The Duchess Deal (Girl Meets Duke, #1)

by Tessa Dare

Yes, she was his. But bits of him were hers now, too. No matter how deeply he kissed her, he would never get them back.

Oh, Emma. You beautiful, addled thing. Only a fool would weep over him.

Instead of putting an end to his torture, his bride of convenience did the worst, most inconvenient thing. She went limp in his arms, fainting dead away.

“You are wet, and you are cold. You don’t like being cold. Therefore, I despise you being cold. I would go about murdering raindrops and setting fire to the clouds, but that would take slightly more than an hour. Perhaps even two. So we’re here, and you will cease complaining about it.”

“That and a penny will buy you stale bread. It’s not going to help us now.”

“Let’s have a compromise. When we’re in the company of others, I will call you Ash or Ashbury. When we’re alone, you’ll allow me my little pet names.” “Fine. But you must confine yourself to an agreed upon list. No more rainbows and buttercups.” “I suppose I can do that.” He considered. “Here are the ones I’ll allow. ‘My stallion,’ ‘my buck,’ and . . . ‘my colossus of man-flesh.’”

“I would never be charged with murder,” he went on. “The very thought is absurd. I’m a duke. It just doesn’t happen. Even if I were captured, I would never be brought to trial.” “How can you be certain of that?” “To begin, dukes aren’t charged in the same courts. We are entitled to a trial of our peers in the House of Lords. That’s if there were any evidence, which there isn’t. Second, there’s a little thing called privilege of peerage. All we have to do is invoke it, and we’re off the hook for nearly any crime.”

“We had a plan to engineer your escape. Alex was going to synchronize our timepieces, and I’d bake a cake with a sleeping powder and give it to the guards.” “I was meant to bring the goat,” Penny said. “As a diversion, you know.” Miss Mountbatten lifted her eyebrows and gave Ash a do-you-see-what-I-suffer look. “And then we decided to pool our money and opt for the sensible solution: bribery.” “Yes, that was probably for the best,” Ash said.

“That was quite nicely said.” “You think so?” “Did you practice it on the way here?” His chin pulled back in a gesture of offense. “No.” “I wouldn’t think less of you for it.” “Then yes, I did. But that doesn’t make it any less sincere.”