Page 57 of Five Nights with a Rakish Duke
I made her a promise, didn’t I?
He had vowed not to take her to bed, even though he longed for it. When they parted from their kiss, she looked as breathless as he felt, with her hair wild around her ears and her gaze constantly flicking back down to his lips.
“You are a torment, Your Grace,” she said, playfully using his formal address again.
“A torment? I’m feeding you chocolate and strawberries,” he pointed out as he placed more kisses to her neck. Her hands lifted and buried themselves in the shirt material around his shoulders, anchoring the two of them together.
“I wasn’t talking about the food!”
“Ah, you were talking about this,” he said before nipping her gently in the crook of her neck. She shivered with excitement in his hold before leaning back away from him a little, connecting their eyes again.
“We should stop,” she said shakily.
“As you wish,” he sighed, gutted that she was pulling away from him. “Well, maybe this is a good time to give you something.”
“What?” she asked in surprise. He leaned away from her, reaching toward the jacket he had discarded over the seat of a nearby plush French chair, pulling it down into his lap. As he pulled the velvet box out of his pocket, he had a quick flash of memory of Dorian asking why on earth he’d bought this gift for Penny in the first place.
I want her to have it.That was the only explanation he needed. He tossed the jacket back behind them and presented the box to her.
“What is this?” she asked, running the velvet covering between her fingers as she looked up to him.
“You’ll have to open it to find that out,” he said with a smile. As she bent her head forward to open it, he steepled his hands together, finding a lump of nerves had suddenly formed within his stomach although he was unsure why.
Please like it.When she lifted the lid, her eyes widened so far that in the firelight they could have been made of liquid gold rather than green.
“Oh my,” she gasped, lifting the necklace out from its confines. “You bought this for me?”
“That is sort of how a gift works,” he chuckled. “Do you like it?” he asked, lowering his hands again.
“Asher… it’s stunning. I’ve never been given anything so…” She broke off, holding the emerald between her fingers. “Staggeringly beautiful.”
“It will match your eyes,” he said. When she looked up to him, that look was so intense, he felt pierced by it. He shifted where he sat.
What is wrong with me? I am suddenly as nervous as I was when I was a young lad!
“This is kind indeed,” she said, her smile turning so great that her cheeks had to ache from it. “Here, help me put it on.” She turned on the rug and passed him the necklace as she held her hair up out of the way. He fastened the necklace, waiting until she turned back around, presenting it to him. “What do you think?”
“Quite beautiful.” His eyes were flicking between the emerald and her eyes; they matched perfectly. She smiled excitedly and stood to her feet, hurrying to the nearest mirror to examine it. He didn’t think he had ever seen her so happy, and with that thought, his nerves dissipated.
That’s all I wanted. To see her smile like that.
When she returned to sit in front of him, she could barely sit still. “I have never had anything like this! It’s incredible,” she gushed as she fiddled with the necklace. “You were right.”
“About what?”
“You certainly know a few things about how to make ladies smile.” Her words made him laugh.
“Well, I usually make ladies smile in other ways. Not like this.”
“You mean, you do not usually give ladies gifts like this?” Her question flummoxed him. He scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably; aware her intense gaze was still on him.
“No, Penny, I do not,” he confessed eventually. There was a beat of silence between them. Nothing was said, yet she moved. Penny lurched forward on her knees and found his lips with hers.
The kiss was ardent, making Asher wrap both arms around her instantly, pulling her body against his. She kissed him with such passion that he was the one leaning back on the rug in danger of falling back onto it at any moment. When she parted from him, she kept her arms around his neck.
“Well, remind me to keep buying you gifts if I get a response like that,” he chuckled before she laughed too and planted another chaste kiss to his lips. The chasteness of it was a torment. When she lifted her lips from him, he longed for more and made his lips travel down her neck again, needing to feel her close.
“Asher?” she whispered.
