The Duchess Deal (Girl Meets Duke, #1)

by Tessa Dare

“One more thing. I want you to kiss me.” She was mortified by the way she’d blurted it out, but it was done—and now she must not back down. If she ceded to him on this, she would never regain what little ground she held. “Have you been paying attention? I only just now stipulated there would be no kissing.” “You said kissing in bed,” she pointed out. “This isn’t bed. I promise, I’ll only ask the once.” He passed a hand over his face. “Dinner. Kisses. This is what I get for wedding a vicar’s daughter from the country. Girlish notions about romance.” “Believe me, being a vicar’s daughter from the country did nothing to fill me with notions of romance.” Strumpet. Harlot. Jezebel. The cruel words whispered from the shadowy corners of her memory. She tamped them down, as she’d learned to do over the years. Perhaps someday she would learn how to banish them. “I can do without a jeweled ring, or guests, or a fine gown,” she said. “I’m only asking for this one tiny gesture, to make it all feel a bit less . . . cold. More like an actual wedding.” “It was an actual wedding. The vows are perfectly legal and binding. A wedding does not require a kiss.” “I think my wedding requires one.” Her voice gathered strength. “A woman only gets one of these ceremonies, and as hasty and contractual as it’s all been thus far, I’d appreciate one small gesture that makes me feel like something other than chattel.”