Page 48 of A Deal with her Forbidden Duke
His teasing continued after that, and Alexander took every moment he could to rile her up.
“Your blushing is incredibly pretty, Madeleine,” he told her one night after he had cornered her against her chamber’s door, right as they retired for the night. “Shall I take you to bed tonight to see what other parts of you I might turn red?”
Her mouth tightened as she flushed, turning away from him. “It is the wine. Do not flatter yourself, Your Grace.”
He would only laugh as he walked into his own rooms. He goaded her but never pressured her. She bit her lip every time he riled her up, teased her in such scandalous ways.
In the drawing room, when they had a moment before a footman called Alexander away for business, he would trail his touch over her shoulder. He would meet her gaze when they read together in the library, his fingers teasing through the spine of the book, dipping the tips into the gap left between the binding and the pages.
“Do you always defile your books, or only the ones you truly like?” she asked several days after he had pinned her in the hedge maze. “If you cannot read the books you do not need to—to do such…”
Her voice trailed off when he saw how he looked at her.
“So pretty,” he muttered to himself before turning his attention. “This book, I mean. It has pretty verses.”
“Your ears have turned red. You wish to undo me, but perhaps you are closer to such a state than I am.”
He scowled at her, and Madeleine continued reading, feeling victorious.
“Madeleine?” Alexander asked after a moment.
“Yes?”
“You are beautiful in this light.”
And she did not know what to say to that; he had rendered her speechless. Women like her, trapped in marriages to men like Lord Kinsfeld, were not complimented in such ways. But the duke… he looked at her as though hetrulylooked at her. As though she was the only thing worth looking at.
It twisted her heart, and she did not know what to do with such behavior.
He is only doing it to cause a reaction in me, she thought.I will not satisfy that.
“And you are handsome in darkness.”
Much to her annoyance, Alexander only laughed loudly. “My, do I enjoy your tongue.”
Chapter Sixteen
“You are looking particularly weary today, Alexander.”
“Oh, do not start, Horace.”
Alexander sank into the chair opposite Horace’s desk in his office in the Raven’s Den. Papers were scattered over the surface in a messy array. A few piles were placed, as if he had begun to organize the mess, but not continued.
“What keeps you awake at night as of late? Could it be your wife?”
Alexander had finally managed to turn his thoughts off from Madeleine and her sun-soaked hair that spilled over her shoulder, her wide, imploring eyes, and how she blushed deliciously whenever he teased her.
He did not know what had come over him lately. The need to flirt with her, to rile her, had overtaken him. But the things hesuggested—the way she responded—had him awake most nights, aching for her.
He honored his word, though. The door that connected their rooms would remain firmly shut until he had a clear invitation.
But for now, he had turned his focus elsewhere: his gambling hall. Silverton to London wasn’t a long journey, and he had neglected his business for far too long.
Outside the office, the usual chaos of noise filled the several levels, and he relished it for a moment.
“Silverton Hall gets too quiet,” he noted, closing his eyes. “Sometimes, I miss the noise from here.”
“You chose to marry,” Horace reminded him lightly.
