Page 25 of Trapped with the Forbidden Duke
“I wasirkedby you,” he corrected.
“And yet you are in my house, helping me, so I could not have irked you too badly.”
All the while, she could not stop thinking of how he had admitted to liking her attire that night. Despite how low the neckline of her dress had been, leaving her uncomfortable, a part of her was satisfied.
Edwina looked at the Duke, held his gaze, and raised a honey-smeared thumb to her lips, delicately licking it clean. She could not fight a triumphant smile as his gaze darkened.
Perhaps it was because he provided her with a distraction from her incessant worries, or because he was helping, or because of the ghost of their kiss, which she craved to taste again, but she felt emboldened.
“Careful,” he warned. “You do not wish to push me in such ways, My Lady.”
“How so?” she asked, overly sweet.
“I told you I am not usually tempted by virgins,” he reminded her. “And you are seducing me, again.”
“I am merely enjoying my breakfast.”
He set down his teacup with more force than necessary, the weight of his attention resting on her completely.
“If you wish to find out who I am when I am provoked, Lady Edwina, then do continue. But I cannot guarantee it will not be… overwhelming.”
Her breath danced over a laugh. “I am not easily overwhelmed, Your Grace.”
His eyes darkened. He stood up and walked over to her in slow, patient strides. Each one made her heart thump harder.
He loomed over her, staying silent, only letting her feel the weight of his unrelenting focus. Planting one hand on the table next to her plate, he leaned closer to her.
She met his gaze fiercely even though everything in her screamed at her to look away.
“See, your pride as Lady Edwina demands that you challenge me,” he murmured, “but I can see the woman beneath who wishes to give in. To know what it might feel like. To revel in what you let yourself think of so rarely.”
“Do you make a habit of being so forward with ladies?”
“I believe you are enjoying it.”
“How so?”
“You are breathless,” he told her, his voice low. “Affected. Tell me, is that why you did not say anything in the carriage last night? Because you knew that one word out of your mouth, in your state, would have given you away?”
Edwina was speechless, her body heating up at how he riled her up. He was merely teasing, surely.
“Perhaps you are breathless because you were thinking of how we ran into one another in the hallway yesterday,” the Duke continued.
A flash of his muscular back flitted through her mind. The torso she had gotten a generous view of, the muscles of his hips disappearing into his breeches…
She swallowed, and he smirked.
His face came closer, and she could only think about tasting his kiss once more. His hand rose, moving towards her face. Only for the sound of someone clearing their throat to have him redirect it and make a show of reaching for a plum cake, as if that had been his intention.
They both turned to see Mr. Calloway in the doorway.
“Lady Edwina, Lady Isabel Vaughan has arrived.”
Aunt Isabel?
Edwina was on her feet, anticipating the arrival of her aunt before the butler could even step aside to let her in. And then her aunt appeared, her face already split into a wide grin.
“My dear niece!” Isabel cried out, pushing past the butler. “Oh,Heavens, you poor thing! Oh, look at the squalor you have been left in. Have you noticed the wear on your furniture as you enter the house? It is most humiliating to know that these are theconditions my niece lives in. Oh, mydarling! You must hug your aunt!”
