Page 46 of A Duke Changes Everything
He licked his lips and looked into her eyes. The heat there made him want more. More moments like this with her. When there was no Enderley boxing them in, no duties that needed their attention. Just Mina and the odd, undeniable spark he’d felt between them from the day he arrived.
“I’d like a taste,” he told her quietly.
Mina bit her lip, and her brows dipped in concentration. She locked her gaze on his mouth and seemed to hold her breath as she slid a honeyed finger across his lower lip.
Nick swept his tongue out to taste and reached for her hand. Flavor burst inside his mouth in a shock of floral sweetness.
“Delicious,” he whispered before leaning closer, flicking his tongue out, and tasting the tip of her finger once more. “But I honestly can’t tell whether it’s you or the honey.”
He half expected her to chastise him for his boldness. Instead she swallowed hard and took one step closer.
“We should...” she began on a husky whisper.
“Kiss,” Nick said decidedly.
“That’s not what I was going to say.” She let out a breath of laughter, and her mouth tipped in the hint of a smile. Then she looked around them as if recalling where they were.
“I came to show you the farm. I wanted you to see that something about the estate is worthwhile and productive.”
Nick released her hand and clenched his fingers against the spot that was still warm from her skin. He was a damned fool. Of course, her intentions were about Enderley and had nothing to do with spending time in each other’s company.
“We should probably go back.” The Wilcox farm was indeed admirable, but he’d seen enough and desperately needed a drink of anything that would wash the flavor of honey off his tongue.
“Yes,” she finally agreed, her tone full of the same sense of disappointment Nick felt like a heavy stone in the pit of his stomach.
He wanted the moment five minutes earlier back. And, damn it all, he still wanted to kiss her. But when Mina took a step away, he knew the chance was gone. His head, where he’d convinced himself to value a life unencumbered by personal entanglements, knew she was right to draw a boundary line between them.
But his heart, that rarely used thing that thrashed every time Mina was near, didn’t seem to agree.
Chapter Twelve
Nick stood on Enderley’s front steps, let out a yawn, and watched his breath dissolve into the morning fog.
Sleep had eluded him since arriving at Enderley, but he was more restless since the visit to Wilcox farm with Mina.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her face. Or worse, he remembered how it felt to hold her and taste her lips for a far too fleeting moment.
They hadn’t spoken in days.
She avoided him but continued to do her duty diligently. She left documents on the desk in his study before he could ask for them, brought in masons to begin work on the ballroom, and had arranged the removal of several pieces of furniture to the auction house.
He needed to make peace with her, regardless of all the other things he wanted to do with her but never could.
For days, he’d stewed over his errant desires, but this morning a peculiar impulse had begun jabbing at him like a persistent finger. It was no mystery what Mina wanted from him. She longed for him to do some good for Enderley before he departed forever.
For her sake, he’d decided to do it. Not because he’d made peace with the place. Among all their other sins, Tremaynes were stubborn to their cores.
But for the first time his thoughts weren’t of the past nor of his loathing for Enderley, but for Mina. She had done something to him. Altered him, so that her expectations mattered more than his desire to blot out his past.
He couldn’t imagine ever loving Enderley, but he walked the halls now and no longer wished to burn it all to the ground. He entered the library and focused first on the window cushion where she’d daydreamed and shoved ribbons in books. Even his father’s study was now a place of fresh memories with Mina rather than ugly nightmares of the past.
Nick patted his upper coat pocket where he kept her list of repairs. There was much to do before he could return to London, but being a businessman had taught him to see a project through to its end.
Rehabilitating Enderley made good business sense. Refurbished, it would fetch a renter more quickly. And overseeing repairs would be a welcome distraction. A funnel for energy, a diversion from the chief distraction in residence at his ancestral estate.
As if on cue, Mina approached from behind.
Nick was already becoming ridiculously attuned to the woman. Blindfolded, he would have recognized her scent and the insistent clip of her boot heels.
