Page 62 of Trapped with the Forbidden Duke
How had she forgotten just how he towered over her?
“Yes?” she bit out.
“I…” He paused, inhaling deeply. His jaw clenched. “I only wished to say goodnight. I will not disturb you.”
He made to move past her, but she blocked his path.
“I do not have the plague, you know,” she said, her words clipped. “If you come near me, you will not catch anything. Yet, you avoid me as though you think you will.”
“It is you who has hurried away from me,” he pointed out. “I was merely mirroring your actions. I thought you did not wish to be around me.”
“I am not the one who has been sneaking down hallways or changing paths abruptly to avoid you.”
Lucien’s eyes searched her face. She noticed that, despite the fire in them, he appeared tired.
“What have you been doing these last few days?” Edwina asked, studying him further, if only to prevent her eyes from flicking to his partially bare chest.
Already, her palms were sweating, knowing that he was partially bare and so near her.
“That is none of your business.”
“I overheard you speaking with your solicitor.”
“My business meetings are not your concern, Edwina.”
“I am your wife.”
“In name only.”
“Is that the only way you wish to take a wife?” she murmured, tilting her head back to look him in the eye.
Warning bells went off in her head. She had attempted to tease him twice before and had suffered the sting of rejection, but she could not help herself. Not when he looked like that. Not whenhe gazed at her with the same longing he once had in the parlor of Montgomery Manor as his hands slipped beneath her skirts. Not when he had pulled away from their kiss and had looked utterly wrecked, unable to fight his desires.
“It is the only way you wish to be taken as a wife, is it not?” he replied.
“You assume. Have you ever asked?”
Lucien paused before gazing coolly at her. “Should I have?”
“I do not understand.”
“Would I have received an answer that changes anything between us?”
“Perhaps. You kissed me before we were wed,” she whispered, hurt and confused. “What has changed?”
“I do not have to explain myself to you.” Lucien’s words were clipped, and he looked skyward before meeting her eyes once more. “Do not… Do not toy with me, Edwina. I do not have the means?—”
“Then give in to whatever it is you want.”
“Do you know what it is you truly ask for?” His question lingered between them.
Before Edwina could tell him that she had thought of how his body had felt against hers ever since that day she had sat astride him, his kisses making her see the very heavens and stars, he backed her up against the wall.
Her back hit the stone roughly, and she bit back a yelp. He grabbed her wrists in one hand, keeping her anchored to him. A heady thrill went through her as her breath left her lips in shaky bursts.
“Answer me,” he pressed, lowering his face to hers. She could not look away from his lips. “Do you know what it is you have asked for?”
“Yes,” she whispered, trying to arch into him, but he kept his body away from hers.
