Page 8 of Taken By the Duke of Stone

That knowledge did nothing to stop the accusation from flying out of her mouth, "You were spying on me!"

The Duke blinked. "You intruded on my private sanctuary. It may come as a surprise to you, but I did not intentionally come out after you and skulk around to listen to your deepest, darkest secrets."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Simple courtesy would have been making your presence known, instead of- as you say it- skulking around, Your Grace."

A warning voice inside her head was urging her to retreat. This was no way to talk to one of the highest title holders in the country, but her forthrightness had always been one of her biggest flaws.

"I should keep you around, my lady," he mocked. "You are simply divine for my ego. First you call me a bumbling fool and now you call me a skulker. Whatever shall I be accused of next?"

"Are you mocking me?"

"Of course not, my lady," he drew back in feigned shock. "A gentleman would never do such a thing."

"You are no gentleman!" she hissed.

"I take offence at that."

"It was my intention that you do."

He pressed a hand against his chest, "you wound me with your callous words, my lady."

Something about the way he called her his lady brought an odd sensation in her stomach. They were words she had heard so often, but from his mouth, they felt... different.

"I am not your lady!" She said, her voice acidic enough to flay skin, "And you can stop pretending that you're- you're-

"I see that you have finally run out of vocabulary?"

Oh how dare he?

He probably expected to trip over her own feet in her haste to keep herself on his good side. She had always thought men with power were the most horrid of men, and The Duke of Wyld had just proved that theory right.

Despite having a face carved by a master sculptor and a body that made his finely made clothes look even more luxuriant, he was completely foul on the inside.

She stomped her foot. "You are a vile man, duke or not."

He tsked at her, "I would take your words to heart, but I believe they are the result of your overly cinched corset."

Her mouth dropped open in wordless shock. So he had really heard her. He was the most condescending man on the planet.

"It is not polite to say such a thing," she said through clenched teeth. If she were a man, she would have called out the Duke by now.

But alas, she wasn't a man.

Lavinia wondered if his nature was just to be impossibly rude or if it had to do with the fact that he was a tad above societal norms.

"What is polite to say then, my lady?" He leaned closer, voice an intimate purr that made her breathe seize in her chest.

This close, his scent filled her lungs; leather, spice and man. He smelled like the wild and the combination with his looming size was lethal. Her throat felt curiously dry and she swallowed.

"You are impossible and I shall not spend one more second out here with you," she wagged a finger at him, trying to hide how her voice trembled beneath censure.

"Running, my lady?" There was a challenge in his eyes that she tried her best to ignore.

Lavinia wanted to deny the accusation but the words wouldn't leave her mouth. She parted her lips but only a shaky breath escaped.

The Duke's eyes dropped down to her mouth and all of a sudden, there was an unusual tightening at the bottom of her belly.

"No," she finally said.

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