Page 42 of The Duke and the Darkness

“Neither. It was our father.”

Peyton’s lips parted in surprise.

“He was angry about something—God only knows what—and boxed her ears, rupturing her eardrum. So no, not an accident nor an illness. The bastard fully intended to hurt her.”

“Oh, Devlin…I’m so sorry.” Then she guessed, “He hit her other times, too, didn’t he?”

“Yes. And my mother.”

Her eyes locked with his. “And you?”

“Only until I learned to hit back.” The pity in her eyes nearly undid him. He shook his head. “It’s all in the past now.”

The pursing of her lips told him she didn’t agree, yet she wisely let the subject drop. He took her arm to lead her into the drawing room.

But she placed her hand on his bicep and stopped him, looking at him with trepidation. “Devlin?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry for ending your engagement with Lady Catherine.”

His gut tightened at her remorse. “It wasn’t official. We were still hammering out the details of the marriage contract.” He blew out a hard breath and admitted, “It was probably for the best anyway.”

She searched his face. “You didn’t love her?”

“No.” In fact, he was damnably surprised he felt so little regret over the incident. What bothered him more was the way Peyton had orchestrated it so effectively to maximize the public humiliation for him. He was certain all kinds of fresh allegations that he was an unscrupulous rake were now flowing through London as fast as the Thames, but what bothered him about that wasn’t what people thought of him but what damage it might do to his family. “I courted her because her family was respectable and she was pleasant.”

“Pleasant?” Peyton repeated as if she couldn’t possibly have heard him correctly. “The notorious Devlin Raines prized a woman because she waspleasant?”

He grimaced. “I haven’t been notorious in a very long time.”

“Then the duchess was right,” she murmured. “Londonhaschanged a great deal since I’ve been gone.”

More than you realize.

“Well, then,” she corrected herself, “I’m sorry for ending your potentially pleasant match.” When he began to give that the reply it deserved, she added, “But I’m not sorry for besting you at cards.”

“Iam,” he murmured, “given our wager. I was very much looking forward to winning.”

He heard her catch her breath at the reminder of what he had expected to claim from her. “Then you must be extremely relieved now that you know the identity of the woman you were playing with.” Her voice emerged as a throaty purr, and hewondered if she realized it…or the heated effect it had on him. “You’ll never want to kiss me again.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” he murmured with a glance over his shoulder to make certain the hall was still empty. When he looked back at her, his gaze fell to her ripe lips, which parted beneath his stare. He couldn’t resist the temptation of her softness and slowly swept his hand along the side of her body, over the curves of her hip and waist to her ribs, then over the outside swell of her breast.

She trembled.

“Devlin! Miss Wentworth!” Theodora called out from the drawing room. “We’ve convinced Meg to sing for us. Hurry before she changes her mind!”

He dropped his hand and stepped back.

For a moment, Peyton didn’t move; she simply stared at him, eyes bright with confusion. Devlin couldn’t help but wonder—who was she seeing…the man standing with her or the one she remembered from ten years ago?

“We should join them,” she whispered huskily.

Without another word, he led her into the drawing room.

They took their seats, with Peyton joining his mother on the settee, Devlin slumping into a chair, and Teddy perched on the chair arm beside him, mostly so she could annoy him by loudly slurping her chocolate until he poked her in the ribs with his elbow. Then she slunk off to her own chair.

At the pianoforte, Meg shuffled through her sheet music before finally settling on a piece she loved—a recent composition by Beethoven that Devlin had purchased for her a few months ago for her birthday. Her fingers danced over the keys, and the soft music floated through the room on the candlelight.