Page 91 of Duke with a Desire

He sighed. “Yet another topic that isn’t properly had at the breakfast table. You aren’t even meant to know of the Wicked Dukes Society.”

She gave him a smug look as she seated herself. “I know a great deal of things I wasn’t meant to know.”

His brows shot together. “What does that mean?”

She shrugged. “I’m not certain it would be a suitable topic of conversation at the breakfast table.”

More coffee. He needed fortification if he was to endure his sister’s pointed repartee. Ro’s wit was sharper than a blade, and she was capable of verbal parries that would put even the brightest minds to shame.

“Using my own words against me again, I see,” he muttered, seeking to refill his cup.

“In my defense, you were being terribly overbearing.” Aphrodite gave him an arch look as she cut a bite of ham. “I’m thirty years old, not some young ingenue who has just taken her first curtsy.”

“I am aware of your age, and I know you’re not a naïve girl who’s just entered society for the first time. But I am your brother and the head of this family. It’s my duty to protect you.”

“Ha! Protect me from what? Knowledge?” She sighed, turning her attention back to her ham. “I love you, brother, but sometimes you are as thick-witted as the rest of the men in the world.”

“And I love you, sister, but sometimes your sharp tongue slices deep and makes me bleed,” he returned wryly. “I should like to think myself less thick-witted than most.”

“Yet, you have no notion that I am the first to receive the correspondence each morning.”

“Ah, so you have been reading my private correspondence?”

“At your direction,” she reminded him. “You dislike wasting time on boring society twaddle, if you recall.”

Yes, he did remember saying something to that effect to Ro. He also remembered asking her to sort his correspondence for him and to review any invitations they received because he didn’t want to find himself bogged down by nonsensical tasks such as whether they should attend a ball or accept an invitation to dinner. It was tedious stuff. However, he had failed to realize that the correspondence for the Wicked Dukes Society would have passed by her astute eye.

“So that explains the mystery of the Wicked Dukes Society,” he allowed. “I thought that perhaps Phee had told you.”

Ro’s head instantly cocked in his direction, and he realized his error too late.

She raised a brow. “Phee?”

“Lady Corbett,” he corrected at once, feeling heat crawl up the back of his neck.

But he held his sister’s suspicious gaze, determined to keep the full truth of everything that had unfolded to himself.

“You called her Phee,” Aphrodite pointed out needlessly.

“And?”

Her eyes narrowed. “And that is an awfully familiar way to refer to her.”

His ears were hot now. He wondered if he was perspiring. “What are you suggesting?”

It was nothing short of a miracle that he sounded as calm and unaffected as he did. His mind was a kaleidoscope of Phee in various states of dress. The color of her nipples, the freckles on her breasts, Phee lying naked in his bed, Phee asleep with her bare bottom on display, her fiery curls unfurled on his pillow, Phee with her legs spread for him on the wrought iron table in the orangery, when they’d been soaked from rain and starving for each other.

God.

He had to stop.

Aphrodite continued to stare at him, then nodded, as if she had just deciphered the hieroglyphics on an ancient scroll. “Something did happen at the house party. Something between you and Ophelia.”

It was such a bland, unfeeling way to describe what had taken place. He felt as if he had waged a war.

“Don’t be silly, goose,” he said, using his pet name for her from when he’d been a wee lad and hadn’t been able to pronounce her name. “Nothing happened at all. I hardly even saw her at the house party.”

It was a terrible lie, but what was he meant to say? He couldn’t very well tell his sister he had fallen in love with her friend, and that they had spent days fucking each other in every means possible, only for her to throw him over the day before the house party’s end.