Page 28 of Bound to the Heartless Duke
Lily’s heart was pounding hard, and she began to fear for her ribs. The Duke’s eyes were dark with desire, and she ached to know what he was thinking.
“I should…” she finally managed to murmur. “I should go.”
She swallowed past the hard lump in her throat.
He stayed quiet. Then, he removed his hand from the wall and stood to his full height. He stared into her eyes, making her almost squirm.
“I…” she tried to speak again.
She itched to know what he was thinking but knew if she stayed in his presence any longer, breathing in his delicious scent, she might do something irresponsible like kiss him again.
“Right,” he said, his voice low and husky.
He took a step back, and Lily was finally able to breathe in the air without getting choked by his scent.
“Right,” he said again.
She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself like she hadn’t just been so close to tumbling with the Duke. She wanted to scurry away, but she couldn’t even move.
What was he thinking? Was he regretting what they had just done? Did he also wish he could turn back time to undo what they had just done?
She was curious, but she couldn’t ask him.
She felt the blood rushing to her face, and she started to turn away.
Why wouldn’t he say something?
On the other hand, she didn’t know if she would be able to handle hearing his voice again without melting. He was looking straight at her, and she could almost feel his eyes on her face.
She cleared her throat, collecting herself.
“Excuse me.” Her voice was low, much lower than she had intended. “Your Grace.”
“Right,” he uttered as she turned to leave.
She couldn’t wait to be in the comfort of her bedroom, where she could finally be alone. She took slow, deliberate steps towards her bedroom door, still feeling his eyes on her back. Once she rounded the corner, she took a deep breath.
Magnus could still taste her on his lips as he returned to his study. He shut the door behind him and leaned against it, asking himself what he had been thinking, kissing her like that, where they could have been easily caught.
He wondered how she felt about it. Did she like it, or did she wish she had smacked him across the face, but only held back because of her predicament?
He walked to his desk and leaned against it, trying to push the image of her face, her heavy-lidded eyes, and the taste of her lips out of his mind. For once, he wished she had fought back and knocked some sense into him.
He took a deep breath to fill his lungs and exhaled her scent, but it seemed like it had followed him into the study.
Was she really on a quest to drive him mad?
He took some time to think about what this meant.
How would things be between them, now that they had kissed? How would he face her without reverting to his cold demeanor? What kind of a man would she think he was now? Would she think he was only taking advantage of her while she was emotionally vulnerable?
He clenched his fist, inwardly berating himself for not getting out of that situation when he had the chance. And for telling her to stop him if she wanted to.
But then she hadn’t stopped him. Had she wanted it as much as he did?
He sighed and shook his head. That shouldn’t matter. The fact remained that he shouldn’t have kissed her. He shouldn’t have let the tension between them build up so much that he couldn’t escape it when he had to.
He had declared that all he wanted was to help her find a wealthy husband as soon as possible so she could pay off her brother’s debt. That was exactly what she had come to him for, and that was what he was going to help her with. He shouldn’t be entertaining romantic notions, especially not while they were living under the same roof.
