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He could never please his father.
So he vowed to disappoint him instead.
And he’d do it properly, with the same force of will and determination he’d employed in his doomed bid for affection.
No more seeking to please. No more abiding by scriptures or strictures.
His grave, stony-hearted, and iron-fisted father had pronounced Brandan to be wicked. Tainted. A child of sin.
And that’s exactly what he’d become.
He vowed to become wild and wicked. He’d break every one of society’s rules. He’d be depraved and dangerous to know.
He’d become the very best... at being the absolute worst duke’s heir in the world.
Chapter One
Everyone said that Brandan Delamar, Duke of Westbury, lived life as though there would be no tomorrow. No consequences. No piper to pay. But there was always a tomorrow. A morning after. And this particular morning after was hell on earth.
“This is the worst morning of my entire life,” West announced, without opening his eyes. “And I’ve had some truly awful ones.”
His head felt like a billiard ball that had been slammed against wood and sent careening into a dark, musty cave. The inside of his mouth had the texture of fuzzy felted fabric and the taste of billiard cue chalk.
He was lying in a strange bed, fully clothed, which meant he hadn’t had a very good night at all. Most mornings after of this caliber he at least woke with a curvaceous female, or two, draped across him in lieu of clothing.
“Ah... sleeping beauty finally awakes,” a voice said from somewhere nearby. A gravelly,malevoice.
West considered himself to be a hedonist, and a true hedonist would try any manner of pleasureat least once in a lifetime. Though West couldn’t remember anything about last night, pleasurable or otherwise.
He managed to pry one eyelid open. The man sitting in a chair near the fireplace was also fully clothed. West knew that handsome face. Lord Rafe Bentley. One of the only true friends West had left in this cesspool of a town. “Rafe. What are you doing here? Where are we?”
“My club. I’ve been waiting to make sure you’re alive. Now that I know you’ll survive your injuries, I’ll be leaving. You’re welcome to stay as long as you like. Ring for a bath. You could use one.”
“My injuries...?” West tried to sit up and was stopped by a lancing pain in his ribs. Clutching his abdomen, he gritted his teeth and dragged himself to a seated position. “Who the devil kicked me? I don’t remember a thing.”
“I found you betting on billiards at The Devil’s Staircase. You were sloshed on cheap gin and picking fights with a fellow twice your size, so I knocked you senseless and hauled you here for safekeeping. The ribs weren’t me. That was the bruiser of a barkeep at the Staircase.”
West touched the large, painful bump on his temple gingerly. “With friends like you, eh?”
“It was for your own good. You were being a right knob and were liable to get yourself killed.”
“I can handle myself.”
“You know I’m not one to judge. I’ve had my days of dissipation and ruin, but you’re going arse over teakettle down the highway to hell. I count you as a friend and it’s my duty to tellyou that you should slow down on the drink, the gambling, the outrageous bets, and whatever other illegal vices you indulge in that I don’t care to know about.”
“Or I could accelerate the pace and hasten my entry into that early grave I hear so much about.”
“The social Season begins in a few days.”
“Speaking of early graves.”
“You have obligations, both personal and political. You’re aduke.” Rafe stared down at him accusingly. “You’re eight-and-twenty. It’s time to stop wasting your life.”
West collapsed back on the bed with a groan. “If I close my eyes, I can see my great-aunt Hermione standing by the bed, pointing her bony finger at me. You sound exactly like her.”
He pitched his voice higher and infused it with aristocratic disdain. “Westbury, doing your best to dig your own grave while you had a younger brother was foolish and irresponsible. But since poor Bertram was taken from us too soon you must cease this depraved and immoral existenceat once.”
“She’s right, you know. You had a brother and now you don’t. It’s all on your shoulders now.”
