.”
    Robert took a breath and let it out slowly as he chose his next words. “I will not deign to say otherwise. Whatever else he might be, my brother is an honorable man. I shall only assert that honor might not have been the whole of his reason.”
    He did not wish to talk about Hugh, did not want to think the embers of affection for his brother might still burn in her bosom. He wanted her heart to belong to him alone.
    “Enough talk,” he said, getting to his knees. “The time has come to seal our vows.”
    Hooking her under the armpits, he dragged her to the center of the mattress and laid her out like a sacred oblation—which, indeed, she was. An offering to Venus, the goddess of love whose trickster son had shot him through the heart with one of his golden arrows.  
    Since the day he’d come to her rescue in the woods—four long years—he’d remained remote, feigning disinterest until his feelings grew too strong to be denied. Now the long-coveted object of desire was within reach. But he must keep his head and take