The Duke's Revenge (8 page)

The instant he turned, he saw her.

She was dressed in a yellow day dress. The
muslin material snuggled to her body perfectly and her glorious
dark hair was formed on her head with various tendrils dancing
beside her exquisite face. Her small hands, he saw, were clinching
on her sides. She was staring at them. Her violet eyes were large.
He could read confusion, disgusted, anger, and relief all at the
same time.

He sat there with Grace talking to him,
begging him with her sweet words of apology and promise of the
future, though none was registered in his head. All he could do, it
seemed, was to stare at the girl standing at the door staring back
at him.

Ivy felt sick to her
stomach at the very sight she beheld. In all of her eighteen years
she had never seen anything like that. Her mother was acting in
such a way that she had never seen before. She was sweet and
begging the man.
That
man, he was the Duke of Lynwood—
the
man who had tried to rape her
that night. And she was to be
his
mistress?

The way he was staring at her caused her
heart to beat in jeopardy. She felt very uncomfortable. She wanted
to run away, but her legs couldn’t seem to move nor could her eyes
seem to be able to shift away from his. His very being commanded
her to stare right back at him.

Grace stiffened when she realized that the
duke wasn’t listening to her. She glanced up at him and saw that he
was looking toward the doorway. She turned and saw Ivy. She gritted
her teeth.

“
Ivy!” she
snapped.

Ivy looked from the duke to her mother. She
saw the fire inside the woman’s eyes and shuddered. She hastily
turned to go.

“
Where do think you are
going, my dear?” Max boomed out.

Ivy halted. His timbre voice caused her
nerves to shudder. She felt warm all of a sudden. Her head, too,
was spinning. She laid one hand on the doorframe to support
herself.

“
Perhaps you would
introduce yourself to me, my dear, I am sure the future of your
patron would be very please to be acquaint with you.” He stared at
her with narrowed eyes. He was angry that the girl should see them
like this. He did not intend for their meeting to be thus. Why the
woman beside him could act in such a manner was beyond
him.

“
Your grace, I am sure
there is no need for Ivy to be here. She does not need to be here.
We must talk about the future,” Grace cried and her eyes were
pleading.

“
Indeed, we must talk
about the future,” Max said and stood abruptly, causing Grace’s
hands to slide down from his arm. He strode toward Ivy and stopped
a mere inch behind her.

Ivy stiffened. She could feel his intense
gaze on her. It made her feel even more frightened.

His head came slowly down to her neck. His
hot breath was fanning on her skin. It caused her head to swirl
unmercifully and her heart to drum away in her chest. She felt as
though she could not breathe.

“
We shall talk of the
future, Ivy,” he said, his warm breath fanning her neck. He grabbed
for her arm.

She jumped and pushed him away in respond.
He hardened his grip and pulled her toward him. She collided
against his chest. The action caused her head to tilt back. Her
eyes met his. He smiled mockingly at her.

“
We will go out in my
landau, Ivy, and talk of the future,” he said calmly and dragged
her to the door.

Grace panicked and rushed after them. “You
cannot do this, you hear?” she screamed. “Dominic, you can not take
my daughter out. I did not give you my permission and Ivy is not
dressed for outing. Ivy, come back here,” she shouted and her body
was shaking in reactions.

Max stopped as was Ivy who was fighting him
to release her arm from his iron grip. It hurt. The harder she
fought him, the tighter his grip became.

“
Lady Westwood, I would
like to talk to your daughter of our future and we needed privacy
as you well know. As for the courtesy of wearing a proper outing
dress, there is no need for I don’t give a damn about it.” He
nodded at the white-faced woman, and satisfied with his action, he
dragged the un-cooperating Ivy toward the waiting
carriage.

CHAPTER 7

“
Please, I don’t want to
go with you,” Ivy begged, tugging at his hand.

Maximilian ignored her impatient plea and
dragged her toward the carriage. He opened the door and nudged her
to go in. She didn’t move. He frowned at the stubborn girl.

“
Madam, you’ve tried my
patient,” he said, and in one smooth motion, he bent down to her
knees, jerked her up in his arms, and threw her not so roughly
inside the vehicle. He climbed in after her and smiled with
amusement when he saw that she was glaring at him.

“
How dare you?” she
managed to say. Her body was shaking due to her turmoil emotions
and also because of the cold weather.

“
How dare I what?” he
asked as he moved his face toward hers.

She could feel the warmth of his breath on
her face. She could smell the masculine aroma of him—the mixed of
soap and the very male scent that was truly him. The very nearness
of him, the very smell of him caused her inside to shudder.

“
I ask you again, my young
mistress, how dare I what?”

“
How dare you man handle
me in such a way?” she snapped.

“
Did I man handled you, my
dear?” He looked at her with is eyelids half-closed. “I promise I
will be doing much, much more than that.”

Ivy trembled. She turned away to look out
the window to hid her unreasonable reactions toward him.

He tapped the roof of the carriage. The
vehicle lurched forward and moved out of the courtyard.

Max was amused at the way she refused to
look at him. He shifted his gaze from her face to the swell of her
breasts. They were thrust upward so that her cleavage rise and fall
as she breathe, teasing his senses.

“
You are very liked your
mother,” he commented, flicking his gaze to her face.

She flashed her gaze to him.

He smiled. “About our future, my dear,” he
changed the subject and deliberately moved closer to her. She back
away. “So afraid of me?”

“
Indeed I am,” she said,
staring at the empty space opposite her. She didn’t dare look at
him, for she didn’t want him to see her fear. She didn’t want him
to think she was a coward.

“
I see,” he said and
relaxed.

Ivy summoned her courage to do something
about this situation. As Mrs. Johnson had said, perhaps if she were
to beg him to break the contract, why then, perhaps he would.

“
If...if you must know,
your grace,” she started, “I do not want to be your mistress. I
confess this now so that we would not do the wrong
thing.”

He bent his head to one side as he studied
her.

“
I could not bear to have
you as my master because I do not like you...and I do not know
you...and I do not love you.” She turned to look at him
then.

He smiled mockingly. “Love, my dear, has
nothing to do with this. You think that all mistresses must love
their masters?”

Ivy swallowed. “I will not be your
mistress.”

“
You will be my mistress,
my dear, whether you like it or not. We have a contract and that is
final.”

“
A contract that I did not
signed,” she protested.

“
Whether your mother
signed it or you signed it, it does not matter, my dear. They are
all the same to me.” He caught her arm and pulled her to
him.

“
But I would never be your
mistress because you are her lover. I saw you with her. I could not
abet to do that, ‘tis horrible. It’s evil. You are evil.” She hit
his chest.

He jerked her to him. “Why is that so
horrible, my dear?” He caught her wrist tightly and stopped her
from hitting him.

“
You touched her. I could
never bear for you to touch me. Let go,” she sobbed. “It’s
sinful.”

He laughed and moved his head down to her
nape. He lightly played her soft skin with his lips, his breath
fanning her nerve to such an ecstasy that she thought she might die
if she could not leave the confinement of this coach at once.

“
So what if I touched
her?”

Ivy gritted her teeth at
his comment.
How dare he? Oh, he was the
devil all right!
He had no feelings
whatsoever.

She pushed him away with all her might.

He let her go. She moved back to her spot at
the corner of the coach.

“
You are evil. I hate
you!”

Max narrowed his eyes dangerously at her.
The girl had guts he’d give her that. He shifted his gaze to her
blushing cheeks and then her lips. He laughed when he saw that she
had shifted herself across the seat as further away from him as was
possible. She was squeezing herself against the small corner of the
carriage.

Ivy was trembling at the way he was staring
at her. It was in such a way that she was confused. She had ever
seen anyone staring at another human being like that before. It was
as though he had something sinful in his mind. It scared her.

He laughed. Then, in one smooth motion, he
caught her by both arms, swung her off the seat, and dumped her on
his lap.

“
What are you doing?” she
shrieked.

“
What am I doing? So
scared of me, Mistress?” He caught the back of her neck and pulled
her to him as she tried to push away. She thrashed her legs against
his. He took a firm gripped of her thigh and forced it to one side
so that she saddle him. He could feel the softness of her woman
flesh.

Ivy jumped and felt as though she might die.
She could not bear that he should come so close to her and that she
was sitting on his lap in this very unladylike fashion.

“
So afraid of me?” he
whispered as he shifted his hand to her waist and jerked her to
him.

She was so close to him that it seemed they
might fuse. Her breasts were squeezed against his chest and one
side of her sleeves slipped from her shoulder. Her legs were on
either side of his waist.

He forced her to stare up at him by tilting
her head back.

Ivy felt sick. She couldn’t understand why
he was doing this to her. She could feel his male member thrusting
up against her. Her heart was beating furiously and her head was
spinning out of control. God, help her, what was the matter with
her. She shook her head at the feeling she didn’t know existed
emerging within her. She fisted her hands and hit his chest.

“
Let me go,” she said.
“How dare you? Just because you are a duke, you cannot do whatever
you want with me.”

“
Ah, I know, my dear, even
though I am a duke I am fully aware that I could not do such as
this--” He demonstrated by moving his hand from her waist to cup
her breast.

She gasped at this sudden alienated
sensations exploding within her.

He smiled. “But, my dear,
I can do it because I am to be your master, and
you
, my mistress.” He moved his head
and kissed the sensitive skin of her nape.

She jerked away. He pulled her to him,
molding her soft body against his strong, firm ones.

“
No, let go!” she
shouted.

He lifted his head and smiled.

“
Ah, my dear, you are so
sweet.”

Ivy was enraged. She was not a whore and
this man was definitely treating her as one. She couldn’t control
herself. She lifted her hand and slapped his face—hard. She saw the
white mark of her fingers on his cheekbone.

Max narrowed his eyes at the girl who had
the nerve to strike back at him.

The moment she saw his eyes she wanted to
die.

Max smiled. He gripped her hair at the back
of her head and pulled her toward him. She pathetically tried to
ward him off with her shaky hands pushing against his chest.

“
Ah, you dare to slap me?”
he said softly and then crushed his lips on hers. His hand
tightened at the back of her head while his other hand imprisoned
her arm.

Ivy struggled. The harder she fought him,
the stronger his captivity became.

He pushed his tongue against her sealed
lips. When she didn’t respond but keep shaking her head, he opened
his mouth and stared to urge her lips to open with his teeth.

She shook her head harder. His fingers were
burning onto her skin. They hurt. She wanted to cry out in pain.
Angrily, she opened her mouth and bit his lower lip—hard.

He shoved her from him. He tasted blood. He
gritted his teeth as he glared at her. He was heaving like an angry
wolf.

She backed away and fiddled with the lock.
Her hands were shaking. She got the door opened. Gusts of cold
breeze rushed in. She was about to jump when he seized her around
the arm and jerked her back. He pushed her down on the seat,
covering her body with his. She fought him to let her go.

“
Damn you, stop it!” he
snapped.

Ivy stopped. She looked up at him through
teary eyes as he glared down at her. “Do you want to kill yourself?
You fool!”

Ivy blinked. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“I hate you.”

He snorted and let her go. She got up and
settled in her seat.

“
Don’t you ever do that
again,” he scolded as he shut the door. “Do you hear?”