Page 26 of Three Nights with the Beastly Duke

“So she says,” Arthur murmured.

“What was that?”

“Shesaysshe is in love with someone else, and yet the mystery man never makes himself known,” he stated articulately. “It’s a fallacy. A way to ensure that I marry you, not her.”

“So, youwantedto marry my sister?” Lavinia asked patiently.

Arthur seemed to start a little in his seat, and then he looked at her again. There was still anger, but not as much.

“Did you?” she asked gently. “Would you rather Rebecca be seated here and not I?”

“I would have rather not got wrapped up in scandal,” he replied. “That is all.”

“As would I,” she agreed. “But it happened, nonetheless. So, I ask you once more. Please listen to what I have to say.”

Arthur studied her suspiciously a moment more, then nodded. Knowing she wasn’t going to get much more than that, Lavinia continued.

“I was trying to save my sister, yes,” she admitted. “But when you kissed me that first night, I felt something. I think you did, too.”

“I did,” Arthur admitted. “But then, you had to go through with that garish act at the Conservatory ball, and I realized you had played me a fool.”

“I did not,” Lavinia urged calmly, leaning forward. “Or perhaps in a way I did. But it was arealkiss, Arthur.”

“You had a choice,” he bit back, his eyes glittering with anger. “You didn’t have to take such an intense course of action.”

“I hadnochoice!” she replied vehemently, leaning forward and putting a bold hand on his knee. “My sister needed her freedom, and I-I was beginning to realize I was drawn to you.”

He scoffed again, rolling his eyes. “You honestly want me to believe thatyou,Miss Prim and Perfect, wanted to kissme?That you were drawn tome?I may be an outcast, Lavinia, but I am not desperate enough to believe such lies.”

“I did want to kiss you, Arthur,” Lavinia whispered, her eyes pleading with him to hear the truth. “You may choose not to believe if that is your wish, but itismy truth. And I know you’ve been mad at me. I know you’ve pushed me away because of your displeasure over my actions, but believe me when I say that memories of our kiss and the way it made me feel have stolen every spare thought that I have. Not because of how ashamed or how poorly I felt about it, but because I wanted you to kiss me again.”

Lavinia hated the silence that filled the carriage the next quarter hour or so, but she had said her piece, and she had vowed to herself to allow Arthur to do the same.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity of wasted time, Arthur spoke.

“Do you still want to kiss me now?” he asked, staring directly into her eyes.

Lavinia felt hope rise in her, and she smiled at him. “Yes,” she breathed. “I very much do.”

Arthur’s coiled-up body language slowly unwound, and he moved from the seat across from her to the seat beside her. Lavinia immediately felt the warmth of his much larger body radiate off him, and the tension she didn’t even realize she was holding began to release. Her shoulders began to ease away from her ears, her stomach unknotted, and she felt her first true, deep breath of the day fill her lungs.

Arthur looked at her with tenderness,truetenderness, not the false emotion he’d emitted throughout the day. It had fooled everyone else, to be sure. But it hadn’t fooled her.Thislook was real.

They held one another’s gaze as he slowly reached out to her face and gently stroked her cheek with his knuckles. It was a soft, feathery touch that felt far too gentle to be caused by such calloused, worked fingers. And yet… it was.

Not wanting to make any subtle movements, Lavinia slowly rubbed her cheek against his hand, wanting him to know it was all right. A soft smile touched his lips, and he stroked her cheek again, this time with the pad of his thumb. He started close to her ear, stroking the baby-haired smoothness of her cheek, then slowly moved downward until his thumb caressed her lips.

A spark of delicious electricity ran through her as he touched her bottom lip, and she gasped softly. Her eyes darted to the scar that surrounded his left eye, and she longed to reach out and trace the delicate white lines that highlighted the old wound. She wanted to press kisses along every trace of it, putting to test all of the fairytales she read growing up that swore on the magic of a good heart and make his scar fade away.

As if sensing she was about to speak of such things, Arthur’s thumb traveled to her chin, and he dipped his head to hers. Pleasure rushed through her as their lips met, and beneath her corset, she felt her nipples harden suddenly. Arthur let out a low, heady moan as he deepened their kiss and brought her body closer to his, moving her with ease into his lap.

Much closer now, Arthur brought his hand up to the nape of Lavinia’s neck, and he cradled her head in his large hand as his kiss forced her lips to open wide and reveal her tongue. She whimpered in pleasure as she felt his lips suck the tip of her tongue into his mouth, and she trembled in pleasure when his tongue danced over her own.

Lavinia’s world became dizzy with pleasure, and she felt herself begin to cling to Arthur as if he were the only thing that could steady her.

As suddenly as the kiss had started, however, it stopped. Arthur pulled away from her so abruptly, his chest heaving, that it made Lavinia’s head spin, and she had to brace herself against the carriage wall to steady herself. With one hand, she pressed her palm to her chest and found her heart beating rapidly. Was it as confused as she was?

“What’s wrong?” she rasped, moving her hand from her heart to her head.

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