Page 31 of Her Runaway Duke
She could only nod stiffly. “Levi,” she whispered softly, which only seemed to agitate him further as he continued to stalk toward her slowly until he was standing right before her.
He reached out with his gloved hand, taking her fingers within his before slowly drawing them toward him, lifting them to his face before planting a kiss on her index finger, right where the rose had pricked her.
A flush of heat began spreading through Siena’s veins, from where he touched her to every part of her body as her skin began to tingle with the imagining of what it would be like to feel his lips elsewhere upon her.
“Better?” he asked, his voice rough, and she nodded.
“Better,” she tried to reply, only it seemed her voice had disappeared with her senses so heightened.
She tilted her chin up to his searching gaze, her heart thudding against her ribs, each beat resonating through her body. The air around them crackled with tension, the warmth of his breath mingling with hers. The weight of his gaze on her held a magnetic pull that drew her closer to him.
Levi seemed torn between desire and restraint, his hand lingering on hers, the touch sending shivers down her spine. Siena found herself holding her breath, caught in the intensity of the moment.
Without breaking eye contact, Levi slowly traced a finger along her jawline, his touch feather-light yet searing hot against her skin. Siena's heartbeat quickened as she leaned into his touch, a silent plea for more. His thumb brushed against her lower lip, causing her to part them slightly in response.
The world around them seemed to fade away as they stood there in the middle of the woods, enveloped in this well-tended garden that was so at odds with the natural landscape around them.
Without a word, Levi closed the remaining distance between them, capturing her lips in a searing kiss.
The world spun around Siena as his arms encircled her, pulling her closer to his powerful frame. The sensation of his lips moving against hers sent a jolt of electricity through her entire body, igniting a fire within her as she lost herself into him, forgetting who she was as she became one with him instead of two separate people.
Siena’s heart pounded in her chest as she allowed herself to be swept away by the moment, forgetting the rest of the world. She ran her fingers through his dark hair, the soft strands entwining with her delicate touch.
Their kiss deepened, becoming more urgent and passionate as they clung to each other under the canopy of the trees above them. Siena felt a sense of freedom she had never experienced before, a liberation from the constraints of society and expectations that had bound her for so long.
As surprisingly as he had kissed her, he released her abruptly, and she nearly fell backward with the intensity of the moment. Siena gasped, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she tried to gather her bearings. Levi stood before her, his gaze intense and unreadable, his own breath ragged.
"Siena," he began, his voice rough with emotion, "I shouldn't have done that."
Confusion tugged at her features as she searched his face for any sign of what he truly felt. "Levi, I?—"
But before she could finish, he turned away from her, his back now facing her. A pang of hurt mixed with longing filled heras she watched him walk a few steps away, clearly battling some inner turmoil.
"Forgive me," he murmured, the words barely audible over the rustling leaves in the quiet glade.
Siena took a hesitant step towards him, her heart aching as the distance between them felt so much greater than it had before he had kissed her.
“There is nothing to forgive,” she said. “If I hadn’t wanted your touch, then perhaps, but I…”
She floundered, having no experience with such emotion, nor how to put into words what she was feeling. She hardly knew herself. All she knew was that she had enjoyed his touch, craved more of it, and she was surprised by the unexpected surge of anger that ran through her at his denial of what had occurred between them as nothing more than his own relinquishing to a base instinct.
“You have no right to say that to me.”
That caught his attention as he whipped around, his cloak billowing about him like a character from a gothic novel.
“Pardon me?”
“If I was able to run away from a marriage that I didn’t want, then I would certainly be able to pull back from an embrace if I had no desire for it,” she said, as a newfound discovery about herself filled her – that she had the ability to make her own choices, and she wasn’t going to allow anyone to take that away from her. “There is nothing to forgive because a kiss that two people wanted is not a mistake, but something to be celebrated.”
Her chest was heaving now as she prided herself in her speech, even though it was uncomfortable to make.
“Why would you want to kiss me?” he asked, his voice ragged, his brow furrowed. “I have nothing to offer you.”
The realization that he doubted himself more than he doubted her to make her own decision softened her ire, and she took a step closer to him again.
“You have more to offer than you think. You just have to believe it,” she said. “Now, tell me about the rose garden.”
CHAPTER 11
