Page 23 of Her Wicked Duke
Could he ask his best friend to return so he would not have to protect Anne? He could not confess his longing for Anne to him, no. He had to think of another reason.
He gathered his writing supplies, sank into his chair, placed a blank piece of parchment in front of him, and then dipped a quill in the inkpot.
Dear Christian,
I write to you following Anne’s first ball of the Season, regarding your request to protect her. We have been best friends since our school days, Christian, but this time, I must go back on my word to watch over her. I have desired her since that first Christmas I spent at your home?—
Alexander made an annoyed noise as he crumpled the letter.
He must not get sidetracked by his desire for Anne.
He wrote several drafts, only to crumple each one. He wrote and wrote and wrote, and soon, he was horrified to find that he had written a letter detailing why and what he desired about Anne.
I desire her in the dark of the night, but I seek her company just as much beneath an afternoon sun in broad daylight. I desire her kisses as well as her embraces.
Alexander gritted his teeth and crumpled his recent attempt. He slumped back in his chair, tossing his confessions into the fireplace behind him. Nobody needed to find them.
Anne’s presence in the stables earlier had been a surprise, but he did not want her to have the satisfaction of thinking she had caught him unawares. Stupidly, he had assumed she had come so he would make good on his promise of pleasure. And oh, he would. He would fulfill that promise to her, he swore it to himself.
He just wished she would stop pushing him away each time he tried to get close. He knew when a woman wanted him, and Anne did. Otherwise, she would not have kissed him back. He could take advantage of protecting her to show her what real desire could be like. Not the fumbling of hands she had seen the Earl of Satton do.
Sure, Alexander was popular enough, but he only wanted Anne. He wanted to make her forget her name and know only his in the darkness of the night. He wanted to hear the sounds of her pleasure.
Alexander hungered for her, his appetite endless, but he wanted to know how she might desire him, too. Did she have an appetite for heartless, dangerous dukes?
He smiled to himself as he folded his hands on his desk.
Within minutes, he was moving again, standing by his window, which overlooked the apple orchard, where he had kissed her. He closed his eyes, remembering the feeling of her petite but shapely body beneath his hands. How close he had been to demanding more of her. There was something delicious about the fury that had sparked in her eyes—the fury and desire colliding in a dance that he loved to partake in.
And if Anne hated him, it would only make their passion that much more searing.
When Alexander returned to his desk, he picked up his pieces of charcoal, opened his sketchbook, and began to draw the pout that she had sported when he had refused her request for protection. He had been teasing her, of course. He wanted her to work for it.
But the pout she had given in response had melted his heart, driven him crazy. He had wanted to bite it, take it into his mouth, and know what else she had been willing to give him.
Alexander sketched Anne’s face, her freshly kissed, swollen, plush lips. Her half-lidded eyes.
He just about stopped himself from going so far as to draw the swell of her breasts.
“I will take care of you, Anne,” he whispered to his empty study.
Grabbing another blank piece of paper, he wrote a letter to her.
Chapter Eight
Alexander leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Do you regret asking for my protection yet?”
He looked too smug when Anne gently hit his forearm with her fan.
They entered Clarice’s residence.
“I thought you were not coming,” Anne muttered.
“Of course, I always was,” Alexander answered airily. “You asked me to accompany you to social events, and I promised your brother.”
“Ah, you remember that promise now.” She hummed as she smiled at her friend, who approached her. “All right,Suitor, chaperone me appropriately. Sit with the other men while we gossip about you.”
Alexander scoffed. “You shall not get rid of me so easily, Pretty Hatson.”
