Page 60 of A Duke Changes Everything
If she stayed, he was going to do something they’d both regret. The anger would come back, and he’d turn it on her. Either that or he’d seduce her. Spend an hour pleasuring her until they both forgot their own names. But she deserved better than a thoughtless tumble in the open air on a cold midwinter morning with a scarred, empty man.
And he didn’t deserve her at all.
Her eyes lit with sparks of gold as she backed away, then she snapped her head around at the sound of shouted voices.
Two men’s voices. No, three.
She started off to follow the sound. Always charging into trouble, his steward was.
“Do you know the way out?” he called after her.
Back stiff, she halted but didn’t look back at him. “I’m not certain. Do you?”
Nick approached until he was directly behind her. Close enough to touch her. Close enough to get a whiff of her floral scent. Close enough to feel frustration vibrating off her.
“Follow me,” he said before striding ahead.
Chapter Fifteen
Mina might have spent her whole life trying to be ladylike and biting her tongue and living up to her father’s expectations, but no one she’d ever met pretended as well as the Duke of Tremayne.
As long as one didn’t get a good look at his eyes.
Striding briskly toward the stables, one would think he’d just left a meeting over upcoming repairs or his plans for leasing the property. No one would guess they’d just spoken of the most painful memories of his childhood. Nor would anyone have an inkling any intimacy had ever passed between them. That he he’d touched her, kissed her. That moments before his body had melded against hers.
Mina, on the other hand, couldn’t calm her racing heartbeat or smell anything but his scent on her clothes. She could still taste him on her lips, but she wasn’t sure if her lungs were burning from their breathless kisses or her struggle to keep up with his long-legged stride.
Thank heavens she wasn’t wearing a skirt.
She nibbled the inside of her cheek and cringed. She’d pushed him too hard. Asked too many questions.
“It’s Tobias.” She recognized one of the bellowing male voices as they drew closer. “I’ve never heard him so angry.”
As they rounded the corner of the house and started toward the stable yard, Mina’s heart dropped into her boots and she let out a gasp.
Gregory.
His bronze hair glinted in the sunlight. He stood behind his father, Lord Lyle, as the older man shouted at Tobias. She’d feared the viscount would come for his horse one day, but she never dreamed he’d bring his son, the man who’d broken her heart.
Their attachment had blossomed quickly. Looking back, she knew it hadn’t truly been a courtship and wasn’t sure why it had begun. A bit of charm on his part when they met at a village auction, and too much eagerness on her part to be charmed by a handsome viscount’s son.
Gregory had seemed a way to change her stars. To be more than the steward’s daughter. She cringed now to recall the possibilities she’d imagined. But it had all been as solid as dandelion fluff.
She hadn’t seen Gregory Lyle since the day they’d met at the conservatory on his family’s estate and he told her they must never see each other again.
A bit of funhe’d called their stunted romance that ended almost as soon as it started.
As with all things, she’d rushed in.
Beyond where Gregory stood near the Enderley stables, two men were scuffling on the ground. One Mina didn’t recognize. The other was the enormous unmistakable outline of Tobias.
“Enough!” Lord Lyle’s shout drew their attention, but as the man wrestling Tobias stepped away, the nobleman moved in menacingly.
“Oy! Mind yourself, my lord.” Tobias scooted back when Lyle raised a cane as if to strike.
“What the bloody hell is going on?” Nicholas bellowed as he strode into the melee.
Lord Lyle immediately straightened and turned to face him. “Ah, Tremayne.”
