Home > Work > Duke of Midnight (Maiden Lane, #6)
61 " iron "
― Elizabeth Hoyt , Duke of Midnight (Maiden Lane, #6)
62 " Now I’ll just have to do without.”She raised her eyebrows. “I’m sorry?”Then Maximus did something very strange: he went on one knee before her.“This isn’t right at all,” he said, continuing to glare as if he found it all her fault.She sat up. “What are you doing?”“Artemis Greaves, will you do me the honor of —”“Are you insane?” she demanded. “What of your father? Your conviction that you must marry for the dukedom?”“My father is dead,” he said softly. “And I’ve decided the dukedom can go hang.”“But —”“Hush,” he snapped. “I’m trying to propose to you properly even without my mother’s necklace.”“But why?” she asked...“I know that this is rather disappointing,” he said. “But I intend to make you respectable. "
63 " Your cousin might be a pretty face, but you, my darling, courageous, maddening, seductive, mysterious, wonderful Diana, you are the Duchess of Wakefield. My duchess. "
64 " He built a tower to try and be closer to her and walled himself inside.”She stared at him for a moment as if waiting for something. “And?”He glanced at her, puzzled. “And, what?”She widened her eyes. “How does the story end? Did the sorcerer win his Moon Maiden?”“Of course not,” he said irritably. “She lived on the moon and was quite unattainable. I suppose he must’ve starved or pined away or fallen off the wall at some point. "
65 " What are you looking for?” she asked abruptly. “It’s rather rude for a gentleman to enter a lady’s room without permission.”“I’m not a gentleman.”“Really? I thought otherwise. "
66 " A GODDESS SHOULD never have to beg. It was the one thought, clear and simple, that ran through Maximus’s mind. Everything else—his rank, the party,their conflict, seemed to fall away from that one truth. She should never have to beg. He still tasted her mouth on his tongue, still wanted to crush her breasts against his chest and bend her until she bared her throat to him, but he made himself let her go. “Very well.” Artemis blinked, her sweet lips parting as if she didn’t believe what she’d heard. “What?” “I’ll do it.” He turned to go, his mind already making plans, when he felt her fingers clutch at his sleeve. “You’ll take him from Bedlam?” “Yes.” Perhaps his decision had already been made from the moment he’d seen tears in her eyes. He had a weakness, it seemed, a fault more terrible than any Achilles’s heel: he couldn’t stand the sight of her tears. But her eyes shone as if he’d placed the moon itself into her hands. “Thank you. "
67 " Well, I suppose I wouldn’t have been going to Harte’s Folly again in any case.” “Why not?” he asked absently. “Was the play not to your liking?” “We didn’t get that far.” She sighed. “Penelope had rather a fit when we first arrived and caused a scene. I’m surprised no one told you.” He turned slowly. “What?” She looked at him. “She called me a whore.” “Damn it.” He scowled at his hands. "
68 " Phoebe looked at her as if she were a half-witted schoolgirl. “My brother is the most contained man I know. He keeps the books in his library ranked by language, then age, then author, then alphabetically. He prepares his speeches for Parliament weeks in advance and makes sure to know exactly which lords will be attending and how they will be voting in advance. He’s never, as far as I know, kept a mistress—and before you comment, even a virginal younger sister like myself has ways of finding these things out. He’s fanatical about family and is so worried about my safety that he had bars put on my bedroom windows, presumably so that I wouldn’t, in a fit of absentmindedness, blunder into them and fall out.”Phoebe took a deep breath and fixed Artemis with a gimlet eye. “And yet he dragged you into the woods in front of his entire country party, loses his tight rein on his temper with you, and has seduced you in his own home—a home he shares with me. Either my brother has a brain fever or he’s fallen hard in love with you. "