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Lahat ng Kabanata ng A LADY FOR A DUKE : Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

284 Kabanata

1

“I will not be made to do anything I don't want to do!” Cedric Blackwood yelled, as he paced the room in an agitated manner, before stopping in front of his Aunt, who sat calmly on the couch, her countenance the very opposite of his. “This emotional blackmail will not work on me,”“No one is blackmailing you emotionally,” Diana Mortimer told her nephew, but he didn't seem to hear her. “That's exactly what this is,” continued Cedric, “Just another way for my father to piss me off. Even in his grave, he finds a way to torture me!”“Torture? It is your birthright, Cedric!” said Diana, raising her voice for the first time since they started the conversation, “It is your duty. You were born to be the Duke of Springbrook, and —”“No!” Cedric interrupted, turning away from her, “It was what my brother, Vincent was born to be, at least according to our father. It was his duty. Just because he's no longer here, doesn't mean I have to be in charge of his responsibility, and why should I? Our f
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2

Yet somehow her feet wouldn’t move, and she found she was clutching on to her basket full of blackberries, her fingers itching with the unfamiliar need to touch him, to trace the lines of all those intriguing muscles just to make sure he was real, because surely someone that beautiful couldn’t be. She’d certainly never seen a man like this one, still less met anyone who looked the way he did, not in the cafe where she worked in the village, or indeed anywhere in the village, full stop.She watched as he bent over the small pile of clothes lying on the gravelly beach. He picked up a dark blue T-shirt then, as he straightened, Anna's heart beat even faster as he began to towel himself roughly off.She should definitely not be looking at him, she reminded herself again. What she should be doing was getting back to the cottage she lived in with her father, because she didn’t like to leave him for too long. He’d had a stroke nine years ago that had left him extremely physically limited and
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3

Anna's blush returned, though she ignored it as fixedly as she’d ignored it the first time. If he could be perfectly calm about this, then so could she.“Yes, I believe so.” She threw him a disapproving look. “There’s not much to look at after all.” She expected him to be annoyed or even a little chagrined. He was not.Instead, he laughed, and the sound hit her like a shock, wrapping around her, deep and dark as melted chocolate. And all she could think was that she’d never heard anyone laugh like that. In fact, it had been a long time since she’d heard anyone laugh at all.“Far be it from me to disagree,” he said, “but the blush in your cheeks would seem to indicate otherwise.”Oh, yes, he’s very dangerous.That laugh of his was still resounding through her entire body, like she was a tuning fork he’d just struck, and she couldn’t understand why. She couldn’t understand her response to him at all. She only knew that some instinct inside her was urging her to get away from him and as
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4

“I…” she began in that rich, smoky voice, a thread of heat running through it. “I…don’t… I need to…” She fell silent, breathing fast, staring at him.Then before he could say anything she abruptly turned and fled down the path that led around the lake.Cedric stood very still, fighting the urge to go after her, catch her. Take her down on the forest floor and distract himself, ground himself in her lithe, strong body.But his urges were always controlled and he didn’t like how uncontrolled this one felt. Anyway, he never chased women, not when they came so easily to him, and so he wasn’t about to start, no matter how much the idea appealed to him.Besides, he had more important matters to take care of…. Like becoming the Duke of Springbrook. _____________Cedric Blackwood didn't have very good memories of Haerton Castle. In fact he hated it.Cedric had lived in Haerton until he was nine and all he could remember of his parents' marriage was them constantly fighting about one thing or
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5

“Well, yes I can,” said Diana in her usual calming voice. Sometimes Cedric wondered if anything ever got to her. “Your father was a very old fashioned man, so I'm not surprised. Look, I'm sure no one will expect you to force this lady…. Whoever she is… To marry you. So why don't you meet her, and decide for yourself if you would like her to be your wife…. If not, or if she says no, then you can start searching for someone else.”“Fine,” Cedric agreed and hung up. As far as he was concerned, he and his father were very different people who agreed on nothing, and they certainly wouldn't agree on who he was going to marry. He'd meet this lady, just for the sake of doing so, and then since he had to, he'd find himself a wife of his choosing. To hell with what… Or who Magnus Blackwood wanted. —--------—-A Week later, Anna was upstairs in her father’s office giving it a good dusting. It was a small but cozy space at the back of the house, overlooking the little rose garden that she tried
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6

“Yes. You are right. But the Duke and I talked often, or rather we used to.”“Why do you want to know if I remember him?”Her father’s dark eyes were still sharp and they gave her a very direct look. “We made a certain…gentleman’s agreement one night. It was a long time ago and I forgot about it. Especially when he broke off all contact. However…”Uncharacteristically, her father paused, seeming hesitant. “I got a letter yesterday from the Duke’s office, reminding me of the agreement and asking me to honor it.”Anna frowned, unsure of where her father was going with this. “What agreement? Please don’t say it concerns money, because you know—”“It’s not about money,” Luke interrupted, his voice flat.The foreboding that she’d forced away earlier crept back, though she fought it down. “Then what is it about?”Her father’s fingers picked at the edge of his blanket, yet more signs of an agitation that wasn’t like him at all.What have you done now? Anna wondered. The foreboding gripped he
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7

Her father gave her another of his sharp, assessing looks, as if he’d somehow picked up a note of protest in her tone, though there hadn’t been even the faintest hint of one. “You don’t have to marry him, Anna. No one’s going to force you. It’s not the Middle Ages after all. But the logical thing to do is to get all the information so you can make an informed decision.” She didn’t know how he’d managed to pick up on her reluctance, not when she’d barely acknowledged it herself. Or perhaps it wasn’t reluctance, only surprise due to the unusual nature of the request.Whatever, her father was right. She needed to gather all the information before making a decision, in which case accepting the Duke’s invitation was the logical thing to do.Really, she was viewing this with far too much emotion, especially when she didn’t even know what kind of proposal the Duke was going to put forward. It clearly wasn’t going to be a real marriage, not when they’d never met. Perhaps it was because of so
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8

Anna Remington, daughter of his father’s old friend, Luke Remington, stood near the fireplace with her back to him, her hair flowing down her spine just as wild and glorious as it had been beside the lake the week before. Though this time there were less leaves in it.Cedric waited, anticipation gathering tightly inside him. After Bonnie had informed him of the will bombshell, he’d spent an intense and very expensive couple of days with his legal team examining every inch of the document and its codicils, trying to find any loopholes. But there were none. His father had left nothing to chance. The Haerton estate could only legally be owned by him if he married and had a son. Really, he should have expected more hoops to jump through, but he’d thought his father would have long since forgotten his existence, since Cedric had purposely forgotten his. A stupid thought, clearly. Or perhaps his father expected him to be grateful?Regardless, he’d spent the past years of his life making su
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9

Money would be the lever he’d pull in order to get her to do what he wanted, since money he had in abundance. Sex too was a lever, as he knew after that encounter down by the lake that they had some kind of sexual chemistry. Not that it would be any hardship; there was nothing he liked more than making a woman burn for him.___________Anna had gone very still, like a deer catching a predator’s scent.Cedric thought she’d have researched him before she’d arrived the way he had with her, and would already know that he was the man she’d met by the lake. But it was clear from her stiff posture and sudden tension that she hadn’t known. Not until he’d spoken. He stared at her elegant back, conscious of desire stirring to life almost instantly inside him.Ah yes, he remembered that feeling, not to mention his own uneasiness with the ferocity of it. But he could manage that. It was only physical desire, and he knew, if anyone did, that desire only meant what you wanted it to mean. Which to h
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10

“Where are you going?” Cedric asked as he watched her, although he made no attempt to go after her. She couldn’t lose her temper again. She wouldn’t, Anna thought as she turned around to look at him again. “I need to leave. Go home,” she replied.The Duke was standing in the middle of the room, his hands in his pockets, his head tilted to one side. It was a relaxed, casual pose, and yet the way he looked at her was anything but casual. The deep midnight of his eyes burned and he radiated a subtle, sensual energy that made the air around him crackle. He looked like a man who’d never heard the word ‘no’ in all his life. Unluckily for him, ‘no’ was the only word she had.“There's no reason why I should stay,” Anna clasped her shaking hands together in an effort to still them. “I’m not marrying you.”His gaze flickered, his mouth curving slightly, and she had the disturbing thought that far from putting him off, her insistence was only inciting him further.“But you haven’t heard my pro
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