Daring Duke (Love Letters Book 4) Page 12
He couldn’t.
They showered, and Duke crawled back into Rohan’s bed and spent the rest of the night committing Rohan’s warmth around him to memory.
Chapter Sixteen
They slept in. Casey knocking on their door had them lurching out of bed and scrambling to get decent. “Just a minute, Casey,” Rohan called out.
Duke tucked the quilt around himself and hurried for the door adjoining his room. He opened it but didn’t step through. Behind him, curtains squealed on their rail and sunlight brightened the bedroom.
He twisted between the rooms. Soft amber outlined Rohan as he buttoned his shirt. His hair was crumpled, the start of a beard glittered with threads of copper. Gray eyes met Duke’s with a soft smile that Duke would never kiss again.
“Fuck”—you’re beautiful—“you must be late for work.” Duke hoped he didn’t sound as hollow as he felt.
Another shirt button. A deeper smile. “I called in last night. Said I wouldn’t be in today.”
Duke lost his grip on the quilt. It sank to the floor.
Rohan cocked a brow. “Surprised?”
“Are you working from the manor?” Why did he torment him with what he couldn’t have?
“I’m going with you to drop Casey home.”
“You’re what?” Duke was about to suggest Rohan take Casey himself, but he’d made a promise to Casey. Besides, he had to be strong. Couldn’t let Rohan know how difficult being close would be. “Fine. Whatever. You drive.”
Casey knocked on the door again and said she’d wait in the gallery.
Duke willed his feet to shift into his room, but crossing the threshold was the final goodbye to all his dreams.
Rohan crossed to him and they stared at each other. Duke’s tongue felt thick and dry in his mouth. The last moments. This was it. Duke blinked back a sting in his eye as he lifted the quilt and gripped it with trembling fingers. “It’s a beautiful gift.”
“For my beautiful brat,” Rohan said fondly.
Duke had always liked the way Rohan called him a brat, but this time, it was too much. “Don’t call me that.”
“A brat?”
“No. Yours.”
“But you are mine.” Rohan cupped Duke’s cheeks, fingers warm.
“Stop,” Duke whispered.
Rohan frowned. “Duke? Are you okay?”
Shit, he was blinking too hard.
Step back. Shut the door. Don’t embarrass yourself.
“No, I’m not okay.” Stupid, stupid, stupid. But he’d unleashed the truth and he couldn’t stop it. “I love you. I have loved you forever. Every man I’ve been with, I thought of you. This last week gave me a taste of all my dreams and now they’re being ripped away. I am not okay. My heart is breaking.”
Rohan stood, speechless, and Duke yanked himself and his quilt over the threshold and slammed the door.
With blurry vision, he draped the quilt over his bed, yanked on some clothes, and headed downstairs to Casey.
She smiled at him, sitting next to her suitcase. “You missed Bianca. She left.”
“Left? For what?”
Rohan’s deep, steady voice came from behind him. “For her flight home.”
Duke stiffened. Didn’t dare turn around. “But she’s your beard. Your announcement is next week.”
“Casey,” Rohan said, “is this all your stuff? I’ve called a family meeting. We need to hit the road.”
“Family meeting?” Duke whirled around. Rohan’s steel gaze met his briefly.
Rohan picked up Casey’s suitcase. “Let’s go.”
“Family meeting?” Duke said as Casey climbed into the back seat and Rohan settled her things in the trunk.
Rohan looked at him. “I can’t wait. I need to make the announcement of my life as soon as I can.”
Duke’s stomach cramped and he rocked back.
Rohan’s gaze darkened.
“Why do you look like that?” Duke choked out.
“Like what? Angry?” Rohan leaned forward, staring hard into Duke’s eyes. “Because I am.”
“Why are you angry?”
“You thought last night was the end.”
“End of our fling, yes.”
“I told you that you deserved more than a fling.” Rohan shut his eyes, took a deep breath. When he reopened them, he calmly shut the trunk, hauled Duke against his warm chest, and crowded him onto the Lexus.
Duke’s ass hit the metal and Rohan slipped between his legs, hands tight on Duke’s hips. His glare wavered, his voice softening. “Last night wasn’t goodbye, it was the furthest from it.” Rohan dipped his mouth to his ear. “I was making love with you. Claiming you as my most-most favorite.”
Duke couldn’t fight back the sting in his eyes. His lashes grew damp.
Rohan drew back, wiped away a tear. “I’m angry that I wasn’t clear enough. That you spent the night in my arms thinking it was goodbye. I’m angry that the most intimate night of my life was possibly one of the hardest for you.”
Duke forced himself to shrug, laugh.
A hand clamped his nape and Rohan steered Duke’s face upward. “Don’t bring on the brat. Be honest. I dare you.”
Duke released his breath slowly. “It was bittersweet, intense, but the thought it was the last time . . . .”
“It wasn’t.” Rohan pulled him off the car and steered him to the passenger door. “I’ll prove that I want you forever.” He laid a sweet kiss on his lips that made Duke’s chest swell. “You are my family. My home.”
A faint trace of cinnamon lingered in the air, and Rohan breathed it in and looked at each of his family members in turn. His mom, dad, and Casey sat in their usual spots around their family dinner table. His mom’s cousin Henry and Natalie sat apprehensively at the end, their gazes bouncing between Rohan and Duke, whom Rohan had made sit at his side at the head of the table.
No one spoke and the tension thrummed through his veins. He’d made many announcements before boards and trustee committees at many high-stakes meetings.
Nothing compared to this moment.
He had no idea if his family would smile at him ever again. He would be letting his mom down in her social circles. Letting Henry down with his plans for SmallQ. He would be saying goodbye to that career forever.
It didn’t matter.
He would be choosing the family he’d longed for, needed.
He would have Duke.
His breath eased out of him, so too the words. “I’m not taking over SmallQ.”
The table erupted with shocked gasps and accusing questions and he heard nothing of them. Only felt the grip of Duke’s hand tightening against his under the table.
“But why?”
“I have to be true to myself.” He met Henry’s confused eyes. “I’m in love. I want a family.”
Duke swung his head to face Rohan, and Rohan smiled at his beautiful brat.
Around them, Natalie and Henry tried to make light of it, claiming he could have a family and run SmallQ. “We managed it with Duke.”
Duke tore his gaze toward his parents. “You didn’t manage very well. We plan to raise our family differently. We will invest time in them.”
“We? What do you mean, we?”
Pride filled Rohan. His heart was in his throat as he looked at Duke and then their families. “I’m in love with your son.”
Casey cheered. His mom smiled softly, supportive and warm. He knew they had her on their side. They were the only ones, and that was enough for Rohan. He stood and pulled Duke with him, planted a possessive kiss on his lips.
“Come,” he whispered as their family erupted with confusion. “Let’s get out of here.”
Duke looked at him with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Is it asking too much for you to toss me over your shoulder and spank me on the way to the car?”
Rohan laughed, and hefted Duke over his shoulder. “Might as well end this on a bang.”
“Still working?” Rohan said, moving in close behind him, voice
hoarse with affection.
Duke set the laptop down on the new mahogany counter they’d installed in the foyer a few months earlier when the manor had undergone renovation. It’d taken close to ten months to obtain all the necessary permits, and another few months to ready Silver Heart Manor.
They officially opened next weekend.
To prepare, they were holding a dry run with their friends.
Friends who should be arriving in the next half an hour.
Duke leaned back against Rohan, absorbing his warmth and support.
Rohan had been nothing but supportive the last year. “Casey should be here already,” Duke murmured.
Kisses nibbled down his neck. He twitched, and felt Rohan smile against his skin. “She called. Her boyfriend insisted on driving her.”
Duke groaned. “I love him, but he drives, like, forty on the freeway. Who do you think will arrive first? River and Ash? Ben and Landon? Kyle and the twins? James? Your parents?”
A chuckle. “It’s endearing how nervous you are. Your parents.”
Ever since Rohan had rejected running SmallQ and they had announced their love, his parents had transformed.
It could have gone either way. They might have completely cut them off, but the idea of losing both of them hit hard. Rohan’s mom had talked to them often over the first weeks, and whatever she said worked magic.
Mom and Dad had sought him out and held open conversations about the past and said they wanted their relationship to move forward.
When Duke had tentatively asked if they wanted to be involved in a practice run of his B&B, they’d jumped at the offer.
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“About your parents showing up first? Or how nervous you are?”
“Both.” He twisted in Rohan’s arms and locked his hands around his neck. “Any suggestions what to do about that?”
Rohan’s gaze blazed with humor and heat. “We do have half an hour.”
Duke dropped to his knees. Light from the chandelier glittered over the foyer, the front desk, the polished floor, the Georgian chaise.
Fresh roses scented the air, mixing with the heady scent of his partner—in business and life.
He gripped Rohan’s jeans, fingers trembling as he ripped at his buttons.
He’d barely opened them when a gentle sigh came from above. “Duke. Stand.”
Rohan cuffed his neck and helped him to his feet. His fingers skated along Duke’s shoulder and down his arm until Rohan held his hand. “As much as I’d like that, I think this needs to be about you.”
Duke played with Rohan’s scarred ring finger. “Me? Gonna drop to your knees, then?”
“What are you most nervous about?”
“Screwing up. Our friends hating this experience. Having to let any of our staff go if no one ever comes here.”
“You’re booked out for six months.”
“I mean after that. When the curiosity gets old.”
“Guests will be flocking here. Not just for the fun ice-skating activities or the proximity to the best circus in the state. They’ll be flocking here for you. You are lively and charming. I dare anyone not to fall in love with you.”
Duke entwined their fingers. “Rohan . . . .”
“I love you, Duke.”
They drove forward into a bone-melting kiss. And, as if that didn’t relax Duke enough, Rohan dropped to his knees . . . .
~ The End ~
AVAILABLE MAY 2019!
Entrapping Erik
(Love Letters #5)
Signs of Love
Three light-hearted, feel-good romances that will leave you with warm and fuzzy feelings! A perfect beach read for the summer, or a cozy read in front of the fireplace for the winter. All can be read as a standalone and in any order!
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This New Adult, college, friends-to-lovers novel is a sweet, slow burn, M/M romance with HEA.
Signs of Love #2: Scorpio Hates Virgo
This light-hearted contemporary gay romance contains sarcasm, sexual content, a slightly sappy HEA, and an unhealthy obsession with dinosaurs.
Signs of Love #3: Gemini Keeps Capricorn
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Shane & Trey
St-St-Stuffed
William
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As always, thank you first to my wonderful husband for telling me to write and have fun. Make it sweet. Make it sexy. Make it whatever pleases you most, he said.
I have the best hubby ever.
Vir. Thank you for your support, creative input, and countless chuckles.
Cheers so much to Olivia Ventura at Hot Tree Editing for working through a development edit with me.
Sunne—the queen of finding inconsistencies. Thank God for your attention to detail.
Thanks to HJS Editing for copyediting. Your edits are amazing, as always!
Natasha Snow. This whole series of covers makes me so happy. You are extremely talented and thank you for working through the concept with me.
And all other beta and final readers - THANK YOU!
A bit about me: I'm a big, BIG fan of slow-burn romances. I love to read and write stories with characters who slowly fall in love.
Some of my favorite tropes to read and write are: Enemies to Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Clueless Guys, Bisexual, Pansexual, Demisexual, Oblivious MCs, Everyone (Else) Can See It, Slow Burn, Love Has No Boundaries.
I write a variety of stories, Contemporary MM Romances with a good dollop of angst, Contemporary lighthearted MM Romances, and even a splash of fantasy.
My books have been translated into German, Italian, French, and Thai.
Contact: http://www.anytasunday.com/about-anyta/
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Gay Romance
(Signs of Love Series)
Leo Loves Aries
Scorpio Hates Virgo
Gemini Keeps Capricorn
Pisces Hooks Taurus
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(Love Letters Series)
Admiring Ash
Begging Ben
Challenging Chance
Daring Duke
Entrapping Erik (May 2019)
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(Enemies to Lovers Series)
Shane & Trey
St-st-stuffed
William
The F-Words
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Taboo For You
Liam Davis & The Raven
Shrewd Angel
Novellas
Briefs (Gay Romance Collection)
DJ Dangerfield
500 Kisses
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