Page 41 of The Matchmaker Meets her Duke
He cleared his throat. "Are you all right?"
"Yes, of course." He watched her straighten her spine, her expression cool and guarded.
Hewasn't. He wanted her, there was no denying or making a way around this fact. He wanted her close to him, her hands in his, her body against his. He wanted her so badly, he didn't know what to do with himself.
The sounds of her moans as she gasped and writhed in his arms tonight filled his head, and Emmett adjusted in his seat. Now was not the time to stir his loins with luscious thoughts of the woman seated across from him.
He tried to clear his head as he had done when they had been interrupted before. He thought of boats, cigars, arithmetics, numbers, forests, and woods – no, not woods, beds were made of woods – soap, shampoo – oh, but her hair smelled most heavenly – anything and everything to keep himself still.
"Areyouall right?" said Rose, shifting beside him.
He squeezed out a tight smile. "Of course, dear sister."For heaven's sake,he thought to himself and spoke to his budding erection.Behave yourself, I beg you.
Beside Pandora, a deep scowl was etched on Grandmother's face, her eyebrows knitted in the most thorough of displeasures. Even Emmett did not want to be seated in this coach with her at this moment.
He wanted to be in his Manor. In his wife's chamber, to be most specific. He wanted to peel her clothes away, touch her in her most intimate parts, make her sweat and scream, and tell her his darkest secrets afterward. He would tell her that he had never felt this way about any woman and didn't think that he ever would. He would tell her that he was ready to be done. Done yearning for the approval of a father that he had loved and hated and feared. Done living his life trying to be the opposite of all that Vincent was.
He was done with it all. Now, he just wanted to be with her.
Beside him, Rose sighed and nodded off. They had found her in the uncomfortable dark of the coach, her head pressed against the door, silent. When he reached for her and lifted her face to him, her eyes had been dried and normal, free of sorrow or a hint of pain.
But then he had taken her in his arms and whispered against her ears, "The hostess told us." And just like that, his sister had unraveled, melting against him, her chest-racking sobs splitting her body in two.
Pandora had found them. "Oh, thank goodness," she'd panted. But Rose had only turned her back to her as if his wife had somehow played a part in her broken heart.
Perhaps it was the tension of desire between himself and Pandora. Or Grandmother's hardened look of spitting disdain. Or Rose's air of despair, but the ride back home felt like the longest journey of his entire life. He heard himself heave a relieved sigh as the coach halted to a stop.
He helped the women out. Grandmother, the last to climb out, refused to take his hand. "Grandmother–"
"She put him up to it."
"Who–?"
"Edna! She put that little jackal boy up to it, I tell you!"
Emmett resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Heavens, not this again. "Grandmother, Ashton is hardly a…little boy. And I assure you he needs no pointers from his grandmother when it comes to the affairs of women."
"She put her grandson up to it! And if you had stopped being friends with that scoundrel boy the moment I asked you to then perhaps Rose would not have embarrassed herself tonight, running out of the ballroom as if bit by a snake!"
"Grandmother, can we talk about this tomorrow? It's been a long day. I'm exhausted."
"A snake would have been a better option," Grandmother continued. "Why didn't it bite her before that reprobate young man got up and about to his mischief?"
"Grandmother–"
"Oh, please." She let him help her out, and then promptly withdrew her gloved hand from him, as if he were a pest. "We shall speak more of this tomorrow," she drawled in imperious finality. "I too am exhausted and would like some rest."
ChapterEighteen
Pandora climbed the stairs, her bones creaking and cracking with every step. She was exhausted from the evening, and she wanted nothing more than to put her head to a pillow and fall asleep. Jemima had a tub of hot water waiting for her as she shut the door to her chamber.
Pandora's heart delighted at the idea. She almost clapped her hands and pulled the girl into a hug. "Heavens, just what I need before a good night's sleep," she said as Jemima unfastened the buttons of her dress, and helped her into a bathrobe.
"Tiring day, Your Grace?"
Pandora thought back to the events of the evening, from trying to make her escape from the dowagers to Henrietta unwittingly introducing her to her former fiancé, to Emmett's hands wickedly parting and touching her body, to Henrietta thoughtfully finding them in the garden, and telling them about Ashton and Rose. Her cheeks still warmed with color at the thought of Henrietta finding them like that, feigning oblivion when she hadobviouslybeen aware of what they'd been up to in the dark.
Yes,tiringwas certainly one way to put it.
