Page 63 of The Heiress Gets a Duke
But that didn’t matter now. She had to concentrate. “I came to tell you that I will not be at dinner tonight.”
He stared at her before finally asking, “Are you all right?”
“Yes... no...” His brows drew together in concern. “Physically, yes, I am fine.”
Her answer seemed to relax him. He sat back, his arms draped over the sides of the tub. “Something has happened. Tell me.”
The position elongated his torso, making her eyes drift downward, taking in the line of hair that trailed down his belly and disappeared beneath the soapy water. The water was cloudy but still reasonably transparent. If she took one or two steps closer, she would no doubt be able to see what he had hiding down there. There was a ripple beneath the water. It was a slight tremor that had her gaze jerking up to meet his.
“Tell me,” he prompted, shifting and raising a knee to further shield that part of himself from her. The limb was muscled and covered in tawny curls. She had sat on his thighs, but she had the urge to touch him with her hand and determine if those muscles were as hard as they seemed.
“Right, yes.” She closed her eyes and forced herself to turn around. Staring at him made every pulse point in her body throb so that she couldn’t think. Turning around was the only proper thing to do and what she should have done immediately instead of standing there ogling him. “I will not be at dinner.” She could not bear to face her parents so soon, and if it was true that he was leaving, then she wanted things clear between them before he went. “But I need to meet with you. Alone. Tonight.”
He was silent for so long that she nearly turned around. “All right. After dinner, then?”
“No.” She shook her head for added emphasis. Her gaze caught on the dressing gown thrown casually over the back of a chair. It was a deep red and decidedly masculine, and she knew immediately that it would smell just like him. “I would prefer that we not be disturbed. Let’s plan to meet in the library tonight after everyone has retired for the evening.”
She left before he could agree or disagree.
Chapter 18
Generally speaking, it is injudicious for ladies to attempt arguing with gentlemen on political or financial topics.
Eliza Leslie
Evan rose as soon as the library door opened late that night. True to her word, August had not been seen after leaving his bedroom. Her mother had made August’s excuses at dinner, saying that she had taken to her bed with a headache. Something must have happened between them. Evan would have been a fool not to suspect it was about marrying him. He had wanted to demand answers from her parents but had decided to honor August’s request and wait to talk to her. Now that she was here, his body hummed with expectancy.
She appeared in the doorway and gave him a quick once-over as if she half expected him to be nude as he had been in the bath. A tremor of pure desire coiled and tightened low in his gut as he recalled the way she had looked at him as he sat in the tub, obviously curious. She closed the door, and he took in the emerald dressing gown she wore. The velvet hugged the curve of her backside and her breasts, nipping in at her waist. He had never seen her without acorset and had only ever imagined the shape of her natural form. Though she was fully covered from wrists to slippered feet to the buttons that went up her neck, his blood heated and thickened.
As soon as the door closed, her demeanor changed. Her eyes hardened with determination, and her shoulders went back, full of confidence. When she crossed to the table, it was reminiscent of their very first encounter in the Ashcroft drawing room.
“Good evening,” he said.
“Good evening.” She laid down a single piece of cream parchment that appeared to have come from the desk set in her room.
“Would you care for a drink?” He indicated the tumbler of whisky on the table before him.
She shook her head to refuse, but her lips trembled. “Actually, yes, I will have one.”
He nodded and poured her a drink at the sideboard. When he returned, he walked around the table and offered it to her. The tips of her fingers brushed his as she accepted it, sending a tendril of pleasure up his arm. “Will you tell me what happened?”
She shook her head. “It hardly matters. It was simply pointed out to me that the time has come for a decision.”
Bloody hell. Her parents had interfered when they should have left it to him. She took a healthy sip and made a face before continuing. “Since my decisions have been made for me, I am left only with my will to negotiate.” The bitterness in her voice was unmistakable, and it was punctuated by her deliberate and efficient movements as she set the crystal down and turned her attention to the parchment before her.
Instead of returning to his chair at the other end of the table, he sat in the one near her. “I agreed to allow you to leave at the end of the week if you choose with no further harassment on my part.”
She appeared not to listen. Her eyes skimmed over whatever she had written as he spoke.
“August?” He could not resist covering her hand withhis. She was cold, but her skin was smooth as silk and nearly as delicate. “I will not force you to wed me.”
She met his gaze then, hers full of a mix of anger and pain. “Lucky for you, my parents are willing to handle that nasty little task.”
“Have they threatened you?” Fury roared to life inside him. How dare they attempt to usurp him in this? The marriage was their decision, not her parents’ to force and manipulate.
Bitterness twisted her lips, and she moved her hand from beneath his. It appeared all the progress they had made had been lost. “You could say that. I was told that if I don’t marry you, then I have no position at Crenshaw Iron. It’s funny, because if I do marry you, then I have no position at Crenshaw Iron. How wonderfully that works out for you.”
God, no. This is not what he had wanted to happen. Perhaps originally when he had been an arrogant imbecile who had not considered that a woman such as her would not want to marry him, he had thought it would hardly matter how she made her way down the aisle; but now it was very possibly the worst thing her parents could have done. He did not want her to be forced. And then there was the fact that things had been very good between them over the last several days. She had warmed to him, and while she might not have been ready to agree to marriage, he could see that she was considering it in a new light.
