Page 9 of Five Nights with a Rakish Duke
The touch made her flinch in pain and close her eyes. The pain was so much that it took a minute for her to realize just how the stranger was touching her. It was gentle, with a soothing motion of his fingers brushing in a circle. Once done, he dropped the loose leaves to the ground and dutifully lowered her skirt, until her calves were concealed from view.
She tried not to look too sad at the loss of his touch. “There,” he said with happiness. “All done.” When he smiled, she couldn’t help returning it.
“At last!”
“At last, what?”
“There is that smile I was hoping for before,” he said, pointing to her face. She tried to stop the smile, but it pulled at her cheeks regardless. He seemed to notice her internal struggle, for he chuckled again. “See? I am not a wholly bad man.”
“Perhaps not, but you are a risk,” she said softly. Feeling guilty for having been curt to him before and walking away from him back at the soiree, she hung her head a little.
“What is life without a little risk?” he asked, smirking. “It gives life… excitement.”
“You are quite an unusual man,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief.
“At least that makes me interesting.” He smiled with the words and rocked back on his knees a little.
“Interesting? Oh! I see you are a proud man too,” she said, watching as he chuckled.
“Still perceptive, Madam, for I am.” He leaned toward her again. “So, you have made a rather apt summary of my character this evening. Proud, unusual, rakish…”
“It is odd how you do not deny that.”
“What would be the point in denying it?” he said with mischief and gestured to himself. “Is there anything else you’d like to add to my character description tonight?”
Penelope paused with her lips parted as she stared at the man. She could remember her father warning her to be wary of such rakish men who only possessed selfish intentions.
‘They do not have a kind bone in their bodies, Penny. Remember that!’Yet, the man before her was challenging that. He had stayed with her when the Earl of Shrewsbury had turned and fled. He had also warned her about the Earl’s ways. On top of that, he had helped her with the wasp sting and provided her with honeysuckle leaves to fight off infection.
“Kind,” she said, adding to her list, watching as the stranger lifted his eyebrows in surprise. “You are kind too.”
“I can be very kind, Madam,” he said, slowly standing to his feet. He offered her his hand, helping her to stand. She took it, longing for his touch again after it had left her leg. “If you will permit me, there are other ways that I can make you smile.”
“I have a feeling I should run from you right now, back to the soiree and escape,” she said quietly.
“Yet you are staying here beside me with your hand in mine,” he whispered to her. “Is desire so bad, Madam, that you wish to run from it?”
Desire?She had no words to answer him and just stared up at him with her lips parted. It certainly felt like desire, with heat creeping across her skin and a wetness developing between her legs, but she had never felt it before.
“If you’d allow me to show you.”
Unlike when the Earl of Shrewsbury had leaned toward her, this made Penelope’s heartbeat race. She waited exactly where she was, feeling the heat of his palm in hers and holding her breath as he closed his eyes and placed his lips on hers.
The kiss was soft at first. She let the kiss continue, feeling the gentleness of his lips on hers. As he playfully bit her bottom lip, she gasped into the touch, and things grew heated.
She was not prepared for the way his other hand slid up across her back and pulled her into him until her body was nestled against his, nor for the way he claimed her tongue with his own. Yet she loved every minute of it. There was a thrill to it, excitement as well, that made heat travel up her body, flushing her chest and cheeks, until she was clinging to his hand that connected them, yearning for the kiss to continue.
Then she shifted her weight and felt the pain of the bee sting in the back of her knee. It reminded her of everything that had just taken place. She had come outside with the Earl of Shrewsbury and was now kissinganother man.They were unchaperoned, transgressing, and she didn’t even know who she was transgressing with.
Penelope snapped her lips away from his and pushed hard in his chest, separating the two of them so fast that she nearly fell over the stone bench behind her. She flung a hand to her lips, still basking in the tingling sensation he’d left there as she tried to stop herself from stumbling.
The silver-eyed stranger was staring at her with a smile on his face, despite how harshly she had pushed him away. “Well, that I was not expecting.”
She couldn’t make sense of his words, and she didn’t want to stay any longer to find out. She dropped his hand, walked around the bench, and hurried toward the stone steps in desperation to escape him.
“Wait, don’t go now!” he said, calling after her. He ran behind her, trying to catch her up on the steps.
“Shh,” she said waving her hand, glancing up to the top terrace in fear that some of the other people outside would see them.
