Pregnancy Proposals: The Duke's Baby - Rebecca Winters

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came the unequivocal answer. “I’ll return it to you later.” He swallowed the rest of his coffee and put the cup in the sink.

      “Morning will be fine. Now if you’ll excuse me, I want to look in on Geoff.”

      “Not yet,” he muttered. The next thing she knew he’d placed his body between her and the door. His hand grasped her wrist so she couldn’t leave.

      “What on earth is wrong with you?” she cried, trying to pull away from him. But his grip was far too strong. At five foot six and only a hundred and twenty pounds, she was no match for his steel-like strength.

      “My question to you exactly,” he bit out, drawing her nearer until she felt the warmth from his rock-hard body. The male scent of him was as erotic as it was unexpected. “What are you? All of twenty-two compared to his almost seventy years?”

      When Andrea figured out what he was implying, she couldn’t prevent the incredulous laugh that escaped. “Not that it’s any business of the hired help, but Geoff and I are friends!”

      “No doubt you’d like it to be more.” He pulled her against him until she was crushed against every line and sinew of his body, sending fire through hers. She moaned in disbelief this was happening.

      “Who made you his personal watchdog?” she cried, far too aware of their breath mingling, let alone his long, sooty lashes and the lines of experience bracketing his sensual mouth. No man had a right to be this attractive, yet so utterly offensive at the same time.

      “Since his second marriage never took.” She thought she saw pain interspersed with anger flashing from his eyes. “If you think I’m about to let him enter into a third with someone young enough to be his granddaughter, you’re deluding yourself.”

      He’d pushed her too far. She couldn’t refrain from baiting him. “Sometimes age isn’t as important as kindness and love.”

      His lips twisted unpleasantly. “Especially when you’re looking at a fortune after he’s dead.”

      “Is that why you stay in his employ?” She flashed him a mocking smile. “Are you hoping there’ll be something in it for you?”

      The minute the question was out, she regretted her lapse of control and tried to jerk away from him without success.

      “Why not … if you’re offering,” he drawled.

      A thrill of fear raced through her body. Too late for escape, she couldn’t avoid the hard mouth that descended on hers.

      Caught off guard, her gasp of surprise enabled him to drive deeper in a kiss so intimate and all-consuming, she was shaken to the foundations. For a dizzying moment the sensations he aroused caused her legs to lose their strength.

      At the very second she found herself clinging to him so she wouldn’t fall, he gripped her upper arms and propelled her away from him.

      It infuriated her that while she was out of breath and disheveled, he stood there mocking her with a devilish smile, seemingly unfazed by the encounter.

      When she tore herself from his grasp, the force of it almost caused her to trip on her flight from the kitchen. She dashed through the hall and up the stairs of the château, needing to reach the safety of Geoff’s suite.

       CHAPTER TWO

      A NEW nurse had come on duty. She smiled and nodded to Andrea, indicating her patient was up to a nocturnal visitor.

      Approaching his bed, Andrea could see he was doing better. His oxygen tube had been taken away. Since last night he had more color and the slight wheeze in his chest didn’t seem as noticeable.

      Still trembling from her experience in the kitchen, she pulled up a chair next to him and put a hand on his arm, willing her heart to stop slamming against her ribs.

      Whether in the Duc’s employ or not, the stranger had crossed a line tonight with his primitive behavior. To manhandle a woman the way he’d just done was grounds for dismissal and a lot worse if Andrea had anything to say about it.

      Without upsetting Geoff, she would learn what she could about the other man from Henri. He would know what should be done and would be discreet in handling the situation so she wasn’t bothered further.

      “Geoff? It’s Andrea.”

      His eyes opened. They had more life than before. He really was improving. Nothing could have pleased her more.

      “You sound out of breath, ma chérie.“

      Under the circumstances a little white lie wouldn’t hurt. “I just returned to the château and wanted to see you first.”

      “I’m glad you’re here.” He patted her hand. “I have the most wonderful news.”

      “The doctor must have told you you’re on the mend at last!” she interjected.

      “It’s a fact I’m feeling better, but this is something else. My son has come home for good. I couldn’t speak about him or his work before tonight because it was classified. But now I can tell you. For the last ten years he’s been serving in various regions of the world as part of our military’s elite force.”

      A slight gasp escaped her throat. With those words Andrea realized she’d already met his only offspring. No wonder he’d appeared in the kitchen as if he owned the place. It explained his presence on the grounds.

      Wasn’t France’s elite force even more deadly than its special forces?

      The moment he’d emerged so noiselessly from the pines, she’d sensed the difference about him. She had living proof he was even better trained and more dangerous than she’d first supposed.

      His uncivilized behavior downstairs appeared to be the result of too much time spent doing unspeakable things for far too long.

      “Earlier tonight while I was wondering when I would see him again, and hopefully in one piece, he appeared in my room and told me he’d performed his final service for the country. It’s over. Grâce à Dieu. Now he and Corinne can be married.”

      “Corinne?”

      “The daughter of my second wife.”

      Andrea blinked. She supposed some stepbrothers and sisters did marry, but she couldn’t imagine it.

      “Corinne’s had her eye on my son from the beginning. Now that he’s retired from the service, I’m going to get the grandchildren I’ve been waiting for. She’ll be home from her latest trip any day now.”

      Would marriage be able to tame a man as out of control as his son? Andrea doubted it.

      “I’m so happy for you,” she said before getting to her feet, unable to sit there calmly while she digested all the revelations of this night. If Geoff could have seen her being thoroughly kissed against her will by his only offspring, he’d be horrified.

      “I want the two of you to meet.”

      “We already have, Papa,” sounded an irascible voice that could only have come from one man. He’d just entered the bedroom. Andrea tried to smother her cry of surprise. “I discovered her by the lac.“

      “Then you probably know how much this poor child has suffered, Lance.”

      Lance was his real name?

      Lancelot Du Lac?

      “I’m afraid we didn’t do much talking,” Andrea broke in, not wanting to think about what had gone on during both private confrontations. Worse, she didn’t want Geoff hurt. Like any father, he had great hopes for his son’s future. Andrea had no desire to do anything that could bring him sadness.

      “It’s obvious he’s anxious to spend time

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