Page 43 of Her Runaway Duke
“Yes.”
“Very well,” she said, but now that she had her chance, shyness took over. “Have you… ever done anything like this for a woman before?”
“What do you mean?”
“This dinner. The effort you have put in tonight to make me feel special. Is this how you used to court women?”
He stared her directly in the eye as he slowly shook his head. “Never.”
“Never?”
“No. I will not lie and say that there were never other women, but none of them were special. Not like you.”
Siena had to bite her lip to hide the smile that threatened to bloom far too big at his response and she dipped her head so that she wouldn’t look like a lovesick fool.
But then he reached out, his forefinger catching her beneath her chin as he raised her face to look at him again.
“My turn to ask you a question.”
She turned serious once more.
“Of course.”
“Why were you not scared of me when you first arrived? Why did you not hide from me or run away in fear?”
“A person’s visage does not scare me. I have seen far too many people who were beautiful, flawless, even, on the outside, but most atrocious underneath.”
“You are different from anyone I’ve ever met,” he said, pausing for a moment to simply look at her, and she warmed under his scrutiny. “I was as horrible to you as I am to anyone else. You should have wanted to run from here. From me. Why didn’t you?”
“Well, for one, the roads were impassable,” she said, jesting, although she only received a half smile in response. “But truly, Levi, when you saved me, I saw a protective, heroic side in you. You could have easily continued riding and pretended that younever saw me. But you didn’t, despite the fact that you wanted nothing more than to be left alone where no one could find you. That showed me that perhaps there was more to you than you showed others, and if I only dug a little deeper, I would like what I found.”
“And did you?” he asked, his voice nearly a whisper.
“I most certainly did,” she said, barely able to finish her breathless response before he leaned in and his mouth crashed upon hers, his thirst for her and depth of his emotion present in his kiss.
Siena would have loved to progress this kiss, to sit on his lap with his strong arms wrapped around her back, but their current positions allowed nothing more than their lip lock. When he finally pulled back, they were both breathless, staring at one another, wondering just where this night was going to take them.
It seemed, however, that he had an idea.
“Do you like to dance?”
“I do,” she said, surprised when he stood and held out a hand toward her. She took his offer and followed him through the doors to the drawing room, although she couldn’t help but look around in confusion. “We do not have anyone to play music for us.”
“On that, you are wrong,” he said before raising his voice ever so slightly. “Mrs. Porter?”
Siena had to place a hand over her mouth which gaped open in astonishment as the housekeeper entered the room with a wide smile on her face and bustled over to the pianoforte, sitting down before it.
“When I discovered that our esteemed housekeeper plays for the staff many evenings, I could not help but ask her to play for us,” he said, before nodding to Mrs. Porter, who began the firstfew notes of a pleasant song that Siena found somewhat familiar, although she couldn’t quite place it.
“Shall we?” he said to Siena, holding his arms out, and she stepped into them as though they had been molded as one figurine, broken apart only to come together once more.
Mrs. Porter was more than adept on the keys, but that was not what most shocked Siena.
It was when Levi opened his mouth and began to sing.
“Where the bee sucks, there suck I;
In a cowslip's bell I lie:
