Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Do what is expected in order to have the luxury to do the unexpected. My mouth falls open. It was Lady Tillsbury who ensured I was granted entry this evening? By Winters’ order? Good grief, will women do anything he demands? I cock her a look, and she just smiles. ‘We won’t be allowed to re-enter.’
‘Yes, we will,’ he assures me, marching on. ‘Let us find that air you need before you fall at my feet.’ He peeks down at me. ‘We wouldn’t want that, now, would we?’
‘You are a disgrace.’
‘So I’m told.’
We make it outside, and, I must say, regardless of the additional reason that I now have to panic – namely, the Duke – the fresh air is welcomed, and I drink it in urgently. ‘I could not bear it in there any longer.’
‘That is not surprising given the company you were being forced to keep.’ The Duke, hands linked behind his back, paces up and down before me, his face, which is pointing down at his boots, hidden, but I can detect the heaviness of his brow. He is thinking, so very deeply, I’m sure. I would love to know what his thoughts are but dare not ask.
‘Why are you here?’ I say instead.
‘I am an annual subscriber.’
I laugh under my breath. ‘You?’
‘Yes, me. I can see you find that hard to believe.’
‘Of course I do! Of all the people in London who are likely to be blackballed, it would be you.’
‘Why is that, Miss Melrose?’ he asks, looking up at me in question. ‘Because I’m a murderer? A rake? An ass?’
‘All,’ I reply, lifting my chin. ‘All except a murderer.’
‘That’s ironic, for I should like to murder you sometimes.’
I recoil, offended. ‘That’s rich. I risked my life to save yours.’
‘My life does not need saving. I am happy being––’
‘Hated?’
His eyes narrow to dangerous slits and fire burns in their green depths that holds me mesmerised momentarily. Then he steps forward, snapping me out of my trance. ‘Do you hate me, Miss Melrose?’
My chest swells with the size of my inhale. ‘Or perhaps the patronesses approve you because they all want one night with the Duke.’
‘Undoubtedly,’ he whispers. ‘What about you, Miss Melrose? Do you want one night with the Duke?’
‘No,’ I all but whisper, my body starting to tingle in that delicious way it does when the Duke is close by, and the more I feel these tingles, the more utterly intrigued I am by what other sensations he could ignite with a kiss.
‘You do not lie well.’
My back presses into the cold bricks behind me as he nears, his tall, athletic frame imposing and threatening. ‘I am not lying,’ I whisper, my voice surprisingly strong for my tense situation. His chest is only an inch from mine, and the pumping of both will have them brushing if he comes much closer.
‘That is a pity.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I have tried my damned hardest to stay away from you.’ His eyes drop unapologetically to my breasts and his hand smooths my dark locks where they rest, wickedly skimming my flesh with his fingertip.
‘Your Grace,’ I whisper jaggedly.
‘You don’t want this?’ he asks with a flick of his eyes to mine. His wicked tongue strokes the length of his bottom lip, and my body goes up in flames. My God, what is this torture? ‘You don’t want me to kiss you?’ His mouth descends and his breath spreads across my cheeks, his lips hovering over mine. Desire overcomes me. Tingles and throbs attack me. I fear if I did not have this wall behind me, I would crumple to the ground. I have experienced want before with this man – the intense, uncontrollable reactions in my body attacking me, but now, I fear, I have a craving on an entirely different level, and when the Duke’s hips press forward and I feel his desire too, I succumb to the forbidden. Many thoughts run amok in my tangled mind, but one in particular is shouting the loudest. If I am to be punished so terribly, then I might as well make the crime one worth the punishment being imposed upon me, and secret meetings with a disgraced, handsome, forbidden duke is not a crime fit for my punishment. I shall make it fit. If I am to be imprisoned forever and die a death of unfulfilment, boredom and unhappiness, I should like some memories to take with me. I remember how aloof the Duke was just yesterday. How he looked at me with a confusing mix of admiration and scorn. But I also remember the way he has touched me. Burned for me. I have seen it in his deep green eyes. I cannot with good conscience leave my life not knowing what it is like to be kissed by him. I cannot!