Page 54 of The Duchess Games

“Sounds tiresome.”

“It’s the way it is.”

“How many houses do you own?” she asked. “Five? Six?”

“Twelve.”

She forgot how to blink. “Twelve houses?”

“Twelve.”

“That’s too many.” She was the one with the censorious eyebrows now.

“I suppose it is.”

“But you probably have more of an effect as a duke with twelve houses than as another man shouting in Parliament.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You must have a staff numbering in the hundreds. Tenants in the thousands.”

“I suppose I do.”

“And your actions affect them. Immediately, unlike I imagine a politician’s work. If you lower the rents, mend broken windows, irrigate the fields. Pay your household servants a decent wage. Not grope the maids.”

“I most certainly do not.”

“I know. That’s my point. Other aristos are not so decent, I assure you. Some maids flee in the night. Some villages run out of salt. These are things you can make a difference on.”

“Legally.”

“For you, yes. Not everyone is so lucky.”

“That was quite a speech. Have you considered being a politician?”

“Bite your tongue.”

He chuckled once and it brought her back to where they were, standing on a hill above the fish cellar, while she lectured a duke.

Well done, Cat. He kisses you and you show him a pile of dead fish.

Chapter Twenty

She was in so much trouble.

Doomed.

Utterly.

Not only had Callum invited her unruly one-hundred-and-thirty-pound puppy to his fine manor house, but she had seen him smile. A real smile. Just like the one she remembered from when they were younger. At her table. And then again at Granny Goodwin with pilfering crows and pipe smoke.

She couldn’t even allow herself to enjoy it.

Tell that to her heart, still racing in her chest. To her mouth, still tingling from his rough kisses. To her body craving more, so much more.

She could turn it into a game, one far more interesting than The Duchess Games. The Make Callum Smile in Public game. It might be as unlikely as turning herself into a duchess. But she didn’t mind a challenge. Especially not a diverting one. There were several choices open to her: tease him, enrage him, mock him.

She should pretend none of this had ever happened, the incendiary moment in the closet, the primal chase, the burning kiss against the garden wall. It was safest.