Regarding the Duke (Game of Dukes, #3)

by Grace Callaway

“Sweetheart, didn’t you hear me? I’m falling in love with you.” He cupped her face in his hands and felt the preciousness of what he held. “Christ, I’m not falling—I’m bloody there.”

“From now on, you’ll wake up in my arms every morning,” he said. “And you’ll wake up knowing that you hold my heart. Do you hear me, Gabby?”

like the way you talk. It’s charming and unique, just like you.

“And no other man ever will because you’re mine, Gabby. My wife, the mother of my children, the woman I love. Which means you can trust me.”

“I want you, Gabby. A marriage of body, heart, and mind, remember? In order to have that, you’ll have to trust me, to trust that I won’t belittle or discount your thoughts or feelings, that I’ll do everything in my power to make you happy.”

“So beautiful, my queen,” he growled.

“A sensible man guards his heart; a smart man knows when to yield it.”

“All of this is mine,” he said softly against her ear as she shivered. “Mine only to touch and enjoy. But I want the world to know what a lucky man I am and, most importantly, I want you to know your own worth. To know that women look at you and wish they had half your beauty, that men look at you and envy me because I’m the one who will be taking you home. I’m the one who will be making love to you, worshiping your body with mine.”

“I want you to be as proud to be mine as I am to be yours,” he murmured.

“To our ladies,” Kent declared. “May we be everything they deserve.”

She was his wife, and he loved her—he saw that now. Accepted it as one accepts that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. If anything, he regretted that he’d not realized it sooner.

You were a new beginning for me, Gabriella. Everything I wanted.”

“You were so innocent and trusting, so willing to give me everything I needed. Your love is, and has always been, the sweetest thing I’ve ever known. I didn’t want my past failures to change the way you saw me.”

The goddess of love was so pure and sensual that she stole my breath, even as a boy. Every time I look at you, Gabriella, I see that beauty.”

From our first meeting, I knew that I wanted you all for myself. That I’d stop at nothing to make you mine.”

“You are still, aren’t you? Tell me that despite everything you now know, you are mine. My wife, my true partner, the only woman who has ever held all of my heart.”

“You’re my wife, Gabriella, the love of my life,” he said with a cool emphasis that made her fires burn hotter. “I will never let you go.”

From the start, his heart had known what his head had been afraid to believe. That there could be more to life than an eye for an eye…that there existed a kind of love so pure and beautiful that it would never let him down. That would give meaning to his existence, explain the suffering and pain, and conquer the chaos inside him in a way that no amount of control ever could. His wife had given him that love.

“If you think I’m ever letting you go, you can think again,” came her husband’s reply.

In those other instances, I could go on, but Gabby…I couldn’t survive without you.”

You are my reward, and loving you is my true purpose, what gives my life meaning. My heart is yours until it stops beating and beyond.”

“I’m here. We’re both here. Together as we’re meant to be.”

You have already given me everything I need: the peace I’d been searching for was mine all along.”

“I started falling in love with you the moment we met, but I was too stupid to realize it. Too afraid to open my heart.

A man is made powerful by the love of a good woman and the love he ...

“I may be your master, but you own me, Gabby. I’m yours, every part of me: my heart, my soul…and other assorted wicked parts.”

“Yes. Love me, Gabriella.” His eyes smoldered. “Don’t ever stop.”

“I’ll never get enough of you either,” she whispered. “Good because you’re getting more,” he vowed. “All of me, love.”

“Just returning the favor, love,” he said softly. “A heart for a heart and a soul for a soul. That’s the kind of justice worth living for.”