Regency Romance Omnibus 2018: Dominate Dukes & Tenacious Women

"I... I don't know what you're on about," she whimpered defiantly. "My... my body is just... shocked, from all this exertion. From the strange... feelings."

"You're worried about someone knowing your little secret now, aren't you?" he teased, loosening the chains and letting them fall away from her wrists. Though they were free, she didn't have any inclination to wrench them so quickly away from his body, instead gently touching his abs.

"S-secret? I have no secrets, none to be ashamed of," she rebuffed him, though her shaky voice betrayed her lack of confidence.

"You have a lot of secrets. Your debts are a secret to most, aren't they? But those aren't the secrets that worry you. It's the scandal, the fear of someone finding out what you like? Because you like this, don't you," he purred salaciously. "You don't know why. But yo

u like it. And it defies so much about your world, Isobel."

"I don't... like, this," she lied.

"You may not like that you like it - but that's the only conflict in you, love," Lord Brighton announced, lush with confidence. "Scandals, gentlemen, ladies - they all bind you up a whole lot more than just the chain I put on your wrists, darling. I threw those chains off a long time ago. I'm proud to be what I am. And to like what I like. Why aren't you?"

"I don't like..." she shuddered, realizing he was right. She was, indeed, lying. "I don't like... this. This..."

"You don't want to admit this makes you feel something you've never felt, do you?"

"That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" he fired back rapidly. "You must have meant something, and I can tell from your eyes—"

"My eyes! Always my eyes," she shrilly squeaked, pushing away from him... but only an inch away. She didn't want to leave the couch. She didn't want to leave all of this and face the world again.

"It's easy to see in your eyes. And now, in your breath. You don't want to admit—"

"Fine!" she exclaimed, the pressure of his words heavy on her back. "Yes... s... something. Something feels good, about this... sin. But I don't need to embrace it. I am not an animal, Lord Brighton. I hold myself to a higher standard than simple pleasures of flesh. I'm meant to marry and to live a proper life. Not to enjoy these... base, disgusting games."

"Is that you talking? Or is that the society you live in?" Lord Brighton asked her. She held back. She didn't have a good answer.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"You know, I'm here for you, if you ever have any... you know, issues you want to discuss, about the duke especially," Lilian said with a nervous blush. Isobel looked out across the grand foyer to Norbury Manor, exhaling deeply. She knew she shouldn't say anything - even if, perhaps, it had been glaringly obvious to everyone in the estate, what had been happening since last night. They hadn't slept in the same bedroom - Isobel had turned her back on the duke after their time in the study. She slept in a guest bedroom. They'd eaten dinner silently in the dining hall, at far ends of the table from one another. She had said only a scant few words; and he just watched her. Watched her, with that confident little grin on his face. She tried to ignore it - ignore everything he had said about her, and about what she really wanted. She still had family name to stand up for, and even if no gentlemen existed - at least she could be the lady society expected her to be.

"There's a... a lot to say, about the duke," Isobel chuckled anxiously. Lilian pretended to be busy, her brush dusting away at an end table sequestered in the corner, but Isobel's words captured the curious maidservant's attention. "But I... I'm terribly sorry, Lilian, I certainly shouldn't speak on the duke's predilections and private needs in the open like this," she sighed, thinking better of her impulse to speak to the maid.

"Oh, come now, you don't think you can tell me? I heard something rather racy as I passed by the study just yesterday afternoon, shortly after your arrival," Lilian smirked, dusting away at the small statues, odds and ends littering the table. Isobel immediately blushed and looked away. "You can trust me, Isobel. This manor could use more of a woman's touch, don't you think?" she grinned warmly.

"Lilian, I shouldn't," Isobel protested.

"Well, if you have a change of heart, Lady Duskwood, I'll be here to listen," Lilian sighed. "If he mistreats you, or takes advantage of you, Lady Duskwood - well, that's why I'm here. There aren't enough women in the manor for us to stand behind one another." Isobel looked away, taking a deep breath; she felt a pang of guilt. She thought to spill her thoughts to Lilian, again, but a loud rap on the front door startled her out of her introspection. Her eyes flashed towards the front of the foyer; another loud knock followed. Lilian hustled towards the door.

"Werner! Werner, where did you wander off to?" she called out, her dress swaying about her hips as she approached the front door. With the butler nowhere in sight, Lilian pulled the doors open on her own, expecting perhaps a traveler or someone from down in the Norbury freeholds. "Yes, can—oh!" Isobel heard the maidservant's cry of surprise and peeked out from the darkness, and when the voice of the man at the door met her ears she felt her entire body churn in throbbing disgust.

"Well, aren't you certainly such a pleasant sight to be greeted by?" Isobel swallowed hard, ducking beneath the shadows cast by the stairwell. She watched closely, with panic-stricken eyes, as the Duke of Thrushmore stood proudly in the doorway, that charming facade clear on his expression, dipping his head in a bow to Lilian and taking her hand into his for a kiss. Isobel felt both fear and anger struggling through her every vein; how could he dare put on a show like this after what he had done to her?

"Oh, I'm certainly flattered, thank you," Lilian responded with a blush and a curtsy, and to see someone deceived by the duke's lies boiled Isobel's blood. She had hoped never to see the toad of a man again, and so she stayed out of sight as best she could.

"So, perhaps I'm quite off-base, but I'm certain a brilliant and lovely young lady like yourself could help me," he flattered her with his croaking tone. "I'd heard tell of a certain Lady, a close friend of my estate's, Thrushmore, had come here to the Lord Brighton's estate, in order to settle matters of business. Perhaps you know of the Lady Isobel Duskwood? A lovely young woman, now officially the Duchess of Upton. Have you heard of the Lady Isobel?" Eugenius charmed the maid with his demeanor; she was all too eager to answer.

"Oh, Lady Duskwood? Certainly, I've met her, a lovely woman," Lilian giggled coyly.

"Ah, so you do know of her! Perhaps, then, you can confirm or deny—I'd heard a tale, that perhaps she had come here, of recent, to discuss a matter of outstanding business between the estate she had inherited, and Lord Brighton's estate. Have you seen or heard of anything like this recently?" Isobel's pulse beat in her neck; she held her breath, silently begging for Lilian not to be taken in by the duke. She didn't want to face him - now, or ever.

"Oh, did you mean—" oblivious young Lilian began to respond, before a voice boomed down the stairwell and into the foyer, interrupting her harshly.

"Lord Eugenius, Duke of Thrushmore, talk of the town and all that folly," the voice called out confidently; even arrogantly. Isobel breathed a sigh of relief and ducked behind the rail to watch as Lord Brighton descended, full of his normal sense of flippant bluster. Lilian stepped away from the door, bowed in deference as Ellery strutted confidently down the rug. Isobel couldn't see his face, but she knew the expression the Lord Brighton wore for the Duke of Thrushmore - that silently amused, dismissive smirk, no doubt.

"Lord Brighton," Eugenius acknowledged the young man with a nod of his head. "Always a pleasure to stop in and check to see how you're keeping this place together. Your father would be proud, of course," Lord Miller said, with a sort of pride that'd make you think he himself was Lord Brighton's father.