Emeera hid behind some flowers watching the heated exchange between the two.


    “I have everything a woman can do for a man to love her. I have done everything Albert. Everything. I have been at your service, yed wife and hostess, gave you my body over and over…”


    “Kate, I apologize for any misunderstanding you may have had about our rtionship. I thought I had made it clear I would never be bound in matrimony.”


    “Yes! Yes! Matrimony is the ultimate sin! But you have no issue treating me like your slut!”


    “I think we should have this conversation when we’re both sober so we do not say things weter regret.”


    “I mean everything I say here. You used me!”


    “That’s not true! You wanted it as much as I did!”Exclusive content from N?velDrama.Org.


    “You are nothing but a scoundrel like the rest of them! You can act all Noble and mighty and titled but you are as horrible and as dirty as everyst one of them. You just wanted to fuck!”


    “Kate!!”


    “Don’t Kate me, your grace! She’s the reason I’ve not heard from you for weeks now, right? Since the time she saw me in your bedroom, you never called again.  All at once, you became busy with the entire weight of Savoy. But it will notst. After all, you are a reprobate! If you couldy withdy Bentham and her daughters and almost the whole of Savoy, you will stop at nothing. I should have known better. You are filth and you are evil. .”


    “You are drunk. We’ll get you to your hotel.”


    “Not your bed anymore, right? Your castle is now too good for my kind? You have found a naive girl to deceive this time. At least she has an excuse in her naivety. I wonder what my own excuse was. That I was stupid enough to fall in love with you?”


    Kate stumbled away. The duke tried to hold her but she flung his hands off and stomped off, leaving the duke alone in the garden.


    “Emeera, I know you are there so juste out of the bushes,” he said. For a reason she did not understand, Emeera refused to step out. Instead, she turned and ran in the opposite direction, towards the dark greenhouse. The duke was at her heels in an instant and grabbed her.


    “You will shut your mouth Ms. Charles! You heard nothing,” he said. She nodded but her eyes were filled with hate. “You believe I did all those things, don’t you?” He asked in a gentler tone.


    “You did them! Everybody warned me. Lady Athelstan, Nancy…”


    “If you are listening to the rumours of thedies who lunch, then you are no better than Kate De Luca! I would never sleep with a mother and daughters. I would never,” he spat. She stumbled on a rock and Albert quickly held her steady. Her chest was heaving fast.


    “Then what should I believe??  There is no smoke without fire. Everyone cannot be wrong about your roguish reputation!”


    “My reputation and my character would not even recognize each other in the dark! I am my character, not my reputation. I am that man who has desired you from the first time heid his eyes on you but has refused toe to your bed because he would not defile you.”


    “You what?”


    “I am that man who left your room at the Alexander hall even when all I wanted was to make love to you… so don’t you dare stand here to tell me hogwash about my reputation when I have exercised every restraint, every level of self control around you even when you throw yourself naked on me.”


    “I don’t throw-”


    “Keep quiet!” He touched her hair. “You keep this cherubic face like you don’t know what you do to me. Acting innocent as if you don’t know how badly, how desperately, how fervently I have pined for you. How strongly I desire you… Like you don’t notice what you do to me when you enter the room or how I chased after you when you left.”


    “I don’t believe you. You said you will never marry.”


    “Of course I shall never marry. That is why I withheld myself from you,” he breathed. They gazed at each other’s eyes and at that moment, all resistance fell. The next minute, they were kissing hungrily, passionately. With one hand, he unfastened her dress and with the other, he cupped her breast. The darkness around the greenhouse covered them from any unwanted presence. He was rock hard with longing and she could feel it. They could hear some of the guests leaving in their cars but it seemed like worlds apart from them. The music was still ying loudly but the ball seemed like ages ago. The duke kissed her neck and her breasts. She felt a heat within her she had never felt before. Her heart did rapid summersaults as he devoured her mouth.


    “Emeera” he moaned, his hand running through her hair. Her name jolted her back to consciousness. She tried to push him off but he held fast. She pushed him off again and this time, he loosened his grip. She then went up to her bedroom. The music from the ball was still ying loudly but she clearly heard the ss door open as the duke entered her room.


    “What do you want?” She asked. She knew what he wanted. She wanted it too but she did not know how to want that from a man who could not be with her.


    He seemed really inebriated at that point but either Emeera’s question or her slight panicky tone stopped him. He gathered himself, shook his head, and left. It was Emeera’s turn to go after him. She caught up with him just before he closed the ss and nted a kiss on his mouth. They kissed as he unfastened her dress for the second time that night and it fell to the floor.


    “I want you,” he said huskily. “Emeera, I need you.”


    They kissed all the way into hisrge and shadowy bed. Hey her gently and undressed, all the while watching her naked body. A gust of chill wind blew in from the window and she squirmed. The cold gave her goosebumps but also stiffened her erected nipples. Hetched his warm mouth over one nipple and sucked. Emeera let out a scream which was muffled by the sound of the music and dancing.