Read The Duke I’m Going to Marry (Farthingale Series Book 2) for Free Online

kissed her again in the music room.
    He was an experienced scoundrel and ought to have been wiser, but no. He was still an idiot when it came to Dillie. Nothing had changed. She still turned his blood molten. His heart still slammed against his chest whenever she smiled. Her lips were still as soft and sweet as summer peaches.
    Lord, he loved peaches.
    Damn the girl. Damn her pure and innocent heart.
    “Send a messenger to Miss Giraud. Let her know I’ll be visiting her this evening.”
    Ashcroft’s eyes narrowed and his lips became pinched. “Is that wise, Your Grace? Your wounds aren’t fully healed.”
    “No, it isn’t wise. I don’t care.” He needed the scent of a heavy French perfume and the naked warmth of an experienced lover to clear Dillie from his thoughts. Dillie’s first kiss had been spectacular, slamming him to the ground with its innocent power. But this second kiss had sent him soaring into the heavens, lifting him into the clouds higher than he’d ever been before, and then slammed him even harder to the ground.
    Every muscle in his body was still taut and twitching with desire. Every damn one. Especially the one between his legs. It was granite hard and painfully throbbing.
    Someone had to ease that pain. Chantal Giraud was paid to do just that.

CHAPTER 3
    London, England
    March 1819
    “DAISY, SHE’S SO PRECIOUS,” Dillie said, laughing as she wrapped her ten-month-old niece in her arms and inhaled her sweet baby scent. “I missed you, Ivy. You’ve grown so big.” She hadn’t seen her sister Daisy or her little niece in months, not since Christmas at Coniston Hall, the Farthingales’ country residence.
    Now that Dillie and her parents had returned to London, she was eager to catch up with all her sisters. Daisy and her husband, the first to arrive back in town, had invited her to tea, and Dillie looked forward to passing a most pleasant afternoon with both of them. “Where’s Gabriel?”
    “He’ll be along soon,” Daisy said with a shrug. “He had to report to the Prince Regent, something about an incident that occurred a few months ago. He won’t tell me what it’s about because he’s afraid I’ll meddle.”
    Dillie shook her head and grinned. “Imagine that, accusing a Farthingale of meddling.”
    Her sister laughed. “Perhaps we do stick our noses into other people’s business on occasion, but we do it with the best of intentions. Speaking of other people’s business, what have you been up to since I last saw you?”
    “Ugh! Absolutely nothing. I’ve been bored to tears.” Dillie twirled Ivy in her arms, and then nuzzled her pudgy cheek, once more inhaling her baby sweetness. Of course, she knew that the light scent of powder and lavender soap would soon give way to the less pleasant odors of burps, spit-ups, and other unmentionable products that routinely emanated from the lower parts of infants. She didn’t care. Children were meant to be loved and fussed over, no matter what came out of them, whether from top or bottom.
    She kissed the little angel’s chubby, pink cheek and was rewarded with a heart-tugging smile. Ivy had the look of a Farthingale girl, dark hair and big, blue eyes. Well, right now her hair was more a dark cap of curly fuzz, but she was still young. “Your father’s going to have his hands full chasing the boys away,” she whispered in her niece’s ear.
    Ivy burped.
    Daisy smiled as she poured a cup of tea for each of them and set a treacle scone on each of their plates. “I think Gabriel will have a few more years before he needs to worry. You’ve caught Ivy on a good day. Usually she’s all squawks and howls at this hour. It’s her nap time, but she seems quite fascinated by you and has forgotten that she’s tired. Watch out for your earrings. She may be little, but she’s fast. Before you know it, she’ll have her fingers wrapped in the loops and tugging until you howl.”
    “She’s already pulled out half the pins in my hair.”