The Duke's Bride <3

teaserrrr... mwahahaa. (:

sooo! I decided to make a deal with you.... I'm going to upload twice a week if i start getting more votes. I was sooo excited because I was like #50 something for historical romance.. sooo exciting. but now im in the 200's.. ): sad panda.    sooo. if you loveee it, vote/comment/fan.... and you get 2 uploads a week with 3+ pages. That sounds super fair to me. lol, i'd so take that deal. To those that do vote.. i loveee it. thanks so much. (: and if you just want to stay a silent reader, i suppose thats okay too ;) Sooo... here's a little teaser.. It's not even a chapter so that it doesnt count as two uploads. ;)

**[[Caitlin]]** 

Caitlin woke up with a start, sitting straight up and looking around in a panic. Where was she? She spotted her brother and several of the men from Alexi's crew a few yards away from her and it came back to her... the kidnapping, the whipping, the near-drowning.. Alexi all naked.. yum.. She quickly tried to push those thoughts of Alexi away as she stood up and brushed the sand off of her body as best she could. She felt disgusting and was positive she looked that way too.

As she came up to the men her brother offered her a few peices of fish and some fruit for breakfast and she sat down close to him and ate quietly. 

She finally began to fully wake up and realized that Alexi was no where in sight.

"Where is Alexi?" She asked Devlin.

"He's at the spring, bathing."

"Oh."

"He shouldn't be too much longer, and you could go bathe too, If you wanted." He offered.

She nodded her head, and stood up to leave him after thanking him for the breakfast. She'd been told the night before that the island they were on was barely even an island at all but it was lush and fruitful and seemed to be not very dangerous. The men had explored as much as they could and she wished to do some exploring of her own. 

She saw Alexi come out of the treeline and she nodded her head to him as she passed.

"G'day My Lord."

"My lady.." 

She pushed past him and left him staring at her as she made her way through the trees and such before she got to the clear water spring. Smiling the whole way at the bewildered expression on his face. 

As she gazed at the water, Caitlin became mesmorized with how beautiful her suroundings were. It was paradise. The simple fact that they were marooned on an island was enough to make any person go crazy with fear, but not one person had paniced the entire time. They were stuck for now, but everyone was okay with that for the most part. 

She leaned in close to the waters edge, still completely dressed and trailed her fingers through the cool water. It was so hot outside! The tropical breeze that flowed across the island from the ocean couldn't reach where she was and the heat was intensifying as the sun began to fully rise in the blue sky. 

She slowly undid her ties on her pants and slid them off her legs, opting to keep the white shirt on, just in case anyone should come upon her in the water. Besides, the shirt needed to be clean.. right? Dipping her toes into the water and then hesitating before she backed up a few paces and ran forward diving in and surfacing at a point somewhere in the middle where she couldn't touch bottom.

As she kicked her legs to stay afloat she again took in the beauty of the area. It reminded her of the "Mermaid Lagoon" Back home. The thought of that particular area of water brought back the horrible night with Grayson. The night that Alexi had asked for to marry him. Caitlin tried to brush those thoughts away and began to swim around. She climbed out of the water several times only to jump back in again.  

Her spirits were up and she felt carefree for a moment. She climbed out of the water 'one last time' and climbed up the highest rocks she could find and took a dive off of them. Only, this time her foot slipped and she came crashing towards the water at an awkward angle. As she plunged under the cool water her head hit a slick rock and her world turned black.