Ruined by a Rake by Erin Knightley Page B

“Listen to me, and listen well. If you think today’s scene reflected badly on you, you can’t even imagine what I will do if you so much as harm one hair on Nicolas’s head, or seek to injure his prospects.
    She took a step closer to the desk, forcing Malcolm to look up to her. “I will happily bring shame to this entire family if it means making you pay for what you did to my mother, and what you tried to do to me and my sister.”
    Her gaze jerked to Nick. “What has he promised as punishment? Are you to duel?”
    “Er, no,” he said, momentarily caught off guard. “Merely permanent alienation from this family, and the revocation of the funds for my commission. Nothing I can’t handle,” he added, not wanting her to think it was too great a penalty for him to bear.
    “No, nothing you will handle,” she said, her eyes fairly glowing with passion. God, but she was magnificent. It was all he could not to applaud her. Her hands to her hips, she turned back to Malcolm. “Nick attempted to rescue me from the fate you tried to manufacture, but this is my fight, not his.
    “So here are your choices, dear uncle. Either I go back to the party and make a scene you will not soon forget, or you go in there and announce that, much to your surprise, your niece and step-son have made a love match, and will be married in one month’s time. Oh, and my entire dowry will be transferred upon our marriage.”
    It took a moment for Nick to realize that the echoing gasp was his. “No, Eleanor, I won’t allow you to be trapped—”
    She whirled to face him, her eyes flashing and her color high. “You mean married to you?”
    Married to Eleanor . He clenched his teeth together, ruthlessly squelching the surge of hope her words evoked. Everything he had done tonight was to protect her from exactly that fate. “Yes,” he answered, unable to keep the desperation from his voice.
    “What choice do I have? You have ruined me.”
     

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Eight
     
    Eleanor waited for the shock of the statement to sink in before stepping forward and taking Nick’s hands in her own. “Yes, you ruined me in the eyes of the ton , but that’s not what I mean. Nick, you have ruined me for any other man. You’ve ruined me for living the life I once enjoyed.”
    She met his gaze directly, wanting him to see the truth in her eyes, to know that she meant what she said. “You have shown true valor, you have treated me with respect, and you’ve shown that my wishes are as close to your heart as your own.
    “I never thought I could bear to be married, but now I know that I can’t bear not to be. I can’t fathom being without you. And I must know,” she said, her voice raw with the emotion that consumed her, “after that kiss, have I ruined you as well?
    He looked down at her, his green eyes giving away nothing. “No,” he said, shaking his head decisively.
    “ No ?” Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest, taking the breath from her lungs. Had she lost her gamble? Had she been wrong about the kiss, and the connection she felt between them?
    “You ruined me with the first kiss,” he said, squeezing her fingers tightly in his. “Eleanor Josephine Abbington, I have loved you since the day we met. One look at those huge brown eyes and the challenge you presented, and I was lost.”
    He couldn’t be serious! He’d loved her all these years? She shook her head, unable to believe what he was saying. “But all the teasing, and insults, and pestering . . .”
    For the first time that evening, a ghost of a smile came to his lips. “When a fatherless, friendless boy is set before the gorgeous older granddaughter of an earl, what hope does he have? None – other than to keep the girl well enough engaged that she can’t possibly ignore him, even if she wanted to.”
    She simply stared at him, unable to process the emotions welling up inside her like a cyclone. Happiness, incredulousness, joy, love, disbelief—it was