The Duke's Revenge (10 page)

He wondered once again why he didn’t take
her during the past three nights. He could have if he wanted to but
he didn’t. And why the hell didn’t he?

He frowned and walked back to his desk. He
shuffled the account books before him carelessly. He opened one and
stared down at it. All that he could see was a blur of numbers. He
concentrated and tried to take in what those numbers meant. But in
his mind’s eyes, he only saw the violet eyes looking up at him and
the heart-shaped face looming closer toward him.

He slammed the book shut.

He left the study and stalked out the castle
through the back entrance. Outside, he felt light breeze touching
his skin—a hint that spring was to due to arrive soon.

From where he stood in the bare rose garden,
he could see her, and without knowing why, he walked toward
her.

He slowed his pace as he neared her and then
stopped behind her. He had the sudden urge to touch her, but he
quickly disciplined himself against that unreasonable desire. As he
stood there, a gentle breeze wafted around them and a few tendrils
of her curls brushed against his chin and chest.

“
Ivy,” he said, wrapping
his large hand around her small arm. He felt her stiffened and
tried to pull away. He tightened his grip and pulled her toward
him.

“
Let go,
please.”

He ignored her plea. “Come with me.”

She chanced another push at him. It didn’t
work.

“
Ivy!” he said again. When
she didn’t respond, he shoved her around to face him. He saw that
her lips were trembling. He frowned. Hell but he didn’t want her to
be so scared of him. Frighten yes, but not in this
intensity.

“
Come with me.” He took
hold of her small chin between his thumb and fingers and tilted her
face up. Though her face was before his—her eyes were
downcast.

“
Damn it, Ivy, look at
me!”

She shivered and obediently turned her gaze
to his. The moment their eyes met, she shivered again.

“
Good!”

“
What...what do you want?”
she asked, shifting her eyes to look at the castle behind him
instead.

He didn’t like it that she avoided his gaze.
To show his displeasure he squeezed her chin.

It was sore, but she still ignored him. He
squeezed her chin harder. She flinched and flashed her gaze to
him.

He smiled at her reaction. He saw the violet
fire glowing in her eyes.

“
I don’t think we have
anymore to talk about, your grace,” she said and tried to shove his
hand away. It didn’t work. “Please, your grace, ‘tis
sore.”

He released her and moved his hand down her
throat, caressing her sensitive skin with the back of his fingers.
“I think we have a lot to talk about, Mistress.”

She wanted to shake his hand away. He was
making her sick. Would she faint, she thought fearfully. She didn’t
want to do that in front of him. He would laugh at her weakness.
She didn’t want him to think she was weak.

“
Your grace, I have a lot
to be done today,” she said as an excuse and took a step
back.

He shifted his hand to the back of her neck
and took one step toward her. “Oh but we have much to do, the two
of us.” He moved his mouth to her forehead and said, “I don’t like
what you’re wearing, Ivy. You are my mistress now, you must dress
yourself accordingly.”

The moment his lips touched her skin, her
knees wobbled. Her heart quivered with fear and excitement. Why the
excitement she didn’t know. She only knew that these feelings were
overwhelming and she couldn’t control them.

Hating herself for having such stupid
feelings, she pushed him away. “Your grace, please stop it,” she
cried in dismay.

He didn’t listen to her. He moved his lips
down from her forehead along the length of her straight nose to her
lips. He pulled her to him and nibbled her lower lip with his
teeth.

Ivy tried to push him away, but he had
already held her captive. He kissed her long and hard; playing with
her lips in such an exotic way that she thought he was surely
mad.

Despite all her fear at what he was doing to
her; her hands gripped tighter onto his coat and she whimpered in
her throat.

At last, he moved back and looked at her. He
saw that her face was flushed and her eyes were a fury of violet
fire.

He smiled.

“
Come,” he said and
dragged her across the field.

Ivy was at first very confused by what he
meant. When she realized what his intention was, she pulled her
hand from his.

He turned and stared at her.

“
Where are we
going?”

He grabbed her wrist and said, “Your dress,
Ivy, I don’t like it. We are going to your room and see what decent
clothing we could find for you.”

“
I like my dress, your
grace, there is nothing wrong with it,” she said, tugging her wrist
free.

“
You called this a dress,
Mistress? This is rags and I will not allow my mistress to wear
rags, do you hear me?”

“
It’s not rags, your
grace, I wore this dress since...” She couldn’t think when for it
was such a long time ago now. “Since five years ago,” she shouted
at him.

“
Five years ago?” He
raised his brows. “Indeed, my dear, that is a long time ago, and I
will not have you wear such rags in front of me. Come!” He caught
her arm and dragged her toward the castle.

“
Your grace, please, those
gowns, they are not for me.”

“
Not for you? Then who the
hell do I buy them for?” he snapped as he took long, powerful
strides.

She didn’t know either and so she kept her
mouth shut, allowing him to drag her all the way to her bedroom.
There, she stood still as an embarrassing status in the middle of
the room while he busily searched through her wardrobe. At last, he
took one out.

“
Come here,” he said,
looking at her.

She didn’t move.

“
Ivy.
”

The sounded of his deep, timbre voice was
very soft and gentle in her ears, and instantly, she was
suspicious. Her inner sense alerted her to some kind of danger.
This was not at all like him.

“
Ivy, come here,” he
called again.

When she still didn’t move, he dashed toward
her and caught her arm. “You will wear this for breakfast.”

“
I won’t, ‘tis not me.
It’s, it’s too bare on me. I do not like it,” she protested,
shaking her head and trying to get away from his
captive.

“
You will wear it, my
dear.”

“
I won’t!” she shouted,
still shaking her head.

“
Come here!” He wrapped
his arm around her waist and pulled her to him.

“
No, please,” she cried in
dismay.

“
Stay still.”

“
What are you doing?” she
shrieked, the fear in her voice was hard to hide.

He didn’t answer her. His fingers were busy
undoing the row of buttons at the back of her dress.

“
Your grace?”

“
Stay still.”

She realized then that he
was undoing her gown. Was he so determined to get her out of her
old dress?
Oh no!
He was also determined to dress her up
himself.
Panic rushed in and she
instinctively started to make him stop by hitting his
chest.

“
Your grace, please
stop.”

He turned a deaf ear on her plea and
continued with his endeavor. The buttons were undone, and he ripped
the material of her dress from her shoulders.

Ivy literally stopped breathing for a second
when she heard the shredding of her beloved dress ripped into
pieces.

“
How dare you?” she
demanded, staring up at him through teary eyes. Her anger
heightened when she saw that he showed no remorse whatsoever at
what he had just done to her.

A beast—that was what he was.

“
How dare you?” she said
again, and this time, she started to really hit him. “Get away from
me!” she shouted and bashed her small fists against his massive,
hard chest.

He caught one of her wrist and thrust her to
him. He grabbed the disassembled materials laying about her arms
and ripped the whole gown down to her waist.

She started hitting him again. It didn’t
seem to affect him one bit, however, and he kept ripping more
materials from her body.

Once he was done, she was standing there,
barely covering her nakedness with her shabby, thin chemise and the
shreds fabrics of her gown dangling around her waist and arms.

“
You’re not wearing a
corset,” he said abruptly as thought that really surprised
him.

“
I don’t need one,” she
snapped and struggled again to break free. He tightened his captive
on her.

He didn’t know why he was so surprise that
she wasn’t wearing a corset. He supposed she didn’t need one for
her body was perfect.

“
That chemise.” He turned
his attention to her underwear.

“
Nay!” she shouted,
understanding his meaning. “You’ve done enough.”

“
Nay, I haven’t done
enough yet.”

“
What? No!” She shook her
head, and with all her might, she pushed him away and ran to the
other side of the room.

“
Please, your grace, it is
enough,” she begged.

“
Come here, Ivy.” He
reached out his hand to her.

“
Nay!” she shook her head
furiously, tears brewing in her eyes.
God,
will he ever leave her be?
She didn’t
really know what to do now. She felt so trapped.

“
Come here,” he called
again.

She shook her head as he walked toward her
with the new gown in his hand. She made for a run to the door. In a
flash he caught her arm and pulled her against him.

“
No, please,” she cried,
tears flowing down her flushed cheeks as she thrust her face
against his chest. “Please.”

She felt so tired that she couldn’t be
bothered fighting him anymore and she relaxed against him.

Max lifted her up in his arms and carried
her to the bed. There he sat down with her on his lap.

Everything was too much for her. Ivy closed
her eyes and whimpered against his chest. She didn’t care what he
was doing to her anymore. He could strip her naked and she wouldn’t
have cared.

Max undressed her by pulling all the
shredded materials from her body. When she was only in her chemise,
he dressed her into the new gown while she whimpered against him.
It took him a long time, but funnily enough, he found that he
actually enjoyed performing the task.

By the time he had finished buttoning up her
gowns, she had stopped her gentle tantrum. She wiped tears from her
eyes and turned her head to look up at him.

They stared at each other for a moment, each
searching into the other’s deepest thought. Slowly, as miraculously
as it may seem, he smiled.

Her heart skipped a beat and then continued
with its thunderous drumming.

“
You will wear the gowns I
bought you, and if you do not, you will get a spanking on the
backside, my dear mistress.” He lifted her up from his lap, laid
her on the bed, and walked to the door. He was about to close it
when he turned and said, “Breakfast in an hour,” afterward closing
it behind him.

Ivy sat there staring at him, silent and
stunned.

An hour later she dutifully made an
appearance. Max stood up as Donald announced her presence. He
watched her as she stepped into the conservatory. Though he didn’t
show it outwardly, he did appreciate the fact that she was wearing
the gown he had put on her.

And she was damn beautiful in it to
boot.

The Empire style complimented her slender
figure to perfection. Her petal white skin glowed before his eyes
and her dark hair was fashioned into ringlets nicely.

As she came forward, Donald drew out a chair
for her. She nodded at the butler and took the seat.

As she sat down, Ivy
didn’t like the fact that the ogre was staring at her for a bit too
long. Was her skin showing too much? She didn’t really like wearing
the gown. She thought it was too bare for her but tried to dismiss
that idea, after all, the style was
the
rage in London.

“
I hoped you are hungry
for Mrs. Woods, our cook, had put much work into preparing this
delicious meal,” he said after a long silent.

She turned her attention to the array of
food before her. There were freshly baked bread, toasts, hot rolls,
cold rolls, pound cake, and plumb cake. There was so many she
didn’t know where to start. After a moment of indecision, she
reached for the toast and spread butter and raspberry jam on it.
She took a few bites and chewed. It was delicious.

“
Why don’t you make tea?”
he said abruptly.

She looked up at him and then blinked.

“
There,” he nodded toward
the silver tea set placed on the table not far from her.

He wanted her to make
tea?
That important job alone was only
honored to the lady of the house, such as her mother for instance,
and not some insignificant chit like her.

He saw her hesitant and said, “Unless you
prefer coffee or chocolate.”

She glanced at him
nervously, shook her head, and reached for the large, lavishly
decorated tea urn. It was quite heavy as she brought it over and
poured the hot water in the silver teapot. She had no doubt that
the
one-of-a-kind
Wedgwood tea set, which was probably designed for his
household specifically, was very expensive.