Winning a Lady's Heart by Christi Caldwell Read Free Book Online Page A

sounded like an insult.
    Danby motioned from Alexandra to Nathan. “Off with you now,” he ordered as though speaking to two young children. “Continue this talk somewhere else. I’ve done my piece.”
    Alexandra’s lips tightened. Yes, he certainly had.
    Nathan was the only one who seemed to remember his manners. He bowed deeply. “Your Grace.”
    Alexandra gritted her teeth so tightly the pain radiated up her jaw and pierced the flesh at her temples. Without so much as a curtsey or further word uttered, she turned on her heel and stalked past Nathan. The faint musky sandalwood that always seemed to cling to him wafted by, its pull a seductive reminder of the embraces they’d stolen.
    She made to shove the door open, but damn him, he was there, intercepting her efforts. Ever the gentleman was Nathan. She laughed almost manically at the ridiculousness of such a thought.
    A gentleman would never lay a wager in the book at White’s about a lady he loved.
    He fell into step behind her, and then his long strides closed the distance, and he was beside her, marching down the long, long corridor towards—well she hadn’t considered exactly where she was going. She’d just known she’d needed to get away from the Duke of Danby and his hellish office.
    “Surely you have something to say to me?”
    Alexandra laughed and faltered. He gripped her arm gently, righting her.
    She shrugged his touch off, trying not to feel the longing for his heated skin on her flesh.
    “Oh, I have a million things to say to you, my lord.”
    A small smile tilted his lips. “I’m sure you’ve counted more.”
    Damn him for knowing all the intimate things about her. Alexandra looked left and then right, confirming they were in fact alone.
    “Does it amuse you to continue to make light of all that I shared with you? Perhaps there is a current wager you’ve placed as to how many days it would take for me to forgive you for being an utter cad? Well, here is the answer I’d jot in that book at White’s. Never.”
    “Never is not a number.”
    “You know what I mean.” Her voice had risen to a near shout.
    He seemed far too amused for Alexandra. She jabbed a finger at his chest. “Must you come here at Christmastime after humiliating me to thoroughly ruin my holiday season? What joy do you find in my misery? And furthermore, how dare you arrive and appear so bloody well rested. Why, you look as though you arrived a whole evening—”
    His eyes flashed the confirmation to her statement.
    “You arrived before I did?” She thought of Danby’s lack of questions for Nathan. He hadn’t needed to ask any questions because he already had.
    And here was Alexandra, caught off-guard and looking thoroughly rumpled. Danby’s betrayal was now complete.
    “Your grandfather summoned me,” Nathan said quietly.
    “Why did you come?” she asked on an angry whisper.
    “Because I needed to see you, needed your forgiveness. And as much as I’ve told myself I don’t deserve you, I need to explain.”
    Alexandra took a step away from him. “Explain what, my lord? What could you possibly say? And you were correct, you were never deserving of me.”
    A stark flash of pain twisted his features and she hated herself for inflicting that hurt on him. It had been his greatest worry, something he’d frequently spoken to her about, turning out to be the same ruthless man his father had been. He’d told her so many times he didn’t deserve her, she’d ceased keeping count—which was, of course, a great effort for Alexandra.
    “You are right,” he said, at last breaking the silence. “But I still need you to know the whole story.”
    She swallowed past a ball of emotion. “Well, what is the story?”
    Nathan looked around the hall and dragged a hand through tousled, dark hair.
    “Not here.”
    “Oh, where then?”
    “Walk with me?”
    Indecision flared and she silently waged a war with her inner desires; the desire to know the truth, the desire to