Chapter 4
Four
“Keep your voice down,” Dominic growled at his grandmother as he hurried to extricate himself from the blankets. “Or else all of your guests will come rushing to see us.”
Irritation was rippling through him, fighting with the unwanted lust and desire he felt from lying on top of Lady Selina.
She was gorgeous as she looked up at him with a flushed face and eyes full of fire.
It had been a long time since he had touched a woman like this, and heat rushed to his shaft from the feeling of it.
However, under the circumstances, irritation was quickly winning.
His grandmother, accompanied by her maid, was barely containing her glee as she looked at him. “You must marry her!” she said. “I will not have a grandson who ruins a young lady and refuses to protect her afterwards.
Selina paled. “No, no, please, Your Grace. Nothing happened between the duke and me. I—it was simply a misunderstanding. No one needs to know. I will disappear and no longer trouble you. I swear it.”
The dowager turned to her maid with a subtle flick of her hand. “Leave us, Jane.”
Once the door clicked shut behind the servant, she turned back to Selina. “Where would you go, my dear?” the dowager said, not unkindly. “You do not have a penny to your name.”
“I can find a governess position elsewhere. I could go to Wales or Ireland, even! No one in England will need to see me again. Just please don’t tell anyone. Christine will have a hard enough time finding a husband without being connected to a ruined sister.” Her voice sounded almost frantic.
“Save your breath, my lady,” Dominic said.
He didn’t stop glowering at the dowager duchess.
“It is no use.” He shook his head, calling upon all of his restraint to keep from shouting at his grandmother.
“She gave you directions under false pretenses. Instead of directing you to your own room, she directed you to mine, because she seems to think I’m in need of a wife. ”
The young lady looked stricken.
Dominic shut the door in his grandmother’s face and turned to face Selina.
“Allow me to assist you, my lady,” he said.
He turned Selina around to look at the loosened corset laces.
For a moment, he wished to loosen them further and help her undress.
He wanted to see all of her curves on display for him. Instead, he tightened them up.
“You don’t have to help me, Your Grace,” she said, trying to move away from him. “I’m capable of dressing myself.”
He put a hand on her hip to keep her still. “You’re the one who came into my bedroom and undressed in front of me before getting into bed with me, so stay still.”
“That was a misunderstanding! I thought I was alone.”
He helped her get into the dress, unable to resist brushing his fingers against the nape of her neck as he dressed her. Goosebumps prickled on her skin, which gave him a rush of pleasure. He wondered what else he could do to elicit reactions from her.
“So you say. Whether or not that is the case, you and my grandmother have attempted to trap me in marriage, and I will not stand for it. I’ll take care of this so-called scandal.”
“Please do,” she hissed as she finally pulled away from him. She was fully dressed, but her clothing was now a little wrinkled; her hair was disheveled, and her face was flushed. Despite being decent, she looked like she had been thoroughly debauched. “I certainly do not wish to marry you.”
His grandmother opened the door then, unable to hide her amusement under an expression of false horror. “The scandal gets worse and worse!” she said in a melodramatic tone. She smiled and patted Lady Selina’s hand. “Don’t worry, my dear. He will not get away with this.”
“Lady Selina, I suggest you hurry to join the festivities downstairs before you are missed,” Dominic said. “I need a moment alone with my grandmother.”
Lady Selina didn’t need to be told twice. She rushed down the hall and away from him as quickly as she could. Dominic glared at his grandmother. “Have you gone mad?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” she said. “You were the one found on top of a half-dressed lady, and yet you refuse to do the right thing and marry her.”
“You ought to get hold of your maid before every servant in this house, and then all of London knows exactly what you orchestrated,” he said.
“You know perfectly well that nothing happened between me and Lady Selina. The last thing I need is to be married to an unwilling woman, and the last thing Percy needs is another mother resenting him.”
“Selina will not resent him! Besides, I have no idea how she got into your room, and it hardly matters. It is your duty to marry her and protect her reputation. I asked her if she thought it was possible to love a child not of her own flesh and blood as much as one born from her, and she said yes.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. His grandmother sometimes had the subtlety of a stampeding herd of painted horses.
“It does not matter how she answered a hypothetical question, Grandmother. She clearly does not want to be married to me, and she will quickly grow to resent everything about me, even my son. Now give up this foolish scheme, apologize to her for the trouble, and tell her that no one will know about this.”
“I cannot do that,” she said. “Percy needs a mother, and Lady Selina would be perfect for him. She’s compassionate and gentle, despite the troubles life has given her. She can help him find his voice again.”
He gritted his teeth. “This is unacceptable.”
“All of this could have been avoided if you were mingling with the guests, like you were supposed to do, instead of hiding in your room,” she said. “If you were not going to find yourself a wife, then I needed to take matters into my own hands.”
“I don’t give a damn about the guests you brought into my house, Grandmother,” he said.
The dowager opened her mouth, but he cut her off with a look. “This conversation is over.”
Something in his tone, or perhaps his eyes, must have warned her, because she said nothing more. Her lips pressed into a thin line, and for once, the dowager held her tongue.
As she headed to the door, she turned back to Dominic one last time. Her eyes were sincere, a contrast to the usual mischief he had come to expect from her.
“My dear grandson,” she said quietly, “even if Jane and I hadn’t been there to witness it… You still did. You saw Lady Selina in the most intimate way. That was never part of the plan.”
She closed the door softly behind her.
He had to admit to himself that he had also thought that marrying her was the responsible thing to do. Whether or not he intended it, he had seen her exposed. They had lain in the same bed together, and he had fallen on top of her. The right thing to do was to marry her.
Who is this Lady Selina?